Don’t want to read the whole post? Here is a video that explains the blog post!

Planning your wedding can be pretty stressful and hard to know everything you need to! Luckily, we are here to help you! As a side note: If you book us for photo and/or video, we are always here to help you with any questions or planning assistance. This article will be a quick one over picking the right time to have your ceremony on your wedding day.

There are two things you need to consider when choosing a time for your ceremony:

Will you be doing a first look?

This is a very important question when considering the time of your ceremony! But so is the one below. The reason this question is important is because if you are doing a first look with your spouse, you will be able to take photos/videos together before your ceremony as well as after, whereas if you do not do a first look you can only take photos together after the ceremony.

If you are doing a first look:

If you are doing a first look with your spouse, normally this is done early on in the day after getting ready. This leaves the time after the first look until the ceremony to get any photos done with just you and your spouse, the whole bridal party, as well as the separate bridal parties (guys and girls). This will optimize the amount of time you have to take photos and videos throughout the day.

If you do not do a first look, you just want to make sure you leave plenty of time between the ceremony and reception entrances to get all of your photos done.

If you plan to do a first look, you should be able to have your ceremony whenever works best for you. The most average times to have a ceremony is between 3pm and 5pm (most commonly at 4pm). Just keep in mind when sunset is (per the next section) when planning your ceremony. You want to make sure there is plenty of time to get sunset photos/video later on in the day.

If you do not plan to do a first look, you should plan your ceremony sometime between 2pm and 4pm depending on how the rest of the schedule looks.

What time of year is your wedding?

This question is super important since different times of the year have different amounts of sunlight available. You want to make sure you have enough time to get your photos done while it’s still sunny outside as well as getting your sunset (golden hour) photos/videos.

If you are planning to have a wedding during the summer or months where the sun sets between 7pm and 10pm, you can really have your ceremony whenever works for you. Just keep in mind as the sun starts setting earlier, you want to have a slightly earlier ceremony too. A good time for a ceremony for summer months is between 3pm and 5pm but can vary here and there.

If you are planning to have a wedding in the months of winter or months where the sun sets before 7pm, try and shoot for an earlier ceremony. Maybe sometime around 2pm to 3pm. This way you will still have time to get plenty of photos/videos before the sun sets.

Summary

The time you have your ceremony is all up to you! If you are hiring a photographer and/or videographer it is just good to keep in mind the time slots to leave open to get all of your photos/videos of you and your spouse, as well as the entire bridal party (as well as family photos which usually happen directly after the ceremony). Generally we will take photos/videos the couple of hours before the ceremony as well as the few hours after the ceremony. The only other time we take photos/videos that a time slot is needed for is golden hour (the hour before sunset). We usually don’t need the entire hour but like to go out and get photos for around 20 minutes during that hour where its super pretty outside.

So just keep in mind the few things mentioned above and make sure you have enough daylight to get all of your photos/videos done before and after your ceremony and you should be able to pick your ceremony time no problem!

If you ever have questions you can reach out to your photographer or videographer and they should be able to help you answer these questions and plan around taking photos/videos throughout the day!

I am happy to answer any questions in the comments!