The Wedding Day Run of Show Template

The header block every vendor reads first

• Write both venue addresses at the topCeremony and reception, in full, with the loading entrance address if it differs from the guest entrance. A driver following a pin to a guest gate at seven in the morning loses twenty minutes finding the service road.
• Name the single person who owns the weather callOne name and one number, plus the cutoff time the call gets made. Ambiguity here is how a tent hold deadline passes with three people assuming somebody else decided.
• List the on site contact line for every vendorThe cell of the person who will actually be on the property, not the studio office. Test one or two of them during the confirmation calls at two weeks out.
• State the load in door, gate code, and parking ruleWhere trucks unload, which code opens the gate, where vans park after unloading, and the time the lot has to be clear for guests. Venues enforce this and vendors rarely ask twice.
• Put the vendor meal time and location on the pageWhen staff eat, where they eat, and how many meals are ordered. A photographer who does not know eats during the toasts, which is the one block they cannot miss.
• Add the guest count and the doors open timeThe final count as confirmed with the caterer, plus the minute guests are released into the reception space. Both numbers get referenced by half the vendors on the page.

Getting ready through the recessional

• Set hair and makeup to finish before the first photoWork backward from the first photograph, not forward from an arrival. Build in forty five minutes between the last touch up and any getting dressed coverage, and name who is last in the chair.
• Give every vendor a call time, not an arrival windowA single minute, per vendor, with what they do first when they get there. Windows get read as the late end, and a two hour window turns into a florist arriving after the photographer wanted the room.
• Schedule the first look with the drive already countedInclude travel to the location and back, plus the walk from the suite to the vehicle. If there is no first look, mark it clearly so nobody plans wedding party portraits before the ceremony.
• Name every family grouping on the photo listWrite them out by name rather than as a count, and place a family member in charge of gathering people. Twelve named groupings at four minutes each is close to an hour, and that hour has to exist on the page.
• Write the ceremony start you will actually startNot the invitation time. Add the buffer this venue historically needs for guest seating, and tell the officiant and the musicians the real number so the processional cue lands correctly.
• Assign who holds rings, license, and vowsOne person per item, named on the page, with where the item is between now and the ceremony. This is the shortest line in the document and the one that prevents the worst ten minutes of the day.

Cocktail hour and the room flip

• Write the flip as tasks with owners, not one lineChairs, tables, linens, centerpieces, place cards, sound. Each with a crew name and a target minute. A flip written as one forty five minute block is a flip nobody is running.
• Give the band or DJ a room ready timeThe minute the room is set and sound check can happen, which is earlier than the reception start. Confirm whether their setup happens before the ceremony or during the flip, because the two plans are different days.
• Protect the sunset portrait window in writingBlock the minutes on the schedule with the couple named as unavailable, and tell the photographer the exact time they collect them from cocktail hour. Unblocked, this window disappears into a receiving line.
• Set the check that the doors can openSomeone walks the room fifteen minutes before doors: place cards down, candles lit, bars stocked, sound tested. Name that person on the page and give them authority to hold doors.
• Time the guest move so the bar is never emptySay when the cocktail bar closes relative to the reception bar opening, and give the guests a five minute overlap. A hard cut leaves two hundred people standing in a hallway.

Reception through load out

• Order the formalities and give each a real durationEntrance, first dance, welcome, dinner service, toasts, parent dances, cake. Toasts run longer than anyone promises, so budget by the number of speakers rather than a flat block.
• Write the exact cue line for every momentWhat the DJ or band hears or sees right before each event, and who gives it. A cue written as after dinner is not a cue and puts a first dance in front of half a room still eating.
• Set last call, last song, and the hard stopAll three, with the venue contract time next to them. Work backward from the hard stop so the exit is not compressed into the final six minutes.
• Plan the exit and name who lights itSparklers, glow sticks, or a simple send off: who distributes, who lights, where guests stand, and whether the venue permits it at all. Confirm the permission before it reaches the page.
• Put load out windows and the venue clear time on the pagePer vendor, with what has to leave that night versus what can be picked up the next morning. Overtime charges almost always trace back to a rental pickup nobody scheduled.
• Assign personal items to a named personGifts, cards, the cake topper, the guest book, leftover florals, and the couple bag. Name who takes each one and where it goes, and get that person to confirm before the last dance.