Have you ever heard of golden hour? That’s what this blog post is going to be allllll about!

This is the third installment of the timeline series, and we are going to explore how the sunset time affects your wedding day timeline.

Golden hour is the hour to hour and a half before sunset. It provides the glowy, golden light that makes portraits so romantic! Photographers love it because it is the most fun to work with and provides the most even distribution of light.

If getting sunset portraits is a priority for you and your groom, make sure you know what time the sun actually sets on your wedding day. On the timelines I create for my couples, I am always sure to note the exact time of sunset, as well as a note if it tends to set a little earlier in that specific area/region. The two scenarios I anticipate losing light early are a) mountainous areas and b) cities with a lot of tall buildings.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say the sun sets at 7:32, but you are getting married in an area that has a lot of mountains. I am going to anticipate that we will start to lose light around 30 minutes before the actual sunset time because it can dip below the ridge of the mountain. So if it’s our goal to get 20 minutes of sunset portraits, I am going to pull the bride and groom from the reception around 6:40, even though that’s nearly an entire hour before sunset.

At a very minimum I encourage you to schedule your ceremony two hours before sunset. This is assuming your ceremony is around a half hour long, which leaves one and a half hours for portraits (family formals, full bridal party, and bride/groom portraits). Ideally, you will have at least three hours between ceremony time and sunset, which will allow for a relaxed timeline that doesn’t feel rushed or stressful!

I hope you find this helpful in organizing and creating your wedding day timeline. Drop any questions you have below in the comments!