Start the free plannerStart free
Start the free planner

The day tool · Free to use

Wedding day timeline builder

Enter your ceremony time and your own lengths for getting ready, travel, cocktail hour, dinner and the toasts. See the day worked back and forward, with the golden hour marked and conflicts asked as questions.

How do you plan a wedding day timeline?

Fix the ceremony time first, then work back from it to when getting ready has to start, and forward from it to the end of the evening. Each block is a length you get from the person doing it: the hair and makeup artists, the photographer, the caterer. Where two of them do not fit, change one rather than squeezing both.

Your entries are kept in this browser so they are here when you come back. Clear entries removes them from this browser. They are not uploaded unless you add them to your planner. Each length starts empty, because each one is yours.

The ceremony
The time on the invitation.
From your officiant.
For the golden hour and the calendar file.
For the golden hour at the venue.
    Getting ready
    Getting hair and makeup.
    Ask the artists.
    Working at once.
    Leave blank and the start is worked back for you.
    Before the ceremony
    A first look?
    Enter 0 if it is in the same place.
    After the ceremony
    Enter 0 for none.
    From your caterer.
    The toasts, as
    Enter 0 for none.
    The toasts come
    An end after midnight is read as the next day.
    See result

    Your day, worked out

    Start with the ceremony time; the timeline builds from it as you add your numbers.

    The calculation, in plain sight

    1. Leave for the ceremony = ceremony time − travel minutes.
    2. First look starts = leaving time − the first look’s minutes, when there is one.
    3. Getting ready takes = rounds × minutes each, where rounds = people ÷ artists, rounded up.
    4. Getting ready starts = the first look (or leaving) − that time, unless you give the time the artists start. Then it finishes at your start + that time, and a finish after the next block is asked about.
    5. After the ceremony: its end = start + its length, then cocktail hour, dinner and the toasts in the order you choose, then the rest of the evening to your end time.
    6. Toasts from word counts = the words ÷ 130 a minute, rounded up to the minute. That pace is an assumption.

    How this is calculated, beside the other free tools

    Illustrative example — not a customer result

    For the labeled example, a hypothetical wedding in Charleston on Saturday, October 16, 2027 has a 4:30 pm ceremony. Four people at 45 minutes each with two artists is two rounds, 90 minutes: 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm, starting at the time the artists gave. Twenty minutes of travel means leaving at 4:10 pm, and a 30-minute first look before that runs 3:40 pm to 4:10 pm. After a 30-minute ceremony, cocktail hour runs 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm and dinner 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. Three toasts of 400, 350 and 300 words are 1,050 words, about 9 minutes rounded up: 7:30 pm to 7:39 pm. The evening runs on to 10:00 pm. On that date the golden hour there runs 6:12 pm to 6:46 pm, during dinner, so the timeline asks whether you want portraits then.

    Where this stops

    The timeline is arithmetic on the times and lengths you enter. It does not know your vendors’ contracted hours, how long a venue needs to turn a room around, or how far apart two places are at that time of day. Get each length from the person doing it, and check the day against your contracts.

    The golden hour is the sun’s arithmetic for the date and place, to a minute or two. Cloud, hills and buildings decide how the light looks. It is calculated, not a weather forecast.

    Common questions

    How do I make a wedding day timeline?

    Start from the ceremony time, because the rest of the day hangs from it. Work back: travel to the ceremony, then photos before it, then getting ready. Work forward: the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and the toasts, to the time the venue closes. Use the lengths your vendors give you, not guesses.

    How long does hair and makeup take for a wedding?

    Ask your artists: they set the minutes for each person. The timeline divides the people by the number of artists working at once, rounds up to whole rounds, and multiplies by the minutes each. Five people with two artists is three rounds.

    When is the golden hour on my wedding day?

    It depends on the date and the place. Add both, and the timeline marks any block that falls in the golden hour and asks whether you want portraits then. The sunset times tool shows the same arithmetic for up to five dates.

    What if two times do not fit?

    The timeline asks rather than fixing it, for example when getting ready finishes after the first-look photos are due to start. Move one of the two, or ask the vendor whether their time can change, and the question goes away.

    Can I put the timeline in my calendar?

    Yes, once you add the date. The .ics file holds one event a block, at the venue’s time when you pick the place, with no alerts. It is a snapshot: download it again if a time changes.