Wedding planner reveals brilliant 30/5 rule that will keep you from running late and rushing on your big day

A wedding planner has revealed the 30/5 rule that she follows to keep her clients from running late and rushing on their big day. 

Meredith Bartel, 29, from Wisconsin, is a wedding expert and founder of Plus One Planning. She has more than 340,000 followers on TikTok, where she shares her tips and tricks. 

The content creator, who uses the handle @plusoneplanning, recently went viral after detailing the one thing she always keeps in mind when coming up with a wedding timeline. 

'On a wedding day, the concept of time doesn't behave in the way that you are used to in the real world. I like to call this theory the 30/5 rule,' she began her video. 

Wedding planner Meredith Bartel, 29, from Wisconsin, went viral on TikTok after detailing the one thing she always keeps in mind when coming up with a wedding timeline

'On a wedding day, the concept of time doesn't behave in the way that you are used to in the real world. I like to call this theory the 30/5 rule,' she explained (stock image)

The concept is based on the theory that anything that takes five minutes to do in your everyday life, such as getting dressed or going to the bathroom, will take about 30 minutes on your wedding day. 

'Putting on a wedding dress is not the same as getting dressed for work in the morning,' she explained. 'The dress is bigger, the dress is heavier. You have to put it on in a very specific way so you don't wrinkle it.'

Meredith noted that the photographer and videographer will also have the bride pose for photos with her family members and bridal party as she gets dressed.  

'You're going to stop and pause and "ooh and aah" in the mirror,' she continued. 'You're going to put your veil on. You're going to put your earrings on. There are going to be more [photos].'

The wedding coach gave another example of a bride having to go to the bathroom in the middle of getting ready and taking photos. 

'When you want to go to the bathroom, you can't just go to the bathroom,' she said. You have to find a couple bridesmaids who are willing to help you.

'You gotta shuffle into the stall. You gotta figure it out... 'Then when you're done, you gotta try to wrestle and pull those Spanx back on. You gotta try to shuffle backwards out of the stall. It's not a five-minute thing.'

'And chances are, wherever you're supposed to be right now, in the bridal suite [or] out getting your pictures taken somewhere, that's probably not where the bathroom is. 

The 30/5 rule is based on the theory that anything that takes five minutes to do in your everyday life, will take about 30 minutes on your wedding day

'You probably need to build in some transition time to walk to and from,' she pointed out. 'Everything takes longer than it usually does in the real world.'

Meredith said that even something as simple as leaving the bridal suite and walking downstairs takes longer than expected because everyone is laughing and talking. 

The photographer will want to stop to take photos, and inevitably, someone will have to run back to grab something they forgot or pause to fix their hair or reapply lipstick. 

'Just getting from point A to point B is never straightforward,' she said. 'So if you are not working with a wedding planner or a wedding coordinator, and you are trying to write your wedding timeline yourself, and you have your events going bing, bang, boom, you're doing yourself a disservice. 

Meredith explained that you are either going to 'fall so far behind on your timeline due to all of these events that you didn't consider' or you're going to be a 'drill sergeant trying to keep everybody on this time that's unrealistic.' 

'Who wants to spend their wedding day being a crab a**?' she asked. 'You and your wedding party and your parents and your vendors, everybody's going to have a much better time if [you] build in transition time, build in buffer time. 

'It is so much better to account for too much time and be left with extra time at the end. That way you can take your sweet a** time,' she said. 'You can take as much time as you want. You can goof around and be present and be silly and do everything that you need to do and you still never fall behind. 

'And if you are still lucky enough to have extra time, great. You win. Have another drink. Sit down for a little bit. Eat a granola bar. Call it whatever you want, a transition time, a buffer time, a gap. There should be a space between every single individual event on your timeline.'

Meredith's video has been viewed more than 460,000 times and has received nearly 200 comments. Some fans dubbed the 30/5 rule 'bride math' and 'wedding day girl math' 

Meredith gave a final example of posing for formal family portraits right after the ceremony, saying it will take at least 10 minutes for guests to vacate the area before you can even begin.

'Once your formal family portraits are done, there's probably going to be a little bit of a gap before you actually get started with your wedding party photos again,' she explained. 

'Someone went to the bar, someone went to the bathroom, someone went to switch their shoes, someone's just stuck in a conversation, and they need a minute to get out of it. Build in buffer time because your wedding day goes fast.'

Meredith reiterated that allowing for extra time will help you to live in the moment and not stress about running late. 

'You're going to be having so much fun with your people, living your best life that you're not even realizing that the clock is ticking,' she said. 'Don't spend your day crabby. Don't spend your day rushing around. Don't spend your day being stressed. 

'Pad your day with so much time that you can be the happiest little slowpoke sloth in the world. That's the 30/50 rule,' she concluded.

Meredith's video has been viewed more than 460,000 times and has received nearly 200 comments. 

'I love Wedding Day girl math,' one fan responded. 

'I just planned and coordinated my daughter's wedding in Aug,' someone else shared. 'Ur vids helped me run AHEAD of schedule.' 

'This is so accurate. I am always telling brides to give themselves more time than they think,' another agreed.