Enter your ceremony time — the tool builds your hour-by-hour run-sheet backward to your hair & makeup start and forward to send-off.
The one fixed point. Everything is scheduled around it. Results show 12-hour AM/PM.
Civil ≈ 20–30; religious/cultural run far longer.
A first look moves couple/party/family photos BEFORE the ceremony. No first look pushes ~105 min of photos into cocktail hour.
Bride + bridesmaids + moms. Bride is the longest, scheduled last.
Tracked separately — many do one and not the other.
Parallelism. More stylists = later, calmer start.
A second station that runs alongside hair.
Getting ready elsewhere? Enter the drive time; the tool pads it ~1.5x. 0 = on-site.
We'll flag if glam would have to start before this.
Plated runs longest; buffet/stations clear faster.
Large weddings add dinner & photo time.
Capped at 20 min total — three "2-minute" toasts become twenty.
For the golden-hour portrait check. Leave blank to skip.
A receiving line eats 20–30 min before cocktail-hour photos can start.
Enter your ceremony start time to build the timeline.
Most day-of timelines go wrong for one reason: couples guess when hair and makeup should start, the morning runs long, and the late start cascades into a stressed, behind-schedule day. This wedding day timeline builder fixes that by working from the one thing your venue and officiant have locked in — your ceremony start time. It schedules backward from the ceremony to compute the exact moment hair and makeup must begin (factoring in how many people need glam, how many stylists you have, travel time, and a realistic buffer), and forward from the ceremony through cocktail hour, dinner, toasts, dances, and the send-off. The result is a full hour-by-hour run-sheet with start and end times for every block — the kind of sheet you hand to your hair team, photographer, caterer, and DJ.
A 4:30 PM ceremony, first look = yes, 4 people needing hair and 4 needing makeup, 1 stylist and 1 makeup artist, getting ready on-site (0 min travel), a plated dinner for 100, and 3 toasts. Hair chair-time is 60 + 3×40 = 180 min; makeup is 75 + 3×35 = 180 min. With one artist each, both stations run 180 min in parallel, so glam takes 3 hours, plus a ~15% buffer (30 min). With a first look, glam must finish 30 min before the first look. Stacking the first look (20 min), couple portraits (45), wedding-party photos (30), family photos (30), and 15 min to settle before the ceremony puts the first look at 1:40 PM, requires glam done by 1:10 PM, and computes a glam start of 9:40 AM — the one number you most need. Turn the first look off and glam only needs to finish 90 min before the ceremony, so the start slides later to about 11:30 AM — but the tool then warns that ~105 minutes of photos land in cocktail hour and you may miss part of your own. Add a second stylist and the hair station halves to 90 min, pulling the start even later. That is the trade the tool exposes instantly. (Forward from the ceremony, this example runs cocktail hour to 6:00 PM, an 80-min plated dinner, 14 min of toasts, and a send-off at 9:32 PM.)
This is a planning estimate, not a guarantee. Durations are industry averages from The Knot, Zola, WeddingWire, and Loverly (2024–2026); your vendors' actual pace is the source of truth — confirm every block with your hair team, photographer, caterer, and DJ or coordinator. Glam timings (bride hair 60 / makeup 75; attendants 40 / 35) are averages: updos, extensions, false lashes, large bridal parties, and "getting-ready photos" all add time, so ask your specific artist for their per-head estimate and override accordingly. The tool models hair and makeup as two parallel stations and divides chair-time evenly across artists — real salons aren't perfectly parallel (one person can't be in two chairs; the bride goes last), so treat the computed start as the earliest safe start and build in extra cushion. The ~15% glam buffer and the 1.5x travel pad are deliberately conservative — weddings run late far more often than early. "No first look" intentionally extends cocktail hour to cover post-ceremony photos, which can mean the couple misses part of their own cocktail hour; that trade-off is shown, not hidden. Reception durations assume one venue and a standard US flow — cultural/religious ceremonies, tea ceremonies, multiple receptions, or venue noise curfews require manual adjustment. The golden-hour flag is a convenience, not an astronomical calculation — verify sunset for your exact date and location. This tool does not account for vendor setup time, hair-trial learnings, kids/elderly pacing, or weather delays; a professional day-of coordinator remains the best safeguard. Everything is computed locally in your browser — nothing is stored, sent, or synced.
You enter your ceremony start time plus a few details (first look or not, how many people need hair and makeup, stylist count, dinner style, guest count). The tool schedules backward from the ceremony to your glam start and forward through cocktail hour, dinner, toasts, and send-off, returning an hour-by-hour run-sheet with start and end times.
It depends on headcount and how many artists you have. The tool uses average chair times (bride hair 60 / makeup 75 min; each attendant 40 / 35), runs hair and makeup in parallel, divides by your artist count, adds a ~15% buffer, and finishes glam 90 min before a no-first-look ceremony or 30 min before the first look. The headline is your exact start time.
It's the biggest fork. With a first look, couple/party/family photos happen before the ceremony, so glam finishes earlier but cocktail hour is relaxed. Without one, ~105 min of photos move into cocktail hour, so glam can finish later but you may miss part of your own cocktail hour — the tool flags exactly how many minutes.
Parallelism. Eight heads with one stylist is an 8-deep queue (5+ hours); eight heads with two stylists roughly halves the wall-clock time. The tool divides total chair-time by your artist count to expose this early — getting it wrong is the #1 cause of a blown morning.
Yes. Enter the one-way drive time from getting-ready to the ceremony and the tool pads it ~1.5x (the way photographers do), then inserts it plus 15 min to settle before guests arrive. Forgetting travel time is the most common cause of a late ceremony.
Optional. Enter your local sunset time and the tool flags whether your couple-portrait block lands in golden hour (about 45–10 min before sunset). It's a convenience flag, not an astronomical calculation — verify sunset for your exact date and location.
No — it's a planning estimate. Durations are industry averages; your vendors' actual pace rules. Confirm every block with your hair team, photographer, caterer, and DJ/coordinator, and treat the computed glam start as the earliest safe start, not a promise.
Everything is calculated in your browser. We don't store or sell your data. Planning aid only — confirm every block with your vendors.