“When is the best time to glitter?” “Why do you recommend two hours?” “Can we have more?!” These are just some of the regular questions we get asked when our beautiful couples are booking us up.
Of course you can always have more time, an earlier time slot or keep us for extra time (after all, every wedding is different, and we’ll always work in with your schedule!) but there is definitely a peak glitter time.
With a solid 15 years of experience in the wedding industry, you get to know a little bit about timings. Peak times during the day for certain parts of the ceremony to happen. And also, what happens and what to do when things run over - which they often do!
And we know only too well how important timings are on your big days, so we’ve put together our own mini guide to timings and how you can get the most out of our sparkly glitter bar…
PEAK GLITTERING TIME
The best time to glitter for a traditionally timed day is between 8pm and 10pm. Normally speeches are done, guests have eaten, evening guests have arrived and everyone’s getting in the mood to party the night away.
In our experience, after 10pm, most people have had a few too many to sit still! We’ve had a few sleeping beauties and as funny as they are, we’re often asked for random designs (we’ll leave that to your imagination!) which aren’t wedding appropriate or in line with our own standards.
In these two sparkly hours, all your glitter junkies have run our stocks down, your nervous and unsure guests have plucked up the courage to come and see us and we’ve given the bridal party some of our deserved undivided glitter attention!
HOW MANY ARTISTS DO I NEED?
In our experience, for a wedding with around 100-150 guests, we recommend 2 hours of time (see above!), plus two of our super talented glitter artists. Two glitter artists ensure more people are dancing than queuing.
WHAT DO I DO IF THE DAY IS BEHIND SCHEDULE?
First, relax! These things happen more often than not. If your wedding is in a tipi, we can always set up in the corner or outside without too much fuss. For the more traditional venues though, we generally aren’t allowed in and will have to wait. We always wait for speeches to finish before we set up and will work in with you or your coordinator to see if you’d like us to glitter before or after your first dance. It’s your day and we’ll work in with you.
DON’T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT…
We asked super lovely wedding co-ordinator Laura from Devine Bride and awesome wedding photographer Chloe Lee what advice they’d give about timings. Here’s what they said…
“My best advice for planning your timings would be… work with a coordinator! We will help you plan a detailed and more importantly, realistic running order. You don’t want your day to be too regimented, so leave enough buffer time either side of each major part in your day. Consult with each of your suppliers ahead of time to ensure that the time slots and allocations work for them too - to give you the best service possible. Your caterers and photographer will be instrumental in dictating timings for the day, depending on how fast their service/shooting is and depending on what kind of food, drink, service, photos, group shots and couple pictures you are going for.
One of the things I find hardest to manage with my couples is the speeches. Speeches always run over and eat into dinner/party time. It often doesn’t occur to your nearest and dearest that you have a time allocation specifically for this. My advice is always to give each speaker no more than a three-minute time limit but then allocate six minutes. Then add on 10 minutes to the total speech time. This will help you plan your evening entertainment.
However, you also need to think about any clearing, tea/coffee time, room turnarounds, and entertainment set up times – not just their start time. Do they need access early? Do they need a space to get changed? Do they need food first? As all these times need to be accounted for!” - Laura x
“When planning your timings make sure you allocate plenty of time for the wedding meal and speeches, as these are what generally cause most delays to timings and make things overrun. Remind each person doing a speech how long they have beforehand and make it clear they can’t really overrun.
If you’re having a dry hire wedding, in a tipi, marquee, etc. Invest in an on a day coordinator, they are worth every penny and will not only liaise with all suppliers on the day but make sure that things are running as close to times as possible by ensuring guests are fed on time, your photographer has taken the photos they need to.
When it comes to your photos make sure that you have not only provided your photographer with a list of group photos but at least half an hour for these as well as nominating a bridesmaid/groomsman/family member that knows a lot of the guests and will help your photographer in rounding up people for photos.
Definitely allow an hour and a half for drinks reception (and photos) and 2 hours for the meal with an extra 45 mins for speeches! And most of all, enjoy!” - Chloe x
Well, that’s all on timings and if you’ve got any questions, send them over. Ultimately, we’re here to help you so you can kick off those heels and enjoy your big day!
Claire x
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