Embracing an Alternative Wedding Timeline

I love the "morning wedding" idea- different and exciting; a fresh idea and who doesn't like 'brunch?'

I love morning weddings, they last longer, especially in my culture...it can be an all day event. Love the article...thank you.

If my fiance could function before noon, we might do a morning wedding with a tea/brunch. Since that's not the case though, we're doing a fairly traditional timeline. However, we are doing a first look, partially just to get the photos out of the way so that we can get all of the photos we want without making our guests wait forever.

any tips for setting up a great, romantic first look? My fiance and I are getting married in December and are doing a first look so that we have the nice winter afternoon lighting, some special time together before the ceremony and also so we can enjoy more of the wedding festivities. Also, should we go to the cocktail hour, will it be weird for guests to see us there before the big enterance?

@mwdesigns & @tania - so happy you enjoyed the reading! :) @ariella - haha, i totally understand your situation! and you're right, the first look really opens up more time to spend with your guests. @jennifer - some quick ideas/thoughts... definitely scout for a great location with your photographer on the first look. if you're getting ready at a hotel or your own house, choose a place there or close by so that you can do some makeup touch ups right after all the hugging and kissing (and sometimes happy crying). and RE: the potentially awkward double entrance... overall, i don't think it's a big deal... you can smooth this out with a simple conversation about the script of the MC. also, something that could work would also be to plan on you giving a thank you speech or first dance immediately upon entering so that the announcement is more about moving the day along versus a forced introduction. make sense? happy to get more in depth with your specific details - you can shoot me an email (sarah@pinkcloud9.com) or get instant advice via chat on our website. hope this helps! :)

We are "tossing the toss"... always thought that it was so tacky. We are also doing the first look... Very excited!!

The morning wedding idea is fab, I might have to steal that :)

These are some great ideas!!

Here in the UK, we pretty much always get married in the morning/very early afternoon. In fact in England and Wales it's illegal for a marriage to take place after 6pm. Which is a shame, as I'd like to get married at dusk...

Thank you for suggesting people give up the bouqet and garter toss. The last two weddings I went to I hid during this part. Especially at the last one because it was me and 3 other single women... I think if people are in their 30s this is just a punishment to those who are single. Would love to hear your thoughts on people who don't write "and guest" on single's invitations, but assume they'll bring one anyway.

@meagan - oh you trendsetter, you... :D @dominique - yes! please do and send me pics!! @som - thank you! @laura - wow, i never knew it was illegal. i thought it was just popular / tradition. thanks for sharing! maybe you can do your version of the dance party idea instead? @tackytrash - awww! don't hide!! if you gotta do it, then make it tacky!!! i think writing "and guest" is a courteous gesture. you know what they say, when you assume....

Yes, it's illegal annoyingly. Grrr. It's a throwback from one of our laws created centuries ago, that nobody in modern government bothered to change. Yeah we'll be having a dance party type thing. Invite a few to the ceremony in the afternoon and then have the others invited to the evening party. Fingers crossed, it'll work =)

We are planning a morning ceremony with family and brunch to lunch with friends. I've been surprised to see how many venues don't cater to this wonderful option! We are also saving money on rentals since the vendor can use their equipment again in the evening. Thanks for posting this great idea, maybe more wedding businesses will start opening up to more choices.

i'm so glad i ran across this article! my fiance and i knew we wanted a small, simple wedding that didn't cost a fortune or create a lot of work for us or our families. the morning wedding and brunch is a fantastic idea and we plan to use it. we're also going to have a small dinner party that evening for our friends since only family will be at the wedding. now i'm truly excited for our wedding day. and i totally took advantage of the fact that we're having two events that day to buy another dress;).

got married in the morning and i LOVED it!!!! even tho our day started so early, it was wonderful and fresh! I would do it all over again!

I am in my early 50's and my partner is in his mid 60's. We are getting married in winter here in Australia. Wedding is around 3.30pm and in a lovelly sandstone church. My uncle is the local priest and is doing the ceremony. My aunt is the church music director so is organising the music. My other uncle is a piper and is piping me into the church to the tune of Highland Cathedral. My partner and his best man are wearing kilts....so a very Scottish theme. The fact that we have been able to incorporate talented family has helped with our budget immensley. Even one of my cousin's is doing the red velvet wedding cake. A friend who is an excellent photographer is taking photos as well as doing the music. And the fact that most of the decor and ideas have come from etsy has been a blessing.

