If you’re planning a wedding on your own and aren’t hiring a wedding planner or coordinator, listen up! If you’re like me, you know each wedding day is unique and comes with its own setup, its own preferences, budget, and location. There are a lot of moving parts. And if you don’t have a wedding planner, it can feel overwhelming to know exactly how the flow of the wedding day should go, ensuring it’s smooth, seamless, and most importantly, you don’t miss or forget a thing.
Yikes.
However, I’ll let you in on a little secret. The most organized weddings have one thing in common: a defined timeline. A wedding timeline is a schedule of the day from start to finish, and, as you can imagine, includes many details along the way. It typically begins with your bridal party hair and makeup session, and ends with the last song, the sparkler send-off, or even a grand exit.
When should guests arrive at the ceremony? When do you line up for the procession? What time is the first look, and should you do photos before or after dinner? How far away is the ceremony from the reception? Is there enough time to do a cocktail hour before dinner, and then when should toasts begin?
As you may have felt reading those sentences, there are many things to consider. But one tool does it all: Timeline Genius.
Yep, it’s pretty brilliant, and if you’re planning your wedding on your own without a coordinator, it is your responsibility to come up with a seamless wedding day timeline – or risk missing huge chunks of the day, or worse, planning things out of nonsensical order.
And I’m not going to let that happen to you. :)
In this blog post, I’ll show you how to make a timeline for your wedding day so you don’t miss a thing. As a coordinator myself, I obviously highly encourage you to hire one for many reasons. However, I know every couple is different, budgets vary, and not everyone wants to hire one. You do you! In this case, I’ll work with you on how to compile a perfect wedding day timeline that won’t let you down. :)
Let’s goooo!
1. Sign up here.
It’s easy. You sign up for Timeline Genius and choose a plan. Not sure where to begin? Want to try it out first? You got it – try it out for free here (that’s what I did!)
2. Fill out the questionnaire.
Next, you’ll need to tell the program a little bit about your wedding day. Fill out the questionnaire including things such as when the ceremony begins, if you’re having a first look, what time cocktail hour starts, where is the reception located, how many toasts will occur before dinner, etc.
These questions will work to tailor and customize your wedding timeline to suit YOUR specific needs. This isn’t a cookie-cutter timeline maker; it is completely one-of-a-kind, designed just for you!
3. Let it do its magic. ✨
Submit your answers and let Timeline Genius create a customized initial timeline for you. From there, you can get customizing: design your own custom template, or use preset templates to match your needs.
4. Make changes.
Just as wedding plans, setups, and times change, your timeline can be changed at the click of a mouse.
• Does your hair and makeup artist need more time?
• Did you realize you now want wedding photos during golden hour?
• Do you want to include a cocktail hour at the last minute?
• Want to do a first look?
No prob! Just make changes and it will bulk shift everything in your timeline to seamlessly include it in to your day-of schedule.
That’s not all – you can even include vendor contact information and send your timeline to them, instantly. If you make a change, it can alert them. If you want to keep bridal party attendants in the know, you can also include them on the list and they’ll always know where to be — and when.
This timeline maker is the most helpful and innovative wedding tool I’ve seen in over a decade.
► Get it now here
Hope it helps!
xo
Emma
