How to Create a Stellar Wedding Day Timeline

     The article Complete Wedding-Day Timeline, by Kristen O'Gorman Klein, give tips on how to create a timeline. Her tips include different time amounts you want to have for each event/appointment you have during the day. This is key to planning your day well. You want to make sure you have time for everything you need and want to get done.

     When creating your wedding day timeline you want to make sure and build in extra time for each event. You should make sure and communicate with your vendors while creating your wedding timeline because they may require different times then what this article states.

http://bridalguide.com/planning/wedding-planning-basics/complete-wedding-day-timeline

My Story:

I used this article Complete Wedding-Day Timeline, by Kristen O'Gorman Klein, while attempting to plan my wedding day. Some things I already had an idea of how long they would take based on talking to my vendors but others I had not thought of. After I read this article I started creating potential wedding day timelines for myself, my bridesmaids, and the guests. These allowed me to put actual times onto each of the events and have a better understanding on how the day could go.

Asking Your Attendants?

Things to consider when deciding who to ask to be part of your wedding:

• Bridesmaid(s) / Groomsmen

How many guests will you be having at your wedding? If you are having a small wedding you many want to have a smaller bridal party as well. Do you want to include any family? Consider asking a sister/brother or sister/brother-in-law to be or cousin. Consider asking friend(s) that you are currently close to or have a long history with.

• Usher(s)

Ushers give you a great chance to include more people in your big day if you want. You can also choose to use some or all of your groomsmen to usher people rather than having ushers if you would prefer.

• Flower Girl(s) / Ring Bearer(s)

Remember that when you have children in your wedding it can get a little crazy. Just remember when they are walking down the aisle that moment is going to be all about them. Kids are kids and you have to understand that. Something to consider is if there are any traditions in having family members in each other’s weddings.

• Personal Attendant(s)

This is a great chance to have someone that is always there for you to be part of your day without as much time or money commitment as your bridesmaids.

• Guest Book Attendant(s)

This is a great chance to include people in your day. You can choose to have just one person or as many as you want. You can consider asking aunts, cousins, or friends.

• Reader(s)

When selecting readers you may want to consider who has been a big influence in your or your fiance's life.

How you are going to ask people can be challenging. You need to consider your relationship with the person, what role you are asking them to take, and who you are before you decide how you will ask. If you are someone that doesn’t want it to be a big deal you can ask them simply by talking with them. This is great for asking usher(s), guest book attendant(s) and reader(s) but you could also choose to ask all roles this way. If you are wanting to be more creative you can do that as well. Pinterest is a great place to get ideas on how to ask.

What we used to ask our flower girl

My Story:

I asked my sisters to be my matron and maid of honor in the car as we got to my first wedding dress appointment. I did so by giving them a locket with the wedding colors in the heart and a note inside that asked them. I then asked my two friends to be my bridesmaids by proposing to them with a simple knot ring and note.

What I used to ask my bridesmaids

My fiance asked his groomsmen by handing them a beer and said you can have this beer under one condition, that you will be my groomsmen. And they said yes. He asked his brother to be his best man, his brother-in-law to be, and two friends to be his groomsmen.

My fiance and I asked my fiance's cousin to be our flower girl. We did so with a pearl necklace for her to wear on our wedding day and a note asking her to be our flower girl. We asked my nephew to be our ring bearer by giving him a teddy bear and note. Keep in mind he was less than a month old so his mom and dad said yes.

Asking our flower girl

Asking our ring bearer

How to Get and Stay Organized While Wedding Planning

Getting Organized

Now that you are engaged, it’s time to get organized and start wedding planning. Here are the steps that you can take to create a wedding timeline:

Step 1: Once you have an idea of when you want your big day to be, begin looking through different timelines on Pinterest or Google.

Step 2: Compare this timelines to what time you have to get things done. Take these timeline suggested dates lightly. Your timeline will be unique to you.

Step 3: Create an excel document to combine the different timelines to create a personalized timeline for your wedding date.

Staying Organized

Make sure and keep looking back at this timeline you created. A great way to track is to keep adding notes of where you are at on each action item. You can also color code your action that needs to be taken on this item. For example, use red to indicate done, orange to indicate in progress, and yellow to indicate needs to be done.

