How to Create a Schedule for the Day of the Wedding

You’ve spent weeks planning. But it’s worthwhile to carefully plan one last day.

Before we start making a schedule, there’s some things to do first:

1. Know your family. My father a”h would joke that a Yekke is never early nor late but perfectly on time and while we aren’t Yekkes…we tend to run pretty close to that. I know that if I tell my family to be somewhere 5:30pm they take it at face value. In other families 5:30 means somewhere before 6:30/7. Know this when you create the schedule.
2. Speak to the pros. Call your photographer and ask him to give you the breakdown of how much time he needs for the Kallah, the marrieds, the parents, the singles etc. Ask your make up artist and hair stylist how long they need.
3. Once you have all that info, work backwards. If you want to walk into the hall with your Kallah at 6:30pm (yup you can do that!), prepare to be ready for 6:15 because 15 minutes buffers are needed for normal life mishaps. If your family is more schleppy or takes things slower, pretend the wedding is 6pm. Get the drift?  Begin to work with a photography schedule first. Does he want the Kallah ready 90 minutes before the Kabolas Panim? 2 hours? Work from there. How much time does he want to spend with her? Who does he need ready next (spoiler: mother!) plug that in. Now you know who needs hair and make up ready by that time… begin plugging that in. 
4. Email this to the whole family and tell them how important it is to you to run on time. Thank them for helping you make that happen.

Here is a sample schedule from one of our Simchos:

Hi Family,

Please  confirm that the schedule below works for you. We are trying our best not to incur overtime on any level and are looking to run on time. We will have food at the hall and someone to help the kids get into gowns.

Hair at hall:
11:45-12:30 Kallah
(Kallah davened Mincha before makeup as it was winter and early enough to swing it)
Note: There will be a separate hair person doing all 8 kids’ hairs who is coming at 1:30. She needs 20-30 min a head since they’re little.

Makeup at hall:
12:50-1:50 p.m. Kallah
1:55-2:40 p.m. Mother of Kallah
2:45-3:15 p.m. Married sister 1 who wears light makeup
3:15-4:00 p.m. Married sister 2
(I did the marrieds before the singles because the photographer needed more time for their family shoots and they needed time to ready their kids)
4:00-4:45 Single Sister 1
4:45-5:30 Bubby (who is elderly and didn’t have energy to be at the hall for many hours)

Those of you doing your makeup elsewhere, leave enough time to get to the hall (best idea in most cases is to get dressed in hall–allow 30 min for that and additional 15 if dressing any kids.)

Photographer’s Schedule:
Kallah: 2:30-3:30 p.m. (we allowed 30 min for her to get dressed and fix all hiccups)
Kallah and parents: 3:30-4 p.m.
Married Sib 1 & family (make sure her kids get hair done first) 4:05-4:25 p.m.
Chosson & his family 4:30-5:40 p.m. (small family)
Married sib 2 & family: 5:45-6:05 p.m.
Grandparents 6:05-6:15 p.m.
Single siblings kept going in between families coming down and whoever didn’t get full shots came in 6:15-6:25 p.m.

6:30 Walk in for Kabolas Panim

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