Hi Mia,
First, there are lots of different kinds of IVF cycles, so the exact 'protocol' that you will follow depends on yoru situation and what your doctor decides will be best.

In general terms, you take medication to develop mulitple folicles (from which eggs are released - normally you'd only develop one each natural cycle). Your progress is tracked with ultrasounds and blood tests. When a sufficient number of follicles are ready (meaning there's a mature egg almost ready to be released) you take a differnet medication which triggers ovulation a certain number of hours later (this would be around about 2 weeks into your cycle, but it differs for everyone). Your pickup is scheduled for 36 hours after the trigger (think?), so the doctor can collect the eggs before they're released.

The pickup is usually done under sedation - I was always asleep. Your DH has to wait outside for this procedure.
The eggs are then mixed with sperm and left to fertilise. Fertilised embryos are allowed to develop for 3 or 5 days (usually). Again, it depends on the number of embryos you have, and your lab's usual procedure, etc.

On day 3 or 5 (after the egg pickup day) you would go in again to have an embryo transferred - it's done via a catheter through the cervix. There's no sedation. It can be a bit uncomfortable but is a pretty quick procedure and your DH can be there with you.
Leftover embroys can be frozen and used in subsequent cycles - you don't have to go through the pickup again for those ones obviously.

Hope that's helpful.