Reader Question: Wedding Day Timeline

Reader Question: I was wondering if you could post a timeline of the days leading up to the wedding. I am especially in search of one for the wedding day.

I'll have to work on a lead-up to the wedding timeline (I have one, but I want to fiddle with it a bit so it more accurately depicts what actually happened).  So, for now, here is our wedding day timeline (including stuff other people were doing and stuff we (P and me) were doing).  I've given the timeline that we thought we'd go by and made a note if that thing actually ended up happening at a later time.

An Illustrated Wedding Day Timeline

8:00 am - Breakfast at the B&B  (Wedding party plus P & me)
9:30 am Meet at house to continue set up  -Menfolk, plus my parents and some assorted family
9:30 am Women at B&B for hair, getting ready, finishing up flowers w/photographer (we had our hair person come to us, which was just as cheap as us going there because she didn't have to pay for her stall rental).

11:00 am Prep salads & apps - Mom and assorted friends and family at the house
12:00 pm Men get ready for pictures at the house - Groomsmen plus P

1:o0 pm Meet for pictures at the B&B (Wedding party plus us)  

3:30 pm Back to house for family pictures - Us, wedding party, family
4:15 pm Set up apps & drinks in backyard and water in front - Designated friend helpers
4:30 pm People arrive, greet people - Everyone

5:00 pm Ceremony starts - We based this on when we thought it would start cooling down.

6:00 pm Drinks, apps, and fun

6:45 pm Buffet starts (Actually ended up starting around 7:15 pm)

7:30 pm Cut pie (Dinner actually ended up taking longer than we thought so this actually happened around 8:30)

7:30 pm Dancing music (Actually ended up starting a bit after 8:30--immediately after cake/pie).

We wrapped up just around midnight, though most folks were gone by then and it was mostly the people were were spending the night there after about eleven or so.

Reader Question: How many toilets is enough?

A version of a question I'm commonly asked by readers:

Question:
I am planning on having my wedding ceremony and reception in my parent's backyard.  I was wondering if you have any advice on bathrooms.  We are planning on having about 150 guests and my parents only have 1 restroom. Rather than having all the guests go all over the house looking for a bathroom, we were wondering if you had any suggestions or if 1 bathroom would suffice.

My answer:

We had this debate as well. My parent's bathroom is sort of tempermental so we ended up renting a toilet.  It actually wasn't gross at all (it was the rental company's special "wedding toilet") and one was plenty for the 100 guests we had.  I was just at another wedding that had around 120 guests and their 1 toilet was a lot busier than ours seemed, but the line was never too long (maybe 2 people at most). I'd say you could probably get by with one if you trust your plumbing!

No bugs were invited to my wedding

There could be no bugs around and a mosquito will find me. There will be twenty people standing around with not a single bug bite, and I'll have a mosquito bite for every one of them. I do not like bugs.

So when you asked if we had a plan for how to keep bugs off our guests, I think my first thought was that I'm the best bug repellent anyone could ask for. They all fill up on me and leave others alone. But obviously we needed a better plan than that, particularly since my parent's have a creek in their backyard that creates a larger than normal mosquito population.
The first thing we did was to have the torches we used to light the yard contain citronella oil. Not the most pleasant smell, but it served its purpose. Second we set up a small table of bathroom supplies near our toilet (tampons, lotion, condoms, and...bug spray). We bought a natural, non-cancer causing, reproductive-harm-inducing, spray from our natural food co-op.

I've tried several natural bug repellents and All Terrain Herbal Armor is the best that I've found. I even took it with me when I went to the jungle on my honeymoon and stayed (mostly) mosquito bite free.

So that's what we did to keep the bugs out. And for the most part it seemed to work. I didn't get a single bug bite all night!