The Wedding Day Timeline With Your Photographer

For a wedding with an afternoon ceremony, these blocks have proven themselves: getting ready, 90 to 120 minutes before the ceremony, the most intimate phase of the day; the ceremony, 30 to 60 minutes (what applies at the registry office is covered in the civil wedding guide); congratulations and apero, 60 to 90 minutes, the underrated goldmine of the reportage; group photos, 20 to 30 minutes with a list and a caller, see the group-photo guide; the couple shoot, 30 to 45 minutes, ideally in the golden hour; then speeches, dance and party, where reaction beats planning.

Light is the single biggest quality factor in wedding photography, and it is free. In a Swiss summer the golden hour falls roughly between 7:30 and 9:00 pm; in winter it is early afternoon. Do not lock the couple shoot at 2 pm in harsh midday light. Ask your photographer for the sunset time of your date and reserve a 30-minute slot just before it. Your guests will barely notice you were gone.

The couple shoot belongs in the golden hour, the last hour before sunset, which in a Swiss summer falls roughly between 7:30 and 9:00 pm.

No buffer (weddings never run on time); group photos without a list; the couple shoot at midday; getting ready without reserve (make-up always takes longer); and the photographer seeing the timeline only on the wedding day. Send it two weeks ahead; good photographers will tell you where it pinches.

A first look, deliberately seeing each other before the ceremony, visibly relieves the afternoon because couple portraits can happen early. Whether it suits you is its own decision; see the dedicated first-look guide.

From getting ready to the first dance is usually eight to ten hours; a civil wedding with apero takes two to three. Package prices are covered in the pricing guide; how a documentary approach uses those hours is shown on the style page.