Sample Runsheet Layout
Wedding Runsheet
Weddings
Picking your ceremony time
If you haven’t already picked the start of your ceremony time, I recommend working backwards from Sunset time to optimise the best lighting for your photos. So search what time Sunset is on the date and location of your wedding. Ideally you’ll want to have your portraits taken a 1- 1.5 hours before Sunset – depending if you need to account for travel time to where you will be taking photos or moving to multiple spots. You then want to then want to allow time for group photos and family photos, allow guests to congratulate you and mingle with the guests before leaving for photos – this might be approx 30 mins – 1 hour. You then want to check with the celebrant or priest how long the ceremony will take. And working backwards from this, you will arrive to an ideal ceremony time.
For example Sunset on 1st August in Brisbane is 5.20pm. So ideally we want to start portrait photos around 4 or 4.30pm. Let’s just say our wedding has a small number of guests, so we’ll leave about 30mins for group photos and congratulations. That brings us to around 3.30pm. Ceremony is approx 30 mins. So ceremony start time would ideally be 3pm at this time of the year in this location.
Why a wedding run sheet is so helpful
Having a wedding run sheet will not only help you feel organised in the lead up to the day and know what needs to happen at each time, the run sheet is a also a great way to communicate to all the vendors and important people about the details of the day, so no one has to come to you for questions, help run on time and ensures a stress free day. Having all the wedding details such as vendor contacts, also ensures that other people have the contact details of vendors to help chase things up on the day.
Where to start
When you first start writing your run sheet, you’ll need to find out from your hair and make up artist how long it will take for everyone to be ready. You’ll want to have hair and make up completely ready approximately 1.5hrs before you need to leave. This allows the photographer to get some casual photos of the bride and bridesmaids before they get changed, then photos of bridesmaids assisting bride to get ready and finally, a few portrait photos of everyone dressed before leaving for the ceremony. Once you know these times, work backwards from the ceremony time to identify what time everyone needs to arrive at the getting ready location.
Details to note in the run sheet
– start and finish times of each part of the day
– times for important formalities such as speeches, cutting of the cake, first dance,
– any surprises that your photographer should be aware of to capture, like fireworks, surprise dances, sparkler exit
– highly recommend that you request for photographer/ videographer meals to be brought out while everyone is eating rather than during speeches.
Family photo list
I highly recommend you write down the list of family photos you want to be taken after the ceremony to ensure that we don’t miss any important combinations that you are after. You may also want to make some notes on perhaps which family members won’t want to be in a photo together to save your photographer and those people involved embarrassment on the day. There might be photo combinations you want to ensure that are taken but not necessarily right after the ceremony, but would like to highlight these to your photographer like just the bride and her mother, or just the bride and her siblings. There may also be group of friends that you want to ensure you have photos with – you can note that as well.
