Take a minute to check out these tips on how to save a whole lotta minutes on your wedding day.

I’m going to put the TL; DR up front: THE KEY TO A GOOD WEDDING DAY TIMELINE IS BUFFER TIME. Plan for lots of extra buffer time for all the unplanned moments to unfold organically! Things like hugs and selfies with friends and family, surprise gifts to and from people, and other unexpected emotional moments that give you pause --- all of these things are common and beautiful parts of a wedding day and we are HERE FOR IT! 

Here are my top recommendations: 

• Carve out a few moments in the days or weeks leading up to the wedding day to mentally rehearse the beginning of the day and think of all the "little things" that will take time. From what I've witnessed, the getting ready portion of the day is when brides and grooms feel the most nervous and you don't want to have to problem solve when you're nervous. There will be things that your planner/coordinator might not know to account for in the timeline. For example, in your family, if you have a special tradition of praying together or going through old photo albums or exchanging many gifts and reading all the cards, etc. PLAN for that and plan for double the time you’ll think it’ll take.

• Prep the wedding dress and/or veil to be worn before your photographer arrives. Have somebody take it out of the bag, hang it up, remove the tags, remove the safety pins, steam it (if necessary) and have it ready for you to put on. If it has lots of buttons up the back it takes much longer to put on than you think it will. 

• Figure out family and wedding party transportation from the getting ready location to the ceremony site BEFORE THE WEDDING DAY. I've seen so many couples get very stressed trying to organize rides for people when it could have been planned in the days prior. 

• If you’re getting ready at a location other than your ceremony and you know what time you need to be at the ceremony site, pretend the ceremony venue is a train station and you HAVE to be there or the train will leave without you. Of course, that’s not true because your ceremony literally can’t start without you. But it’s a good frame of mind to stay in to keep yourself moving. If you say “oh, it’s okay if I’m a little late — those minutes will keep ticking away and add up to make you REALLY late. You don’t want your guests to sit there and wait for you forever.

• If you’re writing your own vows, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT WAITING UNTIL THE WEDDING DAY TO WRITE THEM. It sounds romantic until you're really stressed and can't think of what to say and are running really late. ;)  Also it's helpful to share with each other how long you're aiming for each of your vows to be to avoid the awkwardness of you each having vows that are VERY different in length from the other person's. For example, you could agree that each of you will write vows that take 1 minute to read, or 3 minutes, or whatever. As long as it’s pretty similar. I’ve often seen a bride’s vows go for 5+ minutes and the groom shares 1 or 2 sentences which can feel unbalanced and a bit weird.

• Ask your officiant how long what what they have planned for the ceremony will take. At the rehearsal, you most often will not hear the entire message or remarks that the officiant plans on giving on your actual wedding day. You don’t want to be surprised that they end up having an hour long sermon prepared when you were thinking they’d only say a few words before facilitating the vows and ring exchange.

• If your dress has a bustle, take into account how long it takes to bustle and whether the person who will be helping you has bustled it before and knows how to do it. This can add a lot of unaccounted for time prior to your grand entrance if you don’t have a plan for it.

• Toasts/speeches - Tell the folks who will be giving them that you want their speech to be X amount of minutes or less (whatever you decide.) If there are any people you think will speak for way too long and possibly ramble or speak off-the-cuff, ask them to give their toast at the rehearsal dinner instead. I’ve seen a single toast last 30 minutes at a wedding reception and the look of horror on the bride during the photos and video was excruciating to edit. The guests’ dinners were getting cold and everyone just wanted to start dancing. Not a comfortable environment for anyone.

Anything you’ve witnessed as a guest or wedding party member that you think I forgot to include? Email me! carsten@carstentice.com