Creating The Perfect Elopement Timeline

   From a vendor's perspective, timelines are everything when it comes to a traditional full day wedding and that’s not an exaggeration.  When you have a dozen or more vendors working together to ensure everything & everybody is on time, and transitions are smooth, a good timeline is essential!  But what about elopements?  Do you even need a timeline?  Can you just wing it?  I mean after all, you decided to elope in Jackson Hole to keep things simple right?  The answer is still yes!  While a timeline may not be as detail heavy for an elopement or micro wedding, they can still be just as helpful in making sure everything goes smoothly on your special day.  Almost all of our traditional wedding couples usually book 8 hour wedding packages.  As you can imagine, you have to consider everything from caterer arrival time, to clean up time allotted by the venue post wedding to make sure you don’t get billed for extra time.  Thankfully, for elopement and micro wedding timelines, things are usually a lot more straight forward. For the purposes of keeping things simple, we’re going to be covering our most popular elopement options which are 2 hours and 4 hours of coverage.  Below we are going to provide a few sample timelines so if you also find yourselves with this same amount of coverage, you can have a starting point or some examples to look at to give you and idea of how to structure your timeline.  We will also cover the common things to consider that went into the design of these sample timelines.

2 Hour Timeline Samples

Before I hop into the timeline structure, I’m just going to present very common/popular locations, and a couple of different timing scenarios.  Obviously you would still need to plug in the specific location you plan on holding your ceremony, your address from where you’ll be traveling from, whether you’re planning on having getting ready or reception coverage, or if you plan on finishing up in the park at sunset?  The samples below will simply let you see what a lot of couples do/have done and how you could potentially make it work for you.  In general, 2 hour packages are great if you want to keep things quick and simple, but also want to allow some time for plenty of couples photos in the park at 1-2 locations in addition to your ceremony site.

Timeline A - (No getting ready, starting coverage at ceremony location Mountain View Turnout with first look, family photos after, then finishing up with sunset photos at Cathedral Group Turnout)

7:00pm - Groom arrives at Mountain View Turnout and meets photographers for first look; gets set up

7:05pm - Bride arrives at ceremony site for first look

7:10pm  - first look with bride and groom followed by private vow reading

7:30pm - officiant arrives for ceremony and completes paperwork with witnesses ahead of time.

7:35pm - Ceremony starts

7:50pm - Ceremony ends; Couple takes a minute to soak it up and celebrate with family

7:55pm - Start family portraits

8:10pm - transition to golden hours couples photos

8:30pm - finish couples portraits at Mountain View Turnout and drive to Cathedral Group Turnout for sunset

8:35pm - Finish with couples photos until sunset

9:00pm - sunset/coverage ends

Timeline B - (Couple values some of the traditional getting ready shots, and being able to go out and enjoy the day after with family so they’ve opted for an afternoon ceremony; The’ve opted to do getting ready photos and want to forego moving to another location after their ceremony; no first look)

12:00pm - Capture the tail end of getting ready and detail shots

12:20pm -  Leave downtown Jackson hotel and head to ceremony site

12:40pm - Arrive at Ceremony site (Mormon Row North); then walk to actual ceremony site   ***(bride arrives at same time as groom but waits for him to walk to the ceremony first)

12:45pm - Arrive on foot to actual ceremony site at this location and set up for ceremony

12:50pm - Start ceremony processional

1:00pm - Short ceremony ends and then they complete paperwork with officiant

1:05pm - Formal Family photos

1:25pm - Bridal Party Photos

1:35pm - Finish up with couples portraits until 2pm

2:00pm - Couples photos complete/coverage ends

Timeline C - (Couple wants to spend most of their time in the park doing portraits at different locations; no first look, they are arriving together and walking each other down the aisle, no family or friends)

7:00pm - Couple meets photographer and officiant in parking lot - Cascade Canyon Turnout ***(dispersed site ceremony)

7:05pm - Ceremony starts

7:15pm - Ceremony Ends; complete paperwork with officiant

7:20pm - couples photos at cascade canyon turnout

7:30pm - drive to Cathedral Group Turnout

7:40pm - arrive at Cathedral Group and start photos

7:55pm - drive to String Lake

8:00pm  - arrive at string lake and start more couples photos

8:20pm - end couples photos and travel to Glacier View Turnout for sunset

8:45pm - arrive at Glacier View turnout and shoot until sunset

9:00pm - sunset/coverage ends.

