Wedding planner welcome packet: what to include, section by section

What a welcome packet is, and when to send it

A welcome packet is a short document that tells a newly booked couple how working with you will go, and you send it the same week they book.

It is not the contract and it is not the invoice. Both stay in your own tools, signed and settled before the packet goes out. The packet comes after, which is why its tone can be warm and practical: nobody is being asked to commit to anything. Repeating your fees in it only invites a second negotiation, so leave the numbers where the contract already states them.

Think of the first two weeks of a booking. The couple is excited, a little anxious, and has no idea what you will ask of them. If the packet arrives within a few days, their first questions get answered before they type them. If it arrives a month later, you will have answered the same ten questions by text.

Keep it to a few pages. A couple will read four pages and skim twenty, and the details that change often, such as exact meeting dates, belong in a message that you can update.

The eight sections, in the order a couple needs them

Start with a welcome note and finish with a FAQ, with six sections in between that move from how you work to what the couple does next.

1. Welcome note. Two or three sentences in your own voice, naming the couple and the date. It sets the tone and nothing else.
2. Your process by phase. Three to five phases, such as discovery, vendor selection, design details, final logistics and the wedding week. One line each on what happens and what you deliver.
3. Timeline of meetings. The recurring touchpoints: kickoff, a check-in rhythm, the final walk-through, the rehearsal. Give the rhythm, not the dates, unless they are already booked.
4. Communication rules. Channel, hours, response time and who to contact on the day. This is the section that prevents the most friction, so it gets its own part of this page below.
5. What you need from them first. The short list of actions for week one, covered in its own section below.
6. How you approach vendors. Whether you recommend a shortlist, review their contracts, or work with vendors they already chose. One honest paragraph is enough.
7. What to expect on the day. Where you will be, who the point of contact is, and what you will handle so they do not have to think about it.
8. FAQ. Five to eight answers to the questions every couple asks: what if we change the date, who talks to the caterer, what if a vendor is late.

The table at the end of this page puts the same eight sections next to the question each one answers, what to write and when the couple needs it. Copy it into your own document and replace the middle column with your wording.

Communication rules: channel, hours, response time and the day-of contact

State one main channel, your working hours and your usual response time, so the couple never wonders whether their message was seen.

Be specific and honest. “I reply to messages within one business day” is a promise you can keep. “Always available” is not. If you answer texts on weekends only for urgent matters, say what counts as urgent. If you want decisions in writing, say so, and say where.

• Channel. One main way to reach you, and what the backup is for. Couples who send the same question by text, email and direct message create three threads to reconcile.
• Hours. The days and hours you answer, and what happens outside them.
• Response time. A realistic window, and what to do if a matter cannot wait for it.
• Who speaks for whom. Whether you contact vendors on their behalf, and whether they should avoid contacting vendors directly about changes.
• Day-of contact. The person who answers on the wedding day. If it is you, say so. If it is a coordinator on your team, give a name and a number, and introduce them before the wedding week.

The day-of contact deserves care. A couple who is told “call me on the day” will, and you will be busy. For what that person actually does through the day, the day-of coordinator checklist is a good reference to link in your own FAQ.

The couple’s first week: three to five actions the packet asks for

End the packet with a short numbered list of what the couple does in their first week, because a packet that explains everything and asks for nothing leaves the next step to chance.

Keep it to three to five actions. More than that and none of them gets done. These are the ones that tend to unlock the rest of the planning:

1. Answer your intake questions, if you use a questionnaire. The client questionnaire guide gives about thirty questions and says where each answer goes.
2. Sign in to their planning space once you have invited them, and look around.
3. Add the guests they already have in mind, or send you the spreadsheet they keep.
4. List the vendors they have already booked, with whatever they know: name, what was agreed, any deposit paid.
5. Pick a time for the kickoff meeting.

Tell them plainly that incomplete is fine. A half-filled guest list on day three is more useful than a perfect one on day thirty, because you can see the shape of the wedding and correct course early.

Giving them their planning space: the invitation, what they see and what they never see

In MyWedding Pro you invite the couple from the card of their wedding, and the invitation email carries your agency’s name, so it reads as coming from you.

Send that invitation the same day as the packet and mention it in the first-week list. Once the couple is in, they see the whole project of their wedding: guests and replies, budget, seating chart, timeline and vendors, and they can complete it. They do not see your other weddings, your templates or your subscription, and they never see a price or an offer from MyWedding in their space. On the list of your weddings, each card shows whether the couple is connected or the invitation is still pending, with a button to resend it.

Two details are worth writing into the packet. First, tell the couple that everything in the project is visible to both of you. There is no hidden area for private notes or margins, so keep those in your own notes. Second, if the couple keeps their guest list in a spreadsheet (Excel .xlsx or CSV), it can be imported into the wedding’s project: the columns are recognized, households are formed and you check everything before saving. Importing the same file again does not create duplicates.

The packet itself stays yours: you write it, you send it by whatever means you already use, and your contract and invoice stay in your own tools. For how the shared space works across all your clients, see a client portal for your couples.

The vendor and day-of sections: set expectations, not a schedule

Your vendor section should say how you work with vendors, and your day-of section should say who is where, without promising a minute-by-minute plan this early.

For vendors, pick one of three honest positions: you recommend a shortlist and the couple chooses, you source quotes against their priorities, or you manage vendors they have already hired. Say which, and say what you do when a vendor they love is not on your list. Add a sentence on how vendor statuses will be tracked, from contacted to quote received to confirmed, so the couple knows where each one stands. A vendor contact list template shows the columns you will want by the wedding week.

For the day itself, describe your role in a few lines: you arrive before the vendors, you hold the timeline, you handle problems so the couple does not see them. Promise the shape of the day, and send the detailed running order closer to the date.

Common mistakes: too long, prices repeated, sent too early

The most common mistake is a packet so long that the couple skims it and then asks you everything anyway.

• Too long. Aim for pages that can be read on a phone between meetings. Move reference material to your FAQ or to a message you can update.
• Prices repeated. Fees, payment dates and cancellation terms belong in the contract. Quoting them again creates two versions of the truth.
• Sent before the contract. If anything in the packet is not yet binding, the couple may read it as a promise or a pitch. Send it after signature.
• All brochure, no action. Photos of past weddings do not tell a couple what to do on Monday. Put the first-week list near the end, where it will be remembered.
• Promises you cannot keep. A response time you miss in week two erodes trust faster than a longer, honest one.
• One packet for every client. Keep a master version, then change the welcome note, the dates and the day-of contact for each couple.

If you run several weddings in the same season, the master version saves the most time. Keep it as a document you copy for each new booking, and see managing several weddings at once for how to keep each couple’s project apart.

Before you send: a six-point check

Run through these six points before the packet leaves your hands, because most errors in a welcome packet are a wrong date or a missing phone number.

• The wedding date, venue names and meeting rhythm match the signed contract.
• Your contact details and the day-of contact are correct and reachable.
• The first-week actions are listed, with three to five items at most.
• No fees, payment dates or cancellation terms are repeated in the packet.
• The planning-space invitation has been sent from the couple’s wedding card.
• You have read the packet once on a phone screen.