Day-of timeline

The Actual Schedule

Two times and two lengths. That is the whole evening. It lays out the rest, every row moves when you tell it to, and you print one page so every vendor is working off the same clock.

Almost every couple builds this the wrong way round. They start at the top with "hair at nine" and work down, and by lunchtime the whole thing has drifted forty minutes and nobody knows it yet. The ceremony start is the one time on the entire day that cannot move, so that is the one you put down first and build out from.

Everything here is a starting point, not a verdict. Change a length and everything after it moves. Nudge a single row and everything after that moves with it.

The songs are not in here, the timing is. This page says the first dance happens at 6:40 so the kitchen and the photographer know. Which song plays lives on your Music Run Sheet over in The Whole Damn Day, and that is the page you hand to whoever runs the sound. Two pages, two jobs.

Step one: your blocks

The one time that cannot move.
The reception opens the moment this ends.
3 hrs is 180 min • 3.5 is 210 • 4 is 240 • 4.5 is 270 • 5 is 300

Lays out the rows below. It replaces what is there, so if you have already edited rows you will be asked first.

Why this starts an hour before the ceremony and not at breakfast

Because nobody can hand you your morning. It depends on how many people are in hair and makeup, whether you are getting ready at the venue or forty minutes away, and whether you are doing a first look. Vendors are just as spread out. Some walk in ninety minutes before the ceremony and some are there at seven in the morning. Any template that claims to know all that is guessing, and a wrong time on a printed schedule is worse than no time at all.

So build the front of your day yourself with Add a row at the top, and put your vendor arrivals in as you confirm them. Three things that will keep it honest:

Hair and makeup runs long. Always. Take the artist's per-person estimate, multiply by how many people, then add one more full slot on the end. That extra slot is the one you will use.

Double your travel time, then add fifteen minutes. The fifteen is for the part where nobody can find the bouquet, the rings, or one groomsman.

Count backward, not forward. Start from the first row below and work back toward breakfast. If you build down from when you wake up, every delay lands on the ceremony.

Step two: make it your day

Type over anything. The small − and + buttons beside each time push that row and everything after it five minutes earlier or later, which is how you fix a day that is already running behind. They change times, they do not move rows around. The × on the right removes a row.

Your morning goes up here: hair and makeup, photos, when each vendor arrives.
TimeWhat's happeningWho needs to be there
Rows you add by hand stay where you put them. Press this and everything lines up by the clock, so the page you print runs in order.

Looking for which song plays for the first dance? That is a music cue and it lives on your run sheet. Build it in The Whole Damn Day and hand that page to whoever runs the sound.

Step three: the page you hand out

This builds itself from everything above. Print it, and give a copy to every vendor and to whoever is keeping the day on track.

Prints just the schedule, nothing else.