cheap wedding inspiration

The Wedding Day Timeline Tango

When is this going to get done?

So, my clients Ellen and Patrick (still really not their real names) are getting married in six weeks, which means that final payments, final guest counts, final meal selections, final, final lots of stuff are all due in the next two weeks. And right after all that, then it’s on to constructing the wedding day timeline. Which – don’t tell anybody – is one of my favorite parts of wedding planning. I’m a process person. My mom rolls her eyes and calls it a Virgo thing.

Yesterday, I met with John and Cindy (also not their real names) who want a day-of coordinator for their wedding in July. I told them that day-of coordination doesn’t start on your wedding day. In order to make sure that everything is in place and everyone is in the right place, you really do need to start out about three weeks in advance. Why? Good question. It shouldn’t come as surprise to any of you that getting a hold of your vendors can take time, and getting a hold of all them multiple times to cross-coordinate, is going to take even more time. Give yourself the three weeks.

John and Cindy are getting married in a church, and then having their reception at a hotel nearby. That’s two venues that need to be staged and then broken down. Your first call is ALWAYS to your venue(s), to find out how much set-up time you have before your wedding/reception. John and Cindy’s wedding starts at 3pm, but they can’t get into the church until noon.  Their reception starts at 5pm, and since there’s another event in the room earlier, they can’t get in there until 3pm. Problem.

The minimum amount of time you should have for set-up is 2-3 hours. But if you’re self-coordinating (and we’re just going to assume that you are) and you’re in a similar situation as John and Cindy’s, don’t panic. Your second question for your venue is to find out if it’s possible to store items there the night before your wedding, and if you can wait to pick things up the day after. Either will give you a little legroom time-wise. Confirm what specific times each has to happen. Your third question: Is there anything you need to alert your vendors to? Your venue(s) should know what issues come up regularly. Will there be enough electricity outlets for everyone?  Is your DJ going to need two speakers to cover the area? If you’re bringing in catering, is there a prep area for the food? How much manpower will be around to help your vendors, if necessary? Stuff like that. And have them walk you through the room layout again – Where will the DJ go? Where will the cake go? Gift table? Place card table? You get the point. Final question: Who should your vendors ask for when they arrive? Don’t assume it’s going to be the person you’ve been talking to all along. You can do all of this over the phone, of course, but if you can, have this conversation in person.

Beautiful, but time consuming.

Once you have all the information, you’re ready to talk to your vendors. All of your vendors. Don’t leave out the crew that’s doing your makeup, don’t leave out your photographer because you figure they’re just going to float along with you for the day, do not leave out the bakery. All of them. Confirm a general timeline if you’ve already established one with them. Tell them when your venue(s) will be available. Ask each of them if that will be enough time, and if not, what will they need in order to get the job done?  Then ask what else they will need when they arrive. They, too, will tell you what issues usually come up, that they can’t necessarily handle on their own, “Can you make sure…?”

Call your food folks first, then rentals, then your florist. These are the vendors that usually need the most time. At the end of each call, re-confirm what time they will be arriving. Then once you get through the first round of calls, you’re probably going to have to call back your venue(s) with any new questions or concerns that have come up. The Chivari chair company wants to pick up the next day, your videographer needs to charge his equipment, etc. Once again, re-confirm with the venue who is showing up when, and tell them that you will be emailing them a final timeline a week before the wedding.

Find out the need-to-knows in order to schedule your wedding events. How long will it take to serve your guests? Will your venue/caterer continue serving during toasts and dances? Ask your DJ how long the first dance, parents dances, garter tosses, etc., are going to take, so you can incorporate that into your timeline as well.

Think about the stuff you’re going to have to do yourself, or have friends and family do for you… the “little” things like arranging place cards, table numbers and favors.  These three things should take about 1 – 1.5 hours for two people to do, total, if you have 100 guests. Sounds long, but it takes a while to get a system down, things gets misplaced. Whatever details need doing, more people means less time to do them. Help your helpers out and alphabetize where you can.

Google Docs is great for keeping track. I used to email different versions around to everyone, but now I just put it online, save it as I build it, and then send an email inviting others to look at it, and comment or edit as needed. Google also has wedding specific templates, too (and they’re free) so use them. Put everything you can in your timeline. Put the link to the google doc for the timeline at the top of the page. Put the name and phone number of the main contact person, whether it’s you (hopefully not) or a friend or family member, right under it. Put the contact name and phone number of each vendor, including your venue(s) next to their arrival/open time.

Once you feel it’s all finalized, let all your vendors know and ask them to review it. Do not be surprised if one of them points out something that means you’re going to have to make more changes. I’m just warning you.

Print out and bring copies for everyone who is going to be at the rehearsal. At the end of the rehearsal, briefly go over it, so that everyone knows where they need to be and when, and how the day is going to flow. That way no one can say that they didn’t know what was going on. It’s a lot of paper, I know. Encourage everyone to recycle. 

Yes. Now you know why they pay me the big bucks. But you also now know how it works. Any questions?

See you at the end of the aisle,