Let’s talk about your wedding day timeline!
Weddings on Martha’s Vineyard need a well thought out timeline to make sure your day runs smoothly
Start with your cutoff time
On the Island of Martha’s Vineyard, noise ordinances can be enforced starting at 10pm. This means the music should be off right at this time. In order to avoid stunning your guests right at the cutoff, talk to your band/DJ about making the ending less abrupt
Make sure you are not adding extra hours to your vendors
Most of your vendors are hired on an hourly basis. For example, most catering teams bring staff in for an 8 hour day, which includes setup, prep work, event, and breakdown. Changing your timeline significantly will add hours to many of your vendor’s packages and affect the overall cost of your big day.
Here is an example timeline:
3:30pm: Guests begin arriving
4:00pm ceremony start
4:30pm Cocktail hour begins
5:45pm Reception begins
6:00pm Couple entrance
6:05pm Speeches
6:00pm Dinner begins
7:30pm Dancing
10:00pm Music off, guests begin departing, and clean up begins.
Wedding planners help you make this more detailed
Working with a wedding planner means you’ll have a well coordinated timeline that will take into account all aspects of your wedding day. Vendor arrivals and setup will be accounted for long before guests begin arriving. Your wedding planner will help you make schedules for your wedding parties, family, and more so they know the important times and where to be.
Have a plan in place if guests are running late.
The only way you can guarantee guests will be on time is by providing transportation to the ceremony location. If it is up to the guests to arrive on their own it means exactly that. Since timelines are so tight, make sure you clearly communicate your start times to guests on your wedding websites, invitations, etc. Are you willing to wait to start your ceremony if a few guests are missing? Determine what your threshold is long before your day begins with your wedding planner.
There are always exceptions…
Does your ceremony require your guests to travel off-site to your reception? If so, you need to plan an extra 15 minutes on top of travel time to and from each venue. Guests love milling about after the ceremony and you will need to factor this into your timeline.
Have questions on planning your wedding day timeline? Leave them in the comments below
Photos by: Tim Corriera
