How to build your Wedding Day timeline

After choosing your venue, one of the first decisions you will need to make is what time you want to get married.

If you are planning on having Registrars come and marry you, they will ask you what time you want to book your ceremony for, whereas Churches and Celebrants who typically only have one ceremony per day tend to be a little more relaxed.

(If you would like to learn more about the different types of ceremony, then please read our blog post about it here!)

Couples often struggle with the timeline for their day, so we thought we would give our advice…

When it comes to deciding on your ceremony time, we suggest anytime between 12pm – 2pm to allow the day to flow without feeling rushed or too spread out.

As a general rule, registrar-led ceremonies last about 30 minutes and Church ceremonies around one hour, celebrant ceremonies can vary a lot in length depending on how you personalise them, so it is best to speak to your celebrant about your plans.

If you are getting married at a Church, or another location, then you will need to consider the travel time between your ceremony location and Thirsk Lodge Barns.

Brides; we recommend being ready, and in your dress, an hour before you need to leave to allow for photos with your bridal party, any first looks and to avoid feeling rushed right before your ceremony.

Grooms typically need to arrive at the church or venue an hour before the ceremony.

Once you have chosen a ceremony time, the timeline for the rest of the day starts to fall into place.

Please see the below examples of wedding day timings, which can be adjusted to fit your ceremony time.

Please also note that we have used the words ‘Bride’ and ‘Groom’ for the purpose of these examples, however for same-sex couples, or for those couples wanting to do a slightly different schedule to their day, we can happily talk you through options that we have done at Thirsk Lodge Barns in the past!

Thirsk Lodge Barns Ceremony at 1pm

12pm: Groom arrives ahead of the ceremony

12.30pm: Guests start to arrive and groom will meet with the registrars in the VIP room

12.45pm: Guests are seated, Bride arrives into the VIP room to meet the registrars

1pm: Ceremony begins

1.30pm: Ceremony ends and Drinks Reception begins

We usually advise an hour and a half to two hours for your Drinks Reception. This allows enough time for your photographer to get your group photos, and also gives you time to mingle with your guests.

3pm: Guests are invited through to the Dining Room

3.15pm: The newlyweds are announced into the Dining Room

3.20pm: Wedding Breakfast and speeches

Your speeches can either be before or after your Wedding Breakfast.

We usually work on an hour per course, including speeches. This time may differ depending on the number or courses you are having, and the length of your speeches.

6.30pm: You cut your cake, and guests are asked to move back through into the Main Barn and Bar

7pm: Evening guests start to arrive

7.30pm: First Dance

8 – 9pm: Evening Food is served

Midnight: Bar closes and music finishes

Church Ceremony at 1pm

1pm: Groom arrives at Church

12.30pm: Guests arrive

1pm: Bride arrives and the ceremony begins

2pm: Ceremony finishes, confetti is thrown and any group photos are taken outside church

We have based the below on a 30 minute drive from Church, however, you may need to adjust this depending on the location of the Church you choose.

2.30/2.45pm: Guests start to arrive at Thirsk Lodge Barns and the Drinks Reception starts

We usually advise an hour and a half to two hours for your Drinks Reception. This allows enough time for your photographer to get your group photos, and also gives you time to mingle with your guests.

4.15pm: Guests invited through to the Dining Room

4.30pm: The newlyweds are announced in to the Dining Room

4.40pm: Wedding Breakfast and speeches

Your speeches can either be before or after your Wedding Breakfast.

We usually work on an hour per course, including speeches. This time may differ depending on the number or courses you are having, and the length of your speeches.

7pm: You cut your cake, and guests are asked to move back through into the Main Barn and Bar

7.30pm: Evening guests start to arrive

8pm: First Dance

9pm: Evening Food is served

Midnight: Bar closes and music finishes