We are getting married at 1pm with a small ceremony at the venue and then having a buffet lunch, which is saving about $20 a head. We too will do a private "first look" to save time later and to be a bit more romantic. Hoping for a memorable event for my future Mother in Law who was just diagnosed with Cancer. We had planned to get married on Kauai next year until the recent diagnosis. We are now planning a small wedding in 3 months to make sure she is able to be with us. I lost both of my parents to Cancer. Looking forward to our special day but 3 months is not enough time to plan lol! I am so glad it's going to be a small wedding :)

@Laura - Interesting point about having fewer venue options, we too hope that the industry will be more flexible to creative solutions! :) @Tiffani - Awesome! So great to hear that this article really helped you get going! And I LOVE that you get to have two dresses now, haha... woman after my own heart! @Cindy - Thanks for sharing and letting us know that a morning wedding is possible and memorable! @Cheryl - Can we get an invite? Weddings where the whole family jumps in on the action are the best! @Connie - I'm really inspired by your thoughtfulness and selfless nature. Thanks for the reminder that wedding planning should include what's best for your family. Congrats and please do visit our website in case you need help getting your plans together over the next few months. we love the etsy community!! you are amazing women!!

I completely agree - get creative with your wedding! Who says they have to be like the last 12 you and your friends-n- family have already attended thru-out the years: Same wedding different bride & groom... Thats what great about ETSY, so many creative ideas and products out there to make it unique!! Great article!!

We are getting married out in the woods by a little creek on my family land. We will have a very simple and rustic wedding. We are going to do the traditional ceremony however we have altered it to include our children (from previous marriages) then while we are doing a few pictures they will head up to the bond fire area and fire up the grill. We will get there just in time to get a burger and hang out the rest of the night. We will not be doing a toss, speeches, and probably no dances. After the ceremony it will just be hanging out with friends and family .... good food and lots of laughing!

I'm so happy to have found this article! I want to shake up our wedding day too and this gives me some ideas. Thanks so much.

Cute ideas love it!

Fun creative ideas and great article!

love the ideas!

We live in a valley in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Our ceremony will be early afternoon on a hill with the mountains on the horizon. Guests will be seated on burlap covered square hay bales, and our music will be live - provided by talented friends. We will then move down to the wooded area near the river, where there is a large clearing that was once used to graze cattle. We will have a rustic type bbq meal, which my husband and I will serve, which will be followed by more music. My fiance and I are both musicians, so we will be jumping up on stage to jam with our friends and also take breaks to dance and enjoy refreshments. Its going to be casual, and so fun!!! We're going to have a gigantic fire as well. I'm so excited, and I've gotten every idea/detail off of Etsy - down to my gown!!! Thank you for the article, if we were at all morning people you'd better believe we'd be brunching on some fabulous waffles!!

Morning weddings are the best. They last longer and newly weds have more time to enjoy their special day.

The word tradition leaves a yucky taste in my mouth, so I'm in love with these tips! Where the heck were you when I got hitched?! ;-P

Great suggestions. My fiance and I are having a private, weekday ceremony with a 'dance party/cocktail' reception two weeks later and it's the best thing for us. We're doing dessert, drinks, and dancing, which are the parts I love about weddings. No bouquet toss, no grand entrance, just hanging out with friends and family. And Tacky Trash, I totally feel you on the bouquet toss! I always hide during those! I've made it 33 years without doing it once!

I would hate to have the ceremony in the morning, but I love love the idea of an all day celebration and mimosas, my favorite thing. It would be interesting and possibly novel to have brucnch, party all day, get married, have dinner, and keep partying.

Brunch, that is.

Love the cocktail hour before the ceremony idea, although don't think that will work in my case, but wanted to share an idea I had. If you're doing pictures before the ceremony, you could have the cocktail hour then, to keep guests occupied, and then when you guys arrive you go straight into the ceremony. After the ceremony there could be passed champagne to immediately do a toast, sorta like cocktail hour part 2, and either just visit with people then or you could have the first dance and a speech from someone which would mark the start of sitting down to dinner. Just to shake things up a bit.

There are other ways to shake things up as well! My fiance and I decided that we don't really enjoy most of the reception traditions, so we've decided to turn them into games instead. Escort cards will be scavenger hunt clues instead, the wedding program is going to be an activity book for guests, and we're turning those awkward wedding things into carnival games: A ring toss game with garters, and a cornhole game with little plush bouquets. It's a nod to the traditions without us having to deal with the awkward moments they inevitable create.

I'm so glad I came across this article! I am not engaged yet ;), but I keep dreaming of a really different wedding. I hope that more and more future brides leave tradition behind and make their day more about who they are as a couple!

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I totally agree with the "toss the toss" blurb :)

We're ditching both tosses, I'm just not that kind of girl. My venue doesn't allow for a first look due to the location of the ceremony, otherwise I would be all over that as we're a young couple and I don't want the traditional feel to our wedding.

cocktail hour first... I never thought of the ice-breaker factor. hmmmm... I might just use that one <3

My fiance and I are having a "just us" wedding on Friday in Las Vegas, and then an in-suite cocktail reception on Saturday night in the Vista Suite, Mandalay Bay. We wanted our wedding to be intimate and personal. The reception will be small with just family and a few close friends. I am simple and don't like all the fuss of a traditional wedding.