Day-of coordinator timeline template: one master, three versions

The short answer: one master timeline, three filtered versions

A day-of timeline works best as a single master document that you keep complete, from which you cut three shorter versions: one for vendors, one for the couple and their families, and one for the friends and relatives who help.

The reason is simple. If you write three timelines from scratch, they drift apart the first time the florist asks to arrive thirty minutes earlier. If you keep one master and derive the rest, a change is made once and then copied into each version that needs it.

The master is for you. It holds every row, including the ones nobody else needs to see, such as your own arrival, the last walk of the reception space, and the moment you eat. Everyone else gets only the rows that concern them, in the order they will need them.

The six columns of the master timeline

The master timeline needs six columns: time, event, location, lead, vendor, and notes. Each one answers a question someone will ask you on the day.

• Time. A start time in 12-hour format, with am or pm written out. Add an end time only where it matters, such as the venue's hard stop or a vendor's overtime line.
• Event. What happens, in a few words, written as an action: "Cocktail hour begins", not "cocktails".
• Location. The room or area, so a vendor who has never seen the venue knows where to stand. "Garden terrace" beats "outside".
• Lead. One person who is responsible for the row happening: you, a helper, the couple, or the vendor. One name per row.
• Vendor. The vendor whose work the row depends on, even if someone else leads it. This is the column you filter on later.
• Notes. The cue, the dependency, or the thing that goes wrong. "Starts when the last guest is seated" is a note. "Be nice" is not.

The lead column and the vendor column are different on purpose. A row such as "Cake delivered" has the venue manager as lead (who receives it) and the baker as vendor (whose delivery it is). When something is late, you know both who to call and who to send to the door.

In MyWedding Pro, the day-of timeline of each wedding holds times, key moments, and who does what, so the master can live in the same project as the guest list, the budget, and the vendor records. You decide the layout of what you print or share; the tool does not cut the master into audience versions for you.

Build backward from the ceremony time

Start with the ceremony time and subtract, working backward row by row, because the ceremony is the one moment that cannot slide.

For a 5 pm ceremony, work out the latest time guests must be seated (say 4:50 pm), then the time the doors open (4:15 pm), then the time the music starts (4:15 pm), then the time the helpers are in position (4:00 pm). Keep going back until you reach your own arrival. At each step, ask what has to be true for the next row to start on time.

• Portraits before the ceremony. If the couple wants to see each other first, put the first look and the couple portraits in the afternoon, and finish family groupings after the ceremony only if the light allows.
• A buffer at every handoff. Add ten to fifteen minutes between getting-ready finishing and the first photo, and between the last photo and the guests arriving. These buffers are what let the day run late without the ceremony running late.
• The meal as a pivot. Once you know when dinner is served, count back for the cocktail hour, the room flip if there is one, and the guests' travel between spaces.
• The venue's end time. Count forward from the last dance to the vendors' load-out and the venue's cleanup deadline, and write that deadline in the notes of the last row.

Then read the whole master from top to bottom as if you were the photographer, and again as if you were the caterer. If a row only works when something else happened twice as fast as normal, rework it.

Vendor arrival and load-out lines

Every vendor needs two lines in the master: an arrival line with a time and a load-in point, and a load-out line with a time and a condition.

The arrival line says when they reach the venue, where they enter, and who meets them. The load-out line says when they are free to leave, which is rarely the end of the party: the DJ packs after the last song, the florist's pickup may be the next morning, and rentals depend on the venue's access window.

• Give each vendor an arrival time that fits their setup length, not the same time as everyone else.
• Name the entrance. A caterer using the kitchen door and a band using the loading dock should never be guessing.
• Name the person who greets them, and put that person's cell number in the notes of the row.
• Write the load-out condition in the notes: "after the last dance", "after cake is cut", "next day, 10 am pickup".
• Mark any overtime line your contract or the vendor's contract has, so you know the cost of letting the party run.

In MyWedding Pro, each wedding has a vendor record with a status (contacted, quote received, confirmed, declined) and attached documents. When you cite a vendor's arrival time or contact in the master, you can check it against that record in the same project.

The couple and family version: fewer rows, no vendor logistics

The couple's version is the master with the vendor logistics removed: it keeps only the moments they are part of, with the time they need to be somewhere and who is with them.

Cut every row about load-in, deliveries, and sound check. Keep getting ready, the first look if there is one, portraits, the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, the key moments of the reception, and the send-off. Add a line for each time they need to eat or drink water, because on the day that is the line everyone forgets.

• Use larger type and keep it to one page, so it fits in a phone photo and in a bag.
• Keep your name and number at the top. They should call you, not a vendor.
• Add the parents' and wedding party's departure times if they come from a different place.
• Leave the notes column short: "Photographer with you" is enough.

In MyWedding Pro, the couple sees everything in their wedding, including the day-of timeline, and can complete it. They do not see your other weddings, your templates, or your subscription. If you want them to react to the order of the day before you print anything, that is a good place to do it.

The helpers' version: one mission, one time, one contact

A helper's version has three things per person: a mission, a time, and a person to call, and nothing else.

Helpers are the friends and relatives who hold a role: the aunt who greets at the guest book, the cousin who gathers the family for portraits, the friend who carries the gifts to the car. They are not there to read a timeline, and if you hand them one, they will keep the paper and miss the cue.

• Mission. One sentence, with a verb: "Stand at the entrance and hand out programs".
• Time. When to be in position and when the mission ends, not the schedule of the whole day.
• Contact. You, with your cell number, and one backup.
• Place. Where to stand, with a landmark that does not move.

MyWedding Pro has mission sheets for the relatives and friends who help on the wedding day. Use them, or keep the same four lines on a printed card.

When to send it, who signs off, and how to handle changes

Send the vendor version about a week before the wedding, once the couple has signed off on the master, and send the helpers' version after the rehearsal.

The couple signs off on the master first, because they are the ones who will see the schedule fail if a decision was theirs. Agree on one rule for changes: after sign-off, any change goes through you, and you update the master first and then the versions that are affected.

• One date on every version. Write "Version of (date)" at the top, so a vendor never works from an older copy.
• You send it yourself. MyWedding Pro does not send the timeline to vendors or guests. You share it by your usual channel, whether email, text, or a shared document.
• A change log at the bottom of the master. Note what changed, when, and who agreed. It saves an argument on the day.
• The day before. Re-read the master against the vendor records and flag every row that rests on a verbal agreement.

Whichever tool holds the master, keep the vendor contact list next to it. For the checklist of what to bring and check around the timeline, see the day-of coordinator checklist. If you run several weddings in a season, read about managing several weddings, and about a portal for your couples.