How to Avoid Chaos: The Essential Wedding Day Itinerary

Wedding day itineraries are just fluffy things that event planners pretend are important, right? Wrong! If you don’t have your itinerary written out the day of your wedding, it’s going to make the entire process a lot more difficult and complicated to manage - so why not make it easy on yourself and plan out your wedding day itinerary from when you wake up, to when you go to bed?

I’m serious when I say that you need to plan exactly what’s happening on your wedding day, down to the minute, so that you can easily share it with anyone that may be helping you on the day. Not only that, but when you’re sitting there getting your hair done, or trying to tie your tie, you’ll know exactly what’s coming next so you won’t feel any unnecessary stress or anxiety. Win-win, right?

Let’s get into why you should have a super detailed wedding itinerary!

• It will be easier for other people to help you.
• If something needs to shift in the schedule it will be easy to see what else will be affected so you can make quick decisions
• Your wedding day itinerary may shift as you get closer to the day, that’s normal

Full blog post here: https://joyfactorweddings.com/creating-a-perfect-wedding-itinerary/

00:01 Intro
01:06 Why you should have a wedding itinerary
03:19 What goes on a wedding itinerary
04:24 How to create a wedding itinerary
07:45 Wrap up

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If you found this episode useful I’d be so grateful if you followed and shared this episode with a friend, or your fiance! If you have questions about staying present and I’d be happy to share what I know to help, drop me an email at [e-mail]! I’ll be back next Thursday with another wedding planning episode, so until then keep it joyful!

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Follow me on Facebook @joyfactorweddings
Watch full videos on YouTube @joyfactorweddings

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
You're listening to Joyful Wedding Planning your
spot for de-stressing andrelaxing while you plan your
wedding, you might be thinkingis that even possible?
Well, heck yeah, it is.
I'm your host, emily DeCluv,founder of the Joy Factor
Weddings and Events, and I'mhere to help you plan the
wedding of your dreams joyfully,whether you're a DIYer or a

(00:24):
delegator, this podcast willhelp you find the Joy Factor as
you plan your wedding.
Wedding day itineraries arejust fluffy things that wedding
planners pretend are importantright Wrong.

(00:45):
If you don't have youritinerary written out on the day
of your wedding, it's going tomake the whole process a lot
more difficult and complicatedto manage.
So why not make it easy onyourself and plan out your
wedding itinerary for the entireday, from when you wake up to
when you go to bed?
Hi, I'm Emily DeCluv, founderof the Joy Factor, a wedding and
events planning company basedin Toronto serving couples

(01:07):
globally.
Today, we are talking aboutyour wedding itinerary.
I love this part the logistics,the planning, the looking at
everything on a piece of paperand being like, yes, this is
when this is happening.
This is when this is happeningand I get so excited.
By the way, I release newvideos every Thursday.
So make sure you subscribe orfollow if you're listening to

(01:28):
this on the podcast or watchingthe video on YouTube yeah, it's
available in both places andring the bell to get
notifications, or sign up frommy email list, because I will
notify you there too.
All the different ways.
Whatever way works for you,baby, okay, but for real, I'm
serious about planning everysingle thing on your wedding
date, like down to the minute,because you need to be able to

(01:49):
share it with people so thatthey're not badgering you and
asking you a bazillion questions.
Also, it's just going to makeeverything flow a lot easier and
you're not going to be sittingthere trying to tie up your tie
and be like, well, what time doI have to be there?
What time are we going to dothat?
You'll just know.
There will be no guessing.
You'll just have this piece ofpaper available to you.
Hopefully, your weddingcoordinator on the day will be

(02:11):
available to tell you all ofthis stuff as well.
Knowing what's coming is a hugepart of reducing stress and
anxiety on your wedding day, soit's a win-win right.
As an event planner with over adecade of experience, I have
come to love day of run sheets.
That's just fancy eventplanners speak for itineraries.

(02:32):
You know, it didn't really takea lot of convincing for me to
fall in love with them, becauseI just I find it so comforting
to know what's happening andlike to cross things off the
list and be like, yep, that'sdone, we figured it out.
It's also really helpful toknow, like, if something has to
shift at some point during theday, that you know what else has

(02:55):
to, what else is going to beaffected, and it's a lot easier
to be like okay, we have to movethe ceremony up 15 minutes
because if we don't, then we'regoing to end up losing the car
rental or something like that.
It's just really easy to seeeverything at a bird's eye view
and know what kind ofcontingencies you need to make,

(03:16):
just in case.
They're also really good tohand out to people who are going
to be helping you out yourwedding.
So that could be your onsitecoordinator, that could be your
bridal party, that could be yourDJ, your bartender, it could be
anybody that just needs to knowwhat's happening on a minute to
minute basis.
Like I said, it's a win-winbecause people won't be asking

(03:38):
you a thousand questions on theday Like, well, what time are we
serving this and what time isthat coming up?
They could just look at theitinerary and they'll know
without having to bother you.
On your itinerary you're goingto list out things like where
certain people need to be atspecific times, like the couple
should be ready at the doorwaiting to walk in for the grand

