A wedding day itinerary is essential for having a successful wedding day. An itinerary can be as simple or complicated as you would like it to be, but a schedule of events for the entire day is necessary for keeping everyone informed and on task.
Focus on these five things:
1. Phone List of Key People
This includes anyone you may need to contact throughout the day of your wedding: personal attendant and/or wedding day coordinator, bridal party members, parents, siblings and all vendors. Make a copy of this list for a few different people. We recommend giving it to the bride, the groom, the personal attendant and the mother of the bride and/or groom.
2. Tasks and Times by person and/or vendor.
You may want to create an itinerary per person and/or vendor. These will be mini itineraries focused on each person’s assigned tasks for the day. This is a nice way to inform people of what time to perform their duties without overwhelming them with a comprehensive list for the entire day.
3. Pre-Ceremony Timeline
There are plenty of tasks to complete before the wedding ceremony even begins. Make sure everyone knows the timeline for pre-ceremony hair appointments, places to change, arrival times, picture times and so on. This timeline covers everything up until the start of the actual ceremony.
4. Ceremony Timeline
The ceremony timeline covers logistics of the actual ceremony as well as post-ceremony pictures and departure times for heading to the reception.
5. Reception Timeline
The reception timeline includes arrivals and set-up of each vendor, arrival of guests and arrival of bridal party. It also includes each portion of the evening, such as when cocktail hour begins, when guests will be seated, when the bridal party enters, welcome toast, food served, other toasts, cake cutting and so on all the way through the end of the dance.
You’re probably wanting a few examples, so here’s a few templates and examples I’ve found helpful in the past.
Examples
• Budget Brides Guide has a nice article plus examples.
• PrincessWeddings.com has a nice example, too.
Templates
• Google Docs has a basic template that’s easy to follow.
• Russell + Hazel has a simple template available to download as well.
Wondering what tasks are involved in each person’s wedding role? Read our blog post, “A Quick Guide to Wedding Party Roles.”
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