Anyone can google or toss “make me a wedding timeline” into GPT Chat, but how do you know if that timeline will really work for you? Here are the three things to consider that GPT Chat won't tell you.
1) Your Venue:
What is the flow of your venue? When you are creating your timeline, imagine yourself as a guest. If you want to do your first dance right after your entrance, will your guests be able to see the dance floor from their seats? Maybe the venue has an arch through the space, and half the guests won’t see it. I might have to move it to after dinner, then. Maybe you must flip the room after the ceremony, and the space needs 90 minutes to be able to be ready because you have a large guest count. Then that cocktail hour needs to be longer than an hour.
2) Adding Basic Needs/Tasks: How many things really need to get done during cocktail
hour? Many couples don’t want it to be the full hour, but how long does it take to bustle your dress? Will you have to go to the bathroom, eat the appetizers you paid for, and drink water? All these things are important and add up. Never cut yourself short, and make sure you plan for breaks and breathing.
3) Leave the 30 minutes for the Ceremony: Even if the sample timeline says you only need 15 minutes, plan for 30. Usually, the ceremony is the first major timeline milestone of the day, and let’s say we are still waiting on grandma to arrive, or your venue is close to train tracks and you are still missing a lot of guests because of the train, or it's about to Florida rain, and you want to start 5 minutes late so you can still be outside. You have now given yourself a buffer. When you don’t start with a buffer, and one of those things happens, you will feel behind the whole rest of the day, and that can add stress for no reason.