My Story:

Once my fiancé and I got engaged we sat down together and started outlining all the tasks we needed to get done week by week all the way up to the wedding day. We started by looking on Pinterest at all of the suggested timelines for getting ready for the day of. With this as our start we then compared that to when we had the most time since we are both still in college we wanted to make the most out of our holiday breaks. My fiancé is way into creating excel sheets so that is what we used to create our timeline. We compared all the different suggestions and created our unique timeline. We then tracked our progress through color coding our action and keeping notes on the right side. Below is what our original excel document looked like.

5 Questions to Consider When Booking Your Reception

5 questions to ask yourself when looking for a wedding reception location:

1. Will our guests need a place to stay the night of the reception? If you are having lots of guests from out of town you may want to consider having your reception at a hotel to maximize their time at your reception especially if you are hosting alcohol.

2. How far do you want your guests to drive between the ceremony location and the reception location? It might be best to choose a reception location that is close to your ceremony location to minimize the chance of your guests getting lost on their way to the reception. If you do choose a location that is a bit of a drive you may want to consider including a map for your guests.

3. How involved in the flow of the night do you want to be? If you want a little less stress you may want to consider choosing a location that has an event manager that will take care of the food coming out on time and the overall flow of the reception.

4. What type of environment do you want for your reception? If you want something romantic, you may want to consider a location that is a little cozy and close. You need to make sure there is space for everyone but you don’t want there to be too much open space. 

5. Do you want plated meals or a buffet line? Buffet lines take up more space but can be more cost effective with some vendors. If you want a buffet line, you need to make sure you have space for the line.

 

Hilton Garden Inn - Johnston, IA

My Story:

When my fiancé and I began looking at reception locations we weren’t sure what we wanted. Our first option was a free location that we could get through our wedding ceremony location. It was a large space that was multi-functional. The issue for us with this location was that we wanted to have a romantic environment. We decided it would be a lot of work to make a large space feel romantic. We began looking at hotel ballrooms. Our thought with this was that I would have almost all of my family coming in from out of town needing a place to stay. We also wanted someone that would take care of the overall flow of the night without having to worry about it. We were cautious of choosing a location that would be easy to get to from the ceremony location. Our locations ended up being 5 minutes away from each other. We really wanted to do plated meals to maximize our space in the ballroom. 

He Put a Ring on it! Now What?

You just made one of the biggest decisions of your life. You said yes! Who do you tell? How will they respond? These are important questions to ask yourself as you decide who and how to tell your great news of your engagement.

Who Do You Tell In Person Verse Through Social Media?

It might come as a surprise to you but telling as many people as possible in person about your engagement before posting it on social media is the best way to go. How do you think your mom would feel if she saw you just got engaged via Facebook? She would feel as though you are not close to her at all. Now in the same way, when you choose to tell other friends and family before posting your engagement on social media it makes them feel important to you. You do not need to feel pressure to tell people that are not as close to you in person but make sure and let those important to you hear the news from you first.

How Will They Respond?

Be ready for their responses. Someone might be busy and not get the chance to give their full reaction that they are really feeling inside. Don’t let someone’s reaction bring down your excitement. They don’t fully understand your relationship. What do you think would be the first question you get? No not how did he propose but when is the wedding date? Be prepared to give a general idea of when you are thinking of getting married. That can be that you want to wait awhile or some actual time ranges if possible. It is not a good idea to give a specific date before you actually start planning and finding out what places are available on the date you want.

My Story

Right after he proposed

The lobby

My boyfriend, at the time, proposed to me on our year and a half dating anniversary in the same spot that he asked me on our first date. Keep in mind our dating anniversary was a Tuesday night in November. There was snow on the ground and we were freezing. Tears of joy were welling in my eyes as I answered the most important question I ever had in my life. I was shaking with excitement as we walked back to my apartment wondering what we were supposed to do next. Right when we got inside the building we stopped in the lobby and called our family. After that we went to my room and told all of my roommates. Everyone was so excited. The next day we began calling our aunts and uncles. To our surprise everyone was asking when our wedding date was. We were like “we got engaged less than 24 hours ago… we do not have a date set yet”. We informed them that we were waiting until graduation and we would let them know a date when we set one.