In Weddings

You’ll spend your wedding planning process taking charge and making decisions. So when it comes time to hand over the reins on the day, how do you ensure it’s all going to go as smoothly as you’d hoped? The answer is easy: with a wedding run sheet.

Your wedding run sheet is your little piece of security that will give you peace of mind knowing everyone involved in your wedding day knows exactly where to be and when to be there.

A wedding run sheet is a simple timeline of the day’s events that you can hand to each of your suppliers and coordinators. While it’s easy to create, there are a few important things to remember when writing up your wedding run sheet.

Here are our top five tips for making it fail-proof.

Top tips for creating a fail proof wedding run sheet

Be generous with time

Your wedding run sheet is a guide, it’s not a way to micro-manage each and every one of your suppliers. As we can never be sure of what may happen on the day, it’s best to allow some ‘buffer’ time on your run sheet, rather than calculating each of the day’s events down to the minute.

Allowing a little extra time for each stage of your wedding means that no one needs to panic or rush. It’ll be very hard to enjoy yourself if you notice your suppliers running around like headless chooks trying to meet your 3:47 pm deadline.

Be generous and be realistic. In order to give adequate time to everyone involved in coordinating your wedding, have a quick chat with them first to gauge how long they think their responsibility will take.

Be as detailed as possible

Ensure you have included every supplier and co-ordinator and that your timings make sense. Your wedding run sheet should be more than just a list of what and when, it should be a well-planned document that will detail who, what, when, where (and how, if it’s relevant!)

Make sure that, after all those months of planning, you don’t leave anything off your run sheet. This sometimes means a small explanation of what the task is. No one will want to bother you on the day so make sure there is enough detail so they can get on with the job without having to check in with you.

Know when to begin your wedding run sheet timeline

The timeline on your wedding run sheet begins the moment the first person starts to set up. It’s from this point on that you begin your wedding run sheet.

It doesn’t matter if there’s a whole day between the first and second task. Every responsibility involved in creating your wedding day should be on that sheet.

It’s the pre and post-ceremony tasks that are extremely important. The setup, the catering and the speeches all happen in these segments and these are the events that need the most co-ordination. Put a little extra focus into these areas on your wedding run sheet so they’re given the right amount of time on the day.

Make it easy to understand

A spreadsheet view is often easier to understand than a list view. Jotting down a few times on some refill 20 minutes before your ceremony begins is not an adequate run sheet. In fact, type it out to avoid any confusion around handwriting.

Ultimately, you want your suppliers and coordinators to be able to fly solo without having to disturb you during your big day.

Creating columns is a great way to include all elements of each responsibility. This is where you can outline who, what, when and where and still include a small explanation. Colour coding is also a great way to get your suppliers and co-ordinators to clearly see what responsibility applies to each of them.

Go over your wedding run sheet several times to ensure you haven’t left anyone out. Create several drafts and have others look over it.

Once your run sheet is complete, it should all come together like a puzzle. Be sure to detect any missing pieces before creating your final copy. There’s no going back once it’s been distributed!

Top tips for creating a fail proof wedding run sheet

Having been involved behind the scenes in hundreds of weddings, we know how valuable an accurate wedding run sheet is. In fact, we ask that our couples give a copy to our team so we know exactly how you’d like your day to go.

Ultimately, your timeline of wedding events is up to you but we’d be happy to give you guidance on how to make your wedding run as smoothly as possible.

The team at Markovina Vineyard Estate know how important your wedding day is to you which is why we provide support throughout the planning process. If you want to check out our venue, arrange a time to pop up and see us. We’d love to be part of your unique wedding day. Call us today.

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