6 Wedding Reception Timeline Tips to help you plan. Sometimes we just need a little advice. For many, this may be your first wedding that you have ever planned and you just want some help. In this blog, you will find 6 friendly tips to help you in planning your wedding reception timeline.

  1. Cocktail Hour – To attend or not?

This is a great question and I suppose you will be best to answer this yourself. You just know you and your fiance the best! What is your personality?! Are you excited to have an opportunity to talk and see many of your guests or will you feel overwhelmed by the idea of everyone wanting to see you and talk to you? There is no right or wrong answer, you and your fiance can talk about how you feel and what you want. If you both decide that you will be overwhelmed, then it is ok to not attend cocktail hour. You can always briefly visit the tables after dinner to quickly see all your guests.

  1. Dance After Dinner – When to have your first dance.

In our experience there is only one best time to have a first dance and this is after dinner. Many of your guests are going to be just finishing cocktail hour and they just are not ready to give you their full attention after drinking and socializing for the past hour. By waiting until after dinner, you are giving them an opportunity to settle in, listen to the speeches and have dinner first. The first dance is such a special moment and you want to make sure that you have everyone’s attention.

  1. Anniversary Dance – To get your guests dancing

The anniversary dance is a great way to get everyone from your wedding up and on their feet to start dancing. This dance is a great way to get the majority of your guests involved on the dance floor and get the party started. 

Have you heard about the reverse anniversary dance? This is when you start with the couple married first and continuously add to the dance floor until you have added the couple that has been married the longest. This is a great way to fill the dance floor and get ready to party.

  1. Monitor Sunset – 5 minutes vs 1 hour

Most experienced photographers would agree that 5 minutes of incredible lighting will produce more incredible photos than 1 hour of noon overhead lighting. In these 5 minutes of sunset photos, you will most definitely get the most beautiful photos of your wedding day. The sun is positioned to give you the best light.

The tricky part of monitoring sunset is making the time for it. Sunset may fall during dinner or cocktail hour. However, if this is important to you, we may just have to take the time to do it.

  1. Night Photo – Take a deep breath together

It is noticed that the time during the evening when you step out to take a night photo is important for two reasons. First is the opportunity to use raw creative photography skills to produce unimaginable night photos. But maybe most importantly, stepping out to take a night photo gives you and your fiance an opportunity to take a breath of fresh air outside together to hug and embrace together the fact that you are officially married. This may be the first time you have been together all day without any distractions to celebrate!

  1. Sparkler send-off  – Don’t wait too long

We love a good sparkler send-off for so many reasons! Not only do they provide great photos of you and your guests celebrating but we love the way they make for a great finish to your wedding album.

One of the important wedding reception timeline tips that we want to provide, if you schedule this activity too late, your guests will leave.

Looking for a photographer who knows all the wedding reception timeline tips?

Please be sure to check out our Facebook and Instagram for updates on the latest with Seth and Beth Wedding Photography, Ohio’s premier wedding photography. 

Contact us for more information about our availability for your upcoming wedding. We’d love to show you our entire Ohio wedding photography portfolio and let you see our albums, canvases, and other amazing wall art collections.

We would love to chat with you about your big day! Contact us now because we are booking super fast. Feel free to give us a phone call at 330-322-8338 or 614-300-5050. We love talking on the phone and getting to know our couples!

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How Seth and Beth Photograph Weddings 

Seth and Beth Wedding Photography love to hang back and be unnoticed while capturing different parts of the wedding day. We are close by for your special moments, but at certain times we know that it is important to not be too intrusive. 

How We Handle Family Photos on the Wedding Day

Family photos can be a tough part of the wedding day. We make this easy as we help you make a family photo list before the wedding to help us get the family photos you want. On the wedding day, we will bring this list as a guide to make the family photos go quickly and effortlessly.

Seth and Beth are Easy Going Photographers

With over a decade of experience, Seth and Beth have learned to roll with the punches and the wedding hurdles that happen throughout the big day. We adjust to unplanned events that happen that may get us off the course of the wedding day timeline.