How to build a wedding timeline that protects golden hour

Golden hour lasts roughly forty minutes, and it is the difference between flat midday frames and photographs that glow.

Start from sunset and work backwards. Block fifteen to twenty minutes for couple portraits about half an hour before sunset, and place speeches or the meal around it rather than through it.

Tell your planner and your photographer the same timeline. If the ceremony runs late — and it usually does — the portraits are the first thing to get squeezed, so build a twenty minute buffer earlier in the day.