This blog post is the first of four entries in the Timeline Series that discusses the main items to consider when creating your wedding day timeline.

The first topic we will discuss is Daylight Savings Time. Obviously that has a huge impact on your wedding day timeline because it dictates how much daylight we will have to work with.

For those that want to have a wedding after Daylight Savings Time, don’t worry that we won’t have enough time for portraits. There are a few ways around that!

First, determine whether or not you and your groom would like to do a first look. It will provide extra time for portraits at the beginning of your wedding day, which will make the portrait portion of your gallery more robust if that is a priority.

Second, be conscious of your ceremony time. If you want sunset portraits and the sun sets at 5:00, do NOT schedule your ceremony for 4:30. If you are not doing a first look, you will need to allow a minimum of one and a half hours after your ceremony to do your family formal portraits, full bridal party portraits, and your bride and groom portraits.

So, for example, if the sun sets at 5pm and you plan on having a 30-minute ceremony, the ceremony should be at 3pm at the latest! In fact, I encourage you to have a 30-minute buffer time on top of that because it’s possible the events of the day could run late and in some areas the sun sets earlier than the actual “sun set” time. This is true in places with lots of mountains where the sun could set behind the mountain before it actually sets…if that makes sense!

Just keep in mind that a post-Daylight Savings Time wedding will need to have a pretty early afternoon ceremony in order to have enough time for portraits post-ceremony!

If you have any questions about how Daylight Savings Time will affect your wedding day timeline, please leave them below!