Every wedding is different, but after several years as a wedding photographer, I’ve developed a surefire schedule that works every time for all types of weddings.

Check out #8,  it’s our favorite.

1. Make sure to schedule time before your wedding for group photos. Photos of bridesmaids with bride, grooms men with the groom. I know they love you, but once the bar opens, you might have lost them for the evening. If you want to do a first look (which I LOVE!) or even a first touch (holding hands around a wall or door so you can’t see each other), make sure to put aside 20-30 minutes.

2. Know how many people you’re taking family photos with after your wedding. Family photos can take up A LOT of time. It takes time to get people to cooperate. Your cousin Jeff just wants to tell jokes by the bar and the 12 great grand kids are running around like banshees screaming for cake. Sometimes, it’s necessary to take photos of only the immediate family. You can always grab the photographer throughout the night to snap a shot with you and your great uncle Lloyd.

3. Something I’ve seen before and LOVE is the grand entrance sweeping into your first dance. I absolutely love how natural it feels to just go right into a dance as soon as you are announced to your friends and family.

4. One of the biggest things I always suggest is to do the cake cutting somewhere immediately after you start feeding your guests to right after your toasts. I do this because the sooner you start serving cake, the more cake will be consumed by the end of the night, and the less you have to take home. Cake is awesome, but not 4 days in a row.

5. While someone is cutting and serving cake, now’s the time for dances with mothers and fathers and anyone else important to you and your spouse. This also kicks off the dance floor for hopefully more dancing!

6. If you haven’t already, SPEECH, SPEECH, SPEECH!

7. Take a short break, eat, mingle, dance, EAT. Don’t take too big of a break though. I would say spend 30-45 minutes mingling then do the bouquet/garter/boutonniere toss. You want to make sure to do this before a large portion of your guests leave.

8. Now it’s almost time to fully relax. Mingle, make sure you have eaten (seriously, EAT!). Change if you are going to, but keep in mind the grand exit photos.

— Note: you can do a staged grand exit photo with a few (or all) of your wedding guests before the end of the night. This way, the photographer can leave after this and you don’t have to pay them for 3 more hours of drunken karaoke on the dance floor… though it looks AMAZING! You can also change into something a little more comfortable and not have to worry about the rest of your photos.

I find it very important to do all of the festivities as early as possible. I’ve seen weddings where things got off track and only 3 girls were there for the bouquet toss, or the MOB was packing up more than half the wedding cake because it didn’t get cut early enough. Timing is everything. If you don’t have a wedding coordinator, your wedding photographer or your DJ can help keep you on track

Feel free to pin or save the sample schedule below. Have you already tied the knot? Let us know how you did it. Everyone loves hearing about real weddings.