Start from the fixed points
The ceremony start is usually the anchor. Add anything else that cannot move: venue access times, sunset if photos depend on it, travel between locations, and when the venue needs everyone out.
Work backwards for the morning
From the ceremony, count back through getting dressed, hair and make-up, photos and travel. Ask your hair and make-up artist how long each person takes, and add time on top; mornings almost always run late.
Work forwards for the rest of the day
After the ceremony come photos, drinks, the meal, speeches, the first dance and the evening. Give each a realistic length, and place speeches where the caterer needs them. Ask your venue how long their meal service usually takes.
Add buffers
Put ten to fifteen minutes of slack around anything involving travel or large groups, such as moving guests for photos. Buffers are what stop one delay from pushing the whole evening back.
Give every vendor their own times
Each vendor needs to know when to arrive, when they must be ready and when they can leave. Check those against the venue's access times, and make sure two vendors do not need the same space at the same moment.
Share one run sheet
Send the final timeline to vendors, the venue and the people helping on the day, with names and phone numbers. Give one trusted person, not either of you, the job of keeping the day on time, so you can enjoy it.
A sample afternoon ceremony
Example only, for a 2 pm ceremony: hair and make-up from 8:30, dressed by 12:45, leave for the venue at 1:15, ceremony 2:00 to 2:30, drinks and photos 2:30 to 4:30, call to dinner 4:30, speeches 6:00, first dance 7:30, evening guests 7:30, finish when the venue requires. Your venue, travel and vendors set the real times.
Plan for weather and delays
If any part of the day is outdoors, agree a wet-weather plan with the venue and photographer in advance, and note it on the timeline. Decide who makes the call on the day, and by what time.
A timeline that moves when one time changes. The Wedding Day Timeline and Vendor Run Sheet counts every event from the ceremony start, so changing one time moves the whole day. It flags overlaps, gives each vendor arrival, ready-by and leaving times, and prints a run sheet to share. The free Wedding Day Timeline has the clock times and overlap checks.
View in the StoreFrom the Stelaah Store
- ✓Wedding Day Timeline and Vendor Run Sheet. An Excel and Google Sheets wedding day timeline that retimes the whole day from the ceremony start, with vendor arrival times and a printable run sheet.
- ✓Wedding Planning Spreadsheet. An Excel and Google Sheets wedding planning spreadsheet with a budget, payments, guests and RSVPs, a seating plan, vendors and a countdown checklist.
- ✓Wedding Planner. A free, undated 12-page fillable PDF wedding planner with a budget, guest list and RSVPs, vendor tracker, timeline and day-of schedule.
We build Stelaah and the Stelaah Store. These guides cover the everyday problems our planners, kits and tools are made for, in plain steps you can use with or without them.