A Quick Guide on How to Choose the Time of your Wedding Ceremony

When choosing the timing for your ceremony, there are tons of factors to consider that can really get things mixed up. You would expect this to be a quick and easy process, however there are plenty of things that you have to consider when deciding on what time you will be getting married on your wedding day. The hope is is that after reading this, you can go through all of these things and make the process much easier than you thought it would be. I personally find it easier to actually start with the reception rental time, knowing how late they allow you to stay, and then working backwards. But oftentimes, couples will start at the beginning with the ceremony and build around that. Here are the other things that you have to make sure to consider though before putting down a ceremony time on your invitations.

The Day of the Week

If you’re having your wedding on a weekday, you guests may be traveling in after work. For guests that are traveling or have work that day, you’ll likely get more people to attend your wedding and be on time if you have the ceremony later in the day. During the weekend, there isn’t as much of a specific pull for this but it definitely helps to have your ceremony a little earlier in the day for Sunday weddings so that guests that can’t take off of work can still easily attend your wedding day.

If you’re Doing a First Look

If you’re doing a first look, you’ll likely want to be doing your ceremony later in the day. The main downside of doing a first look means that you have to get ready and take all of your photos before your ceremony, which usually means you will be better off having your ceremony later in the day.

When you Want to Wake Up

Many couples have hair and makeup schedules that they need to adhere to to ensure that they are ready at an appropriate time to have time to get dressed, take some photos, and arrive to your ceremony location. If you’re not much of a morning person, you’ll definitely need to consider what time you need to start getting ready, finish getting ready, take your photos, and have the wedding ceremony and reception. If you are having a first look, this will also get pushed up more and you may have to wake up as early as 5am. This is totally up to you if it is worth it, but by the end of the day you may start to feel exhausted.

The Traffic

If you’re planning on having your ceremony right at rush hour, you likely will have to get started late because of the traffic and your guests arriving late from that. If possible, I would check what the traffic looks like around that time of day on the day of the week that you’re planning on getting married so you can warn your guests ahead of time how much traffic they may be encountering. This is especially important if your guests are coming in from out of town, because they likely will be stuck taking Ubers and can’t control that as much as guests that can drive themselves.

The Lighting

This part is probably the most important part to consider. Depending on the time of year and location of your wedding, the lighting that you have available for your photos can be incredibly varied but incredibly important. I recommend making sure to check where the sun will be facing and how far it will have set by your ceremony time - especially if you’re planning on having an outdoor ceremony. Make sure you also know when the sunset is supposed to be that day and make sure to plan for some couples portraits about 45-60 minutes before that time so you can get some gorgeous shots that will add variety to your wedding album. If you’re having a wedding in Chicago in the winter, you will have a lot less sunlight for all of your photos than if you got married in July, so you’ll definitely need to take that into account. Additionally, if you’re doing a first look, your photos may end up being in the afternoon, which will have the brightest lighting of the day. Be sure to think of a general timeframe for each event of the day and see what the lighting will be like.

You’ll also want to use this same idea for planning your reception as well. If they are in two different locations, you’ll have to factor in the traffic during the time that you’re planning on finishing the ceremony and taking family photos. You’ll also want to have an idea of how many hours your reception rental will be and how late you can/want to have your reception end. Like I first mentioned, I actually think it is easier to start with the latest time you want your reception to run, looking at the amount of hours you’ll be renting your reception space, and then seeing how much time you need between your ceremony and reception to figure out your ceremony time.

It may seem rather simple at first to pick a time to have your wedding ceremony, but there actually are a lot of things to consider. After looking through this list, hopefully you have a better idea of what time is going to work best for you.

If you need some help figuring out a good time for your ceremony or help with other wedding planning things, I would love to help you out! You can read more blog posts here for some other tips and advice, or reach out to me directly here to book a consultation to talk more about your wedding and how I can help make sure you don’t have to stress about the details of your wedding day.