One month before the wedding: your week-by-week checklist

30 days out: confirm every vendor

Every vendor you’ve booked, from the caterer to the photographer to the venue, got a yes from you months ago. A signed contract doesn’t mean the fine details are settled: the arrival time, the exact address of the delivery entrance, and who to call on site can all shift between signing and the wedding.

The rule is simple: one message to each vendor, one written answer from each. Not a phone call you’ll half-remember, but something you can point to if there’s a dispute over timing the day before. Go through your vendor list one by one, ask each to confirm the date, the arrival time, and how they get in, and keep the replies in one place. While you’re at it, ask when each final balance is due. In the app’s budget, you can schedule each payment (deposit, installments, balance), so you can see at a glance what’s still owed.

This is also the moment to decide who you’ll tip. Many couples tip some vendors, and it’s easier to put cash in labeled envelopes ahead of time than to sort it out during the reception. Check each contract first, since some already include a gratuity or a service charge.

Get your marriage license

The template dates “Get your marriage license” to start about 30 days before the wedding and to be done about 20 days out. Treat those as a starting point, because the real window comes from your state.

The rules are set at the state level and handled locally, usually by the county clerk where you plan to marry (USA.gov points you to your state’s vital records office as a first stop). Ask five questions. Do both of you have to appear in person? What ID and documents should you bring? Is there a waiting period before you can marry? How long does the license stay valid? And who files the signed license after the ceremony, and by when?

That fourth question matters most this month. USA.gov notes that most marriage licenses expire within 30 days to a year, depending on the state. A license that expires before your wedding is useless, so if your state is at the short end of that range, plan your pickup date carefully. Some states also require witnesses to sign. Your clerk will tell you whether yours does, and how many.

Guests who haven’t replied

At 30 days out, some guests still haven’t answered. It’s rarely personal: an invitation gets opened one evening, closed, and never reopened. The cost lands on you, though. You can’t finalize the seating chart or give the caterer a final headcount until they decide.

One polite follow-up with a clear deadline is enough. “Could you let us know by [date]? We need a final count for the caterer” closes the door on open-ended waiting without sounding curt. The final headcount then goes to the caterer. It’s the number that locks everything else.

In the app, the follow-up doesn’t depend on your memory. Your dashboard flags the RSVPs still pending, and the template has a task for it a month out. The message itself comes from you, with the link to your wedding website. As soon as a guest replies there, the count updates on its own, with nothing to retype.

The seating chart and the place cards

The seating chart can only be finalized once the replies are in. Before that, every late change means rebuilding a whole table, so wait for the list to be stable before you seat the last guests.

Once replies are in, the order is: confirm the tables one last time, print the place cards, then keep a few spares. A cancellation three days out, a guest who adds a plus-one at the last minute: two or three blank place cards save you from reprinting everything the night before for a single change.

Everything printed for the tables (the seating chart, place cards, table numbers) goes to print once the chart is locked, not before. Print too early and you print twice; too late and you’re running errands the night before. The app’s Printables page builds them from your seating chart, on Letter or A4, with the guests’ names and table numbers already filled in.

Wedding week: briefing, forecast, emergency kit

Wedding week has its own rhythm: what’s left fits on one page, and each line gets checked off once. The final briefing goes to every vendor, with the exact schedule for the day and a name to call on site. If any part of the day is outdoors, a plan B for rain or heat has to be set and shared, not just worked out in your head.

Pack the emergency kit this week: safety pins, pain relievers, tissues, mints, a sewing kit, bandages, a phone charger, anything that saves you a last-minute run to the store. If you’re writing your own vows or toasts, finish them now. The wedding bands get picked up before the day, not on it, and this is also the week your final guest count goes to the caterer, by the date your contract sets.

The app can print every task scheduled from seven days before the wedding to the day after, grouped by person, so the whole weekend fits on a few sheets of paper.

The day before: set up, rehearse, stop

The day before is for three things, and no more. You set up what can be set up (decor, signs, anything delivered early). You rehearse the ceremony with the people involved, which in the US usually means your officiant and your wedding party. And you lay out your outfits, so there’s nothing to think about in the morning.

The rehearsal is often followed by a rehearsal dinner, typically with the wedding party and close family. The template’s wording is “rehearsal dinner or a quiet evening,” and a quiet evening counts. Whichever you pick, the day ends there. No last-minute vendor follow-up, no seating chart check at midnight: whatever could be locked was locked in the weeks before. A calm evening isn’t a luxury the night before a wedding. It’s what lets you show up rested.

On the wedding day, someone else runs it

Everything that needed deciding has already been decided. On the wedding day, your role changes: you’re not the one organizing anymore, you’re the one getting married. Every task still open should have a name next to it, and it shouldn’t be yours.

That’s what the Delegate section is for: who greets guests, who handles the music, who settles the balance with the caterer, who answers the photographer if the schedule slips. Each helper can get a printed sheet with their tasks, their times, and a number to call if something goes wrong. If you’re working with a day-of coordinator, they’re the natural person to take most of those questions. Either way, nobody should be turning to you on the wedding day to ask who’s handling what.