A wedding day timeline that does not fall apart by lunchtime

Wedding days run late for two reasons, and neither is anybody's fault: the schedule was built from the optimistic version of every task, and nobody wrote down who is responsible for moving people between them.

How long things actually take

• Hair and make-up: about 45 minutes a person, plus an hour for the bride. Six people is a morning, not a couple of hours.
• Getting into the dress: 30 minutes, more with buttons.
• Travel: whatever the map says, plus 15 minutes. Wedding cars are slower than cars.
• Ceremony: 20-40 minutes, and it starts late roughly always.
• Group photographs: 3-4 minutes per group once people are gathered — the gathering is the slow part.
• Couple portraits: 30 minutes is plenty and reads as relaxed; an hour away from your own party is a lot.
• Sitting 100 guests down for a meal: 20 minutes.
• Speeches: whatever they say, plus half again.

Where the day slips

Three places, every time: the morning running over because hair started late, the gap between the ceremony and the meal, and getting people from drinks into the room. Put a named person on each — not the couple, and not a supplier who is busy doing their own job.

The buffers that keep it honest

1. 1Fifteen minutes after hair and make-up, before anyone needs to be dressed.
2. 2Fifteen minutes before the ceremony, arriving early rather than exactly on time.
3. 3Twenty minutes inside the drinks reception — this is the buffer that absorbs everything else.
4. 4Ten minutes before the meal is announced.

Sixty minutes of buffer in a twelve-hour day, and the day feels calm rather than rushed. Without it, one late start at nine in the morning is still being paid for at seven in the evening.

Send it to everyone, in one version

One document, with times, addresses, phone numbers and who is responsible for each move — to the venue, the photographer, the band, the florist, and the two friends you have quietly put in charge. Suppliers plan their own day around it, and the questions on the morning stop being yours to answer.

Then print two copies. Phones die, and the person holding the paper is the person who keeps the day on time.