How to Plan the Order of Your Wedding Day

The order of your wedding day is primarily determined by two things – the time of your wedding ceremony and the start of your wedding breakfast. Depending on where you get married, or who your suppliers are, they could have an impact on this too. As with so much when it comes to modern weddings, everything is of course flexible and ultimately up to you. For example, couples having smaller, intimate weddings might choose to host this in the evening. Or you may wish to cut some of the older traditions out of your day. But whatever you choose to do, remember, you have complete control so go with whatever you want to do, not what you think you should do.

Your Wedding Ceremony

Almost every wedding day officially starts with the ceremony, which commonly take place between 12pm – 3pm in the afternoon. This allows enough time to get ready in the morning, and ensures the reception areas are set up and dressed for the guests’ arrival. This also gives you enough time through the day to allow for photos, a leisurely drinks reception, a special meal and the party afterwards.

The Reception

The time between the end of your ceremony and the beginning of your wedding breakfast is the perfect time to mingle with your guests. This is also a great opportunity to get the confetti shot, have some official photos taken and basically relax and settle into the day. The drinks reception often lasts anywhere between one to two hours and is usually when the drinks start flowing and catering staff circulate with canapés.

The Wedding Breakfast

It’s important to set a time for this part of the day, and stick to it! Your hot food will be prepped and ready for everyone to be seated so having a coordinator or someone in your wedding party on hand to usher people to their seat will be helpful at this point. No one wants cold food! The size of your wedding and the style of wedding breakfast you go for will determine how long you need to allocate for this part of the day. If you’re having a traditional three-course meal, followed by speeches, we’d suggest you need to account for up to four hours for this.

Optional / Extras

Once the ceremony time is confirmed and you’ve discussed the optimum time to start the wedding breakfast with your caterers, everything else can fit in. Whilst none of the following are obligatory, some elements you might like to consider include: couple’s portraits, a big group photograph, cutting the cake, the first dance, evening guests, and even a group sparkler photo in the evening, or a firework display.

It might be helpful to include the order of your wedding day on your wedding invitations and wedding website. Or if you wish to keep it a surprise for your guests, a nice touch is to create a physical sign for the big day so that your guests know what to expect when.