How To Plan Your Wedding Itinerary

Here at Fossil we celebrate your wedding, your way! Therefore you may look to include different activities or forms of celebratory when planning your timings. 

We always encourage putting your stamp on your wedding itinerary with pockets of extra time to help the day flow and mop up any natural delays. With many new enquiries during what the industry have candidly named “engagement season” we know lots of you are planning your big day! Exciting times ahead and many ‘grats to you!

Post ceremony there are quite a few moments that centre around food that vary from wedding to wedding and therefore recommend reaching out to your wedding caterer to help draft the foundations first before you formally book your evening entertainment time slot  or send evenings guest invites. We have listed our top tips to help you plan! If you are a Fossil booked couple we will help with this in great detail.

1. Reach Out To Your Caterer First 

If you jump the gun too soon you may run the risk of little wiggle room for your dream team to play with. Check in FIRST before solidifying anything.

2. Consider Fixed Start & End Times

Start with your ceremony time and end with your chosen end time (this might be your venues curfew or if on private land you may be working or an agreed time the music goes down). Then work out milestones you plan to fill the in between time with.

Canapés, meal, first dance, are you cutting the cake? Champagne tower? Singing waiters? The world is your oyster… but does it all fit into the gap? 

3. The Canapes & Drinks Reception

Personally we advise the golden ticket here to be an hour and half post ceremony is perfect! Time for photos, mingling, devouring your own couple canape platter. Remember to check with your photographer they are happy with this time frame as they consider things like the light during the time of year and location along with many other bits to ensure your photos are fire.

4. Choosing Your Wedding Breakfast

Now this is a grey answer- this truly differs on your menu, number of guests, speech format preference (touch on this next), kitchen facilities at the venue. Rule of thumb allow 2 to 3 hours depending on courses - more than 100 guests if you have room in the tank would be advised to include a buffer half an hour for good measure. 

5. The All-Important Speeches

We love speeches!! You’ll find the team and I sobbing in the corner of the kitchen at all things lovey dovey shared. Speeches are also where you can loose time! But “I have timed my speech to the minute” I hear you cry! I don’t doubt it… but it is always worth considering speeches following your meal or between the main and dessert. That way any delays your menu is safe as houses! Believe it or not a bite of food will do wonders for nerves and your guests will thank you for filling their tummies ahead of more fizz. Talk to your caterer how best to get your vision for speeches to work with your menu. 

6. Allocating Time To The Little Bits

Some moments in the day sometimes get forgotten to allocate time towards - such as guests seating (takes longer than if it was just the 2 of your dining!), turning a room round for the evening or filling flutes for speeches.

7. Last But Not Least... Grace Time

Buffer in some time for delays or simply to spend together as a couple. Time filled with no plans is always a blessing! The day is a blur so a little downtime is never bad, so don’t be alarmed if this happens on your schedule on paper. It’s actually a good thing! Come prepared with a playlist, bar staff at the ready for this time whilst you bask in that lovely post wedding bliss.

The above comes with the territory with booking Fossil and will get into the nitty gritty during your taster ready to be approved by you and other time conscious suppliers. If you are under someone else’s wing - reach out to them, us caterers love to help!