Wedding planning timelines! I pride myself on how accurately I can create a wedding day timeline. I think that’s because of how my brain works. I like things to be organized and in order. A timeline is the quintessence of order! Unfortunately, though, there are many steps that go into a building a wedding day timeline.
Wedding Planning Timeline
It’s important that you give your input first regarding the timeline—before another vendor changes the flow you had in mind. Once you get the hang of creating a timeline, it should only take about 20 minutes. Creating an accurate timeline is an extremely important but also tedious task. Only practice will make you more proficient at creating them.
#1 Create a Tentative Timeline
As the wedding approaches, your timeline will most likely change about a zillion times. However, we like to give our clients a tentative timeline as soon as they book with us. A tentative timeline will help your clients as they begin to talk with vendors.
#2 Confirming Vendors
Communicating with your vendors before the wedding will help with any unplanned incidents on the day of the wedding. My mindset is that at every wedding I’m working with a team: a team of vendors. The goal is to work together so that the bride is unaware of any problems that may occur. You will want to start confirming with your bride’s selected vendors at least 7–10 days before the wedding. It is important to relay this to the vendors you’ll soon be working with. You can create your own list of questions or you can use the Confirming Vendors Checklist inside the Wedding Management Planner Kit. As you talk to each of the vendors, make note of the time they will be arriving on the wedding day.
#3 Create Master Timeline
To build the master timeline, you will use the tentative timeline you created when you first booked the client and the vendors’ times of arrival. List all events in chronological order. It would be extremely hard to read if it were organized in any other way. You should also fill in all of the descriptions that apply—for example, first dance song, bridal entry order, and who’s doing the blessing.
#4 Email the Master Timeline
Once you have created a timeline you feel comfortable executing, you will need to send out the Master Timeline to your vendors. When you are ready to send it, use our email template found inside the Wedding Management Planner Kit as a guide. You will want to do this about four days before the wedding. Be sure to send the timeline out to all vendors. You will want to include the floor plan and any other necessary information in this email as well. For example, the wedding party’s room number or the vendors’ parking situation.
Last Words on Wedding Planning Timeline
When it comes to creating a wedding day timeline, I personally use HoneyBook. However, if you aren’t in a position to invest in a CRM system quite yet, a good ol’ Word doc will work just fine. I used Word for years before I switched over to HoneyBook.
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