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4 Hour Timelines

Below are timelines are are typical of our couples that book 4 hours of elopement coverage.  In general, 4 hour options are great if you are coordinating a lot of family, coming from a far away location, want a bunch of locations, want specific location that requires a hike, or if you want getting ready/reception coverage.

Timeline D  - (This couple wants the tail end of getting ready and details captured at their airbnb in Driggs, ID; They will be in separate spaces on the property so they will not do a first look, opting to see each other down the aisle.  They stayed in Driggs, ID to save a little bit on lodging, and they want to finish downtown with a few blue hour/night shots in front of the cowboy bar.)

5:00pm - Start getting ready photos at Airbnb in Driggs, ID

5:30pm - Couple ready and leaves to head to their ceremony site at Schwabacher Landing.

6:50pm - Couple and their family arrive at Schwabacher Landing.  Meet officiant and Park Ranger in the parking lot; Starts walk to actual ceremony site at this location.

6:55pm - Everyone arrives at the ceremony site and sets up for the ceremony

7:00pm - Processional starts followed by the ceremony

7:30pm - Ceremony complete; start family photos shortly after

7:50pm - Family photos complete; Transition to couples portraits

8:25pm - Couples photos complete; Drive to downtown Jackson to snag a few shots in front of the cowboy bar

8:55pm - Start photos in front of cowboy bar **(factored in drive time, time to find parking, and then walk to location from where you end up parking, and dodging foot traffic)

9:00pm - Finish couples photos/coverage ends

Timeline E  - (Couple booked more coverage because they wanted to build in hike time since they wanted to elope at Taggart Lake at sunrise;  Starting at sunrise to avoid crowd; starting in non-traditional order of doing couples photos at sunrise first for the best light, and then finishing with ceremony at Taggart Lake Trailhead after with family meeting us at the trailhead)

4:45am - Couple meets photographers in the Taggart Lake TH parking lot

4:50am - Start 40 minute hike to the lake

5:30am - Arrive at Taggart Lake, just before sunrise; Couple finalizes any outfit changes

5:35am - Start couples portraits

6:35am - Finish couples portraits and start hike back

7:15am - Arrive back at trailhead and sets up for ceremony with family ***(another dispersed site ceremony, so less than 12 total guests including vendors)

7:25am - Start Ceremony

7:40am - Ceremony Ends

7:45am - Start Family Photos after completing paperwork with officiant

8:00am - Family Photos completed; Start Couples portraits at Taggart Lake TH

8:15am - Finish with couples portraits; travel to nearby unnamed pull off with a flower field (wildflower season).

8:30am - start couples portraits in the flower field

8:45am - Photos complete/coverage Ends

Other Tips for timeline planning

• If you’re building your timeline on your own, be sure to build in some flex time.  One of the easiest ways to do this is round up your time on how long you think something will take.  I.E.  If it says your drive is going to be 26 minutes from your hotel to your ceremony site, just call it 30 minutes for your timeline.  It will help build in flex time throughout the day so if things run behind, you’ll be okay as the timeline’s built in flex time will eventually balance it out, and if you’re on time, you’ll find yourself with extra time eventually so you’ll have a bit more time to relax and take it all in.  The timelines above have been designed with this in mind so there is already some built in flex time.

• More Guests = More Time;  Translation, if you’re having 40 guests vs 4, things just take longer.  Everything from logistics, waiting on those handful of family members who always run late, to getting through family photos.  Example, if you’re having 40 guests, you’ll likely have many more family combinations than someone who has 4, so be sure to go over this with your photographer ahead of time so you can make sure to have enough time for your size celebration

• A lot of couples ask - What time should I do my ceremony?  This is ultimately going to depend on your priorities.  Every couple is different in what they envision for their elopement, as well as the time before and after for many.  With this, here’s a few examples of what we mean.  If the most important photos to you are sunset photos and sunset is 9pm, then you would want to schedule for your ceremony sometime between 7 and 8pm if you booked 2 hours.  Or lets say you are going white water rafting at 5pm the afternoon of your elopement day, you probably want to finish at 1:30pm the latest to give you time to get back to your lodging and give you time to change, eat, etc.  Or maybe your ceremony photos are the most important to you (rare but it happens) - depending on your photographer’s style, you may schedule your ceremony right at the end of coverage, so you would likely have to start with a first look, family and couples photos, followed by ceremony lined up with sunset.

Our hope with this one is that it will make creating your timeline more practical and  approachable.  Just set aside 20 minutes and you can hammer out the perfect timeline for most elopements.  Always be sure to double check it with vendors like your photographer to make sure the timing all makes sense.  Finalize everything after and voila!  You’re good to go!  As always, never hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!