Five Little Things to Add to Your Timeline

Any wedding will have a full timeline, but Catholic weddings in particular will have lots of moving parts! Here are five little things that may take up much more time than you would think!

1. Wedding Rehearsal Wrap Up

The average Catholic wedding will have a rehearsal that will run forty-five minutes to one hour, depending on how efficient your church coordinator and priest are and how prompt your bridal party is. However, the end of the rehearsal is often eaten up by last minute questions between the couple and the church or bridal party. Give yourself a buffer between when your rehearsal dinner is served and the end of your church rehearsal so that everyone isn’t running around frantically to make the start of their dinner time.

Our time recommendation: Start your rehearsal dinner 15 minutes later than you think you should.

2. Bustling Your Dress

Many a wedding reception has started 15 minutes behind because a dress bustle wasn’t taken into account! There is no standard way to make a wedding bustle, which means they can vary on methods and amounts of time. Buttons, ties, pins; we’ve seen it all! Make sure to add a small break with your mom or Maid of Honor to bustle your gown before your reception begins. This is also a great time to refresh makeup and use the bathroom.

Our time recommendation: 15-20 minutes to bustle and refresh hair and makeup

3. Loading and traveling in the party bus

If you have opted for a limo or party bus, it can eat up more time than you might think on little logistics. Most bridal parties will be bringing food, coolers, and various tote bags onto the bus. Be sure to assign someone to get the buses loaded and make sure that you have a little buffer time before your vehicle needs to leave. And once the vehicle does leave, remember that it will travel more slowly and possibly struggle with easy parking at photo locations due to its size.

Our time recommendation: Have your party bus there at least 30 minutes before your scheduled leave time, and plan for 5-10 extra minutes of drive time compared to a regular vehicle.

4. Coordinating Cars

If you are not able to have a party bus or limo, remember that coordinating bridal party cars can be a hassle! Leaving to a photo location with several cars means that those cars will need to get to the same place around the same time, which can be complicated if you’re heading to a large park with multiple entrances or a city location with lots of traffic and poor parking.

Our time recommendation: allow 10-15 minutes to get the bridal party back together after splitting up

5. Photos with your priest

For a typical Catholic wedding, your priest will likely be limited on his own time since Saturdays often come with vigil masses and confessions in the late afternoon! Plan to take photos with your priest directly after the ceremony so that the opportunity isn’t missed.

Our time recommendation: add just a few extra minutes, but make sure to move the priest to the top of the list and make sure to send him photos afterward!