How long is a typical wedding timeline?
A wedding planning timeline usually runs about twelve months. The milestones that everything else hangs off are booking the venue at the start, sending save-the-dates six to eight months out, and finalising the floor plan in the last month. Below is the twelve-month roadmap and a running order for the day. This page is a planning template; it carries no prices.
Each planning phase below drawn as a span on one axis, which runs from twelve months out on the left to the wedding day on the right.
Twelve to ten months out
- Set the budget, and set it before anything else, because it decides the guest list and the guest list decides the venue.
- Draft the guest list to a target count.
- Book the ceremony and reception venues.
- Hire the vendors that get booked up first: photographer, planner, caterer.
Nine to six months out
- Buy the dress or suit, allowing for three or more fittings.
- Put up the wedding website with travel and registry information.
- Block hotel rooms for guests travelling in.
- Send save-the-dates, which matter most for holiday dates and destination weddings.
Five to three months out
- Finalise the menu at a tasting and confirm the cake.
- Order invitations, planning to post them eight weeks before the date.
- Arrange transport between hotel, ceremony and reception.
- Buy the rings, leaving time for resizing and engraving.
The day itself
A worked running order for an afternoon ceremony. Shift it whole if your ceremony time differs; the intervals are what matter.
| Time | What happens | Who owns it |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 am | Hair and makeup starts | Wedding party and stylists |
| 11:00 am | Vendors arrive at the venue | Florist and decorators |
| 1:00 pm | Groom and groomsmen get ready | Best man |
| 2:00 pm | First look photographs | Couple and photographer |
| 3:30 pm | Family and wedding party photographs | Photographer |
| 4:30 pm | Doors open, music starts | Ushers and DJ |
| 5:00 pm | Ceremony begins | Officiant |
| 5:30 pm | Drinks reception | Catering staff |
| 6:45 pm | Grand entrance and first dance | Couple and wedding party |
| 7:00 pm | Dinner service | Catering staff |
| 8:30 pm | Cake cutting and speeches | Maid of honour and best man |
| 9:00 pm | Dance floor opens | DJ |
| 11:00 pm | Grand exit, reception ends | Everyone |
What breaks a wedding timeline
- Skipping the first look. Every family photograph then moves into the drinks reception, which usually has to stretch to ninety minutes to absorb them.
- Travel between venues. Add a fifth again to every transfer estimate, because a wedding party never moves at the speed the map predicts.
- Dinner service for a large room. A buffet takes about three quarters of an hour; a plated three-course dinner takes about ninety minutes, and that scales with headcount.
Questions
Can I plan a wedding in six months?
Yes, as long as the venue and the dress are booked immediately. Those two have the longest lead times and everything else can be compressed around them.
What is a buffer in a wedding schedule?
Ten or fifteen minutes deliberately left empty between the big moments, to absorb late guests and the queue for the bathroom. A schedule with no buffers runs late by the ceremony.
Do I need a professional wedding planner?
The rough test people use is the vendor count. Past about fifteen suppliers, coordinating them on the day is a full-time job and somebody has to do it who is not you.
When should invitations be sent?
Six to eight weeks before the wedding for a local one, and around three months for a destination wedding where guests have to book flights.
Where these figures come from
The previous version of this page offered a downloadable template and linked to a wedding cost calculator. Neither the file nor the calculator was in the archive we were given, so both links are gone rather than pointing at nothing.
This page publishes no figures, so it cites none. That is deliberate rather than an omission.