(03:58):
entrance.
At 7pm, for example, or at 6pmthe photographer arrives and the
best man knows at that point tohand over a set of stationery
that the photographer can thenphotograph, photograph,
photograph.
Hmm, I know words.
Okay, let's get into why it'ssuper important to have a

(04:18):
super-duper detailed itineraryfor your wedding.
Number one it will make it somuch easier for other people to
help you.
Number two, if something needsto shift in the schedule, it
will be easy to see.
And number three, your weddingday itinerary may shift the
closer that you get to yourwedding, because maybe you have
a really cool idea and you wantto incorporate it, or your mom's

(04:41):
, like let's do many petties inthe morning, or if you have
something that shifts anyway.
It just makes it a lot easierto see how you will make
adjustments when it's all laidout on a big piece of paper for
you.
Okay, now that you know whyit's so important to have a
wedding itinerary, I'm going toshow you how I go about creating
mine so it's easier for you andit's more joyful and fun.

(05:02):
The first thing you're going todo is create a document.
I like to do this digitallybecause, again, the itinerary
will shift and it just makes ita lot easier to share it with
people if it's digitally,getting feedback back and forth
with your wedding coordinator,with your venue coordinator, any
vendors that you might need toshare it with in advance.

(05:23):
You're going to do three columns.
The first column is time, thesecond column is activity and
the third column is notes.
It's very easy and verystraightforward.
So time is exactly what itsounds like.
It's just what time a thing isgoing to happen.
Activity is the specific thingthat is happening, and then

(05:43):
notes is anyone who isresponsible for the thing, maybe
any specific items that need tobe available for that activity
to happen.
So for column two, the activitycould be traveling to the venue
, it could be picking up thephotographer, it could be
getting your hair done.
For column three, it could bedriver arrives, it could be
order Uber, it could be anythingthat supports the activity that

(06:06):
you are doing For your timecolumn.
It's totally okay to get verygranular with this stuff.
Like, maybe at 8.35 am you'retaking a shower, at 8.45 you're
brushing your hair.
If you need to get thatgranular, you can do that.
You could also just have aseparate timeline just for you
on the day, because you may notwant to share with all of your

(06:29):
vendors what time you had ashower earlier that day.
Feel free to get super granularwith the times.
Like at 8.35 pm, get out thecake knife and server so that at
8.45 pm you are all set foreverything you need to cut the
cake.
Now comes the fun part, addingall of the different activities
in.
It could be really tedious andstressful to start right from

(06:50):
the beginning of the day and endat the end of the day.
So what I like to do is put inthe big main things first.
So you know you're going tohave a ceremony, so put that in
at the time it's happening andaround that you can plan, arrive
to venue and then backwardsbook Uber to get me to the venue
and then before that make sureall hair and makeup is done.

(07:12):
Everything is packed up.
You can add in all of thelittle tiny details around the
big specific things.
You know you're leaving at acertain time from the venue so
you can say you can work backfrom there and make sure the
chairs are all packed up andstacked and ready to go 20
minutes before that happens ordifferent things like that.

(07:32):
It's easier if you look at itfrom like a big bird's eye view,
from the big staple items thatyou're going to for sure have at
the wedding and then add in thesmaller details and again
things may shift so you mightdecide that you want a later
ceremony and that might meanmoving some other things around.
But knowing that you have itall laid out for you is just

(07:56):
going to make it that mucheasier.
The day before your wedding, ormaybe even on the day of your
wedding, print out 10 copies.
You might need some more.
Make sure that all of yourvendors have one available.
I even went as far ashighlighting all of the
different things for eachspecific vendor that I had so
that they would know where andwhen they were needed at a very

(08:16):
quick glance, and then they alsoget to see all of the other fun
things that I have added in.
So that was a nice short andsweet episode.
And all that to say.
It is so important to have aday of run sheet or itinerary
for your wedding day because itwill just make it go so much
more smoothly and it will takeso much pressure and stress off

(08:38):
of you.
If you liked this video, pleasesubscribe.
It would mean so much to me.
And if you're following alongon the podcast, make sure you
hit the follow button so you getnew episodes when they drop on
Thursdays.
If you have any questions aboutplanning your day of itinerary,
you can drop them in thecomments under the video or send
me an email at Emily atjoyfactorweddingscom, and I

(09:00):
would be happy to help.
I'll be back next Thursday withanother wedding planning video,
so until then, keep it joyful.
["joyfactor Weddings"].
Thanks for listening to JoyfulWedding Planning.
I hope you got something out ofthis episode and hey, if you
did leave me a review.
Wherever you listen to yourpodcasts, it helps me to find

(09:20):
more listeners just like you, sothat we can take all the stress
out of wedding planning and gofrom panic to joy-filled moments
.
Need help to plan your weddingBook?
A call with me atjoyfactorweddingscom.
I can't wait to help you planthe wedding of your dreams.
["joyfactor Weddings"].
This podcast was produced bythe Ultimate Creative.

(09:47):
Learn more about producing yourown podcast at
theultimatecreativecom.