The Wedding Day Run Sheet Template

A Fiji wedding run sheet is built backwards from one number: sunset. You get 22 to 24 minutes of usable light afterwards, and at many island venues the last boat out leaves before the ceremony has finished. Get those two facts into the document first and the rest of the day arranges itself around them.

What time does the sun actually set in Fiji?

These are US Naval Observatory figures for Nadi, at 17.78°S, with Fiji's year-round UTC+12 offset applied.

The whole year moves through 70 minutes. Auckland's sunset swings by roughly five hours; Fiji's barely moves. That is genuinely freeing — you can plan a Fiji ceremony to one time band whatever month you choose.

Two details worth having right. The earliest sunset is not the June solstice — 5 June sets at 5.42pm, two minutes earlier than the solstice on the 21st. Likewise the latest sunset falls in early January, not at the December solstice. That is the equation of time, and it catches people who assume the solstice marks the extreme. And Suva sets three to five minutes earlier than Nadi, being slightly further east.

Does Fiji change its clocks?

No. Fiji is UTC+12 every day of the year. Daylight saving was last observed from 20 December 2020 to 17 January 2021. Cabinet approved suspension on 6 October 2023, agreeing that repeal of the Daylight Saving Act 1998 would be considered, and no clock changes are scheduled through 2029.

The risk runs the other way, and it has bitten before. Your guests' phones may change while Fiji's do not. New Zealand daylight saving runs from 2am on the last Sunday in September to 3am on the first Sunday in April, so a New Zealand guest is on the same time as Fiji during the New Zealand winter and one hour ahead through the New Zealand summer. Sydney and Melbourne guests sit two hours behind Fiji in winter and one hour behind in summer, while Brisbane stays two hours behind year-round. Devices with stale timezone data have also been known to jump Fiji forward an hour in November of their own accord.

Put all times in your run sheet in Fiji time, labelled FJT, and say so in the header. Then repeat it in the guest pack.

Why is Fiji's golden hour so short?

Because of where it sits. The sun appears to travel at up to 15 degrees an hour, and at Fiji's latitude it drops almost perpendicular to the horizon rather than slicing across it at an angle. So it crosses the six degrees that define civil twilight at close to the maximum rate.

The theory predicts about 24 minutes of civil twilight at low latitudes. The observatory data for Nadi gives 22 to 24 minutes in every month of the year. Those agree, which makes this one of the few things about a Fiji wedding day you can plan with complete confidence.

For a photographer used to the 45 to 60 minutes available in the United Kingdom or southern Australia, this is a genuine adjustment. A ceremony that starts thirty minutes late in Fiji does not lose golden hour. It loses the light.

One caveat on the astronomy: these figures assume average atmospheric conditions. Wet-season afternoon cloud, November to April, can remove the twilight window altogether — which is why your wet-weather plan needs a trigger time, not just a backup room.

What transfer times will constrain the day?

This is the part that actually fails, and it is venue-specific.

IN the Yasawas: one boat a day

The Yasawa Flyer departs Port Denarau by 8.45am, with check-in 30 minutes prior, and returns to Denarau by about 6.00pm. That is one northbound and one southbound service, full stop.

At Vomo Island Fiji, that gives guests an arrival around 9.55am and a final departure around 4.35pm — a window of about six hours and forty minutes that closes before sunset in every month of the year. A sunset ceremony at Vomo is not possible for anyone who is not staying the night, which is precisely why Vomo publishes that all wedding guests must reside on the island. Further north, around the Blue Lagoon, the northbound arrival and southbound departure are the same service turning around, so a day trip is not possible at all.

Same-day arrival is also out. An 8.45am departure with 30-minute check-in means guests must already be in Nadi the night before.

IN the Mamanucas: three boats, but they leave early

The Mamanucas are far more forgiving. Malolo Island Resort and Tropica Island Resort both publish South Sea Cruises departures from Port Denarau at 9.30am, 12.15pm and 3.15pm.

But the returns are early. Tokoriki Island Resort publishes its catamaran leaving the island at 1.45pm; Matamanoa Island Resort at 1.15pm. Day-trip guests at a Mamanuca wedding are leaving in the early afternoon — again, before sunset.

The helicopter has a curfew

Worth knowing if you are planning a late departure for anyone. Tokoriki publishes its 15-minute helicopter transfer as available weather and daylight hours permitting. Daylight means civil twilight — so roughly 6.05pm in June and 7.15pm in January.

Read that against the sunset table and the conflict is obvious: in the dry season, a sunset ceremony and a helicopter departure are incompatible. Those are the very months most couples book for the weather. Speedboat charter is the only transfer that runs on demand around the clock.

The template

Build it in this order. Fill the anchors first, then hang everything else off them.

Working a June wedding ON Denarau Island: sunset 5.45pm, light gone 6.08pm, portraits done by 5.25pm, ceremony 4.25pm to 4.55pm, guests seated 4.05pm. A January wedding shifts the whole column about an hour later and nothing else changes.

Two rules that matter more than the grid. Put the wet-weather decision on the run sheet with a name against it — not a plan, a time and a person. And check your suppliers' transfers before you set the ceremony time, because a mainland photographer coming to an island is bound by the same one or three boats a day your guests are.

Next step

Look up the exact sunset for your date, write it at the top of the page, and build down from there. Golden hour in Fiji, month by month has the full-year detail, and the guest communication pack covers getting the transfer times in front of guests early enough to matter.

More in this cluster: Fiji Wedding Tools & Templates · The Fiji Wedding Planning Checklist · browse transport operators.