Timing is Everything: Your Wedding Day Run Sheet
There are two parts to a wedding day, running in tandem. One is visible to everyone: the ceremony, the speeches, the first dance. The other is quietly happening behind the scenes, from hair and makeup arriving on your doorstep at the crack of dawn to your venue team packing down after the last cult classic has been screamed along to. Your run sheet is a pivotal element in ensuring both parts come together smoothly.
For most of us, sitting down to draft that run sheet can feel like A LOT. After all, most of us aren’t wedding planning experts, nor do our brains always work in that logical, linear way. The good news is that you’re surrounded by people who plan wedding days for a living, and they’re ready to help you put it together.
As a first step for you, we asked a venue team to share what they know. Jordan De Jong and the events team at The Batesford Hotel and Barwon Edge have (super generously!) handed over the run sheet template they use as a starting point with their couples, along with the advice they give when the timing questions start rolling in.
Below their template, we’ve added a guide to building the rest of your day around it, from the morning of to the moment your vendors pack down, with the questions to ask each of them along the way.
Over to Jordan and the team at The Batesford Hotel and Barwon Edge.
Ask your venue and vendors for guidance
When in doubt, ask your venue and vendors! We’ve done this for bucketloads of other couples, so we know a thing or two about timing.
If you need to give your hair and makeup artists a start time… Tell them when your ceremony is, and ask them to help you figure it out! Together, you can factor in travel time, getting-ready photos and anything else that may impact timing.
If you need to tell your photographer a start time… Tell them when your ceremony is, and your rough times for hair and makeup. They will give you their recommendations, and you can align these with your hair and makeup artists.
If you need to tell your florist and musicians when they can set up at the venue… Ask your venue! Speaking from experience, we have a standard bump in time that we can share with vendors even before we finalise your wedding day run sheet with you. Also, ask if your venue will liaise with your vendors directly. A lot of venues do, and that saves you having to worry too much about timing. Your venue and vendors will work it out for you!
The moral of the story? Your venue and vendors are here to help! They’re the experts, and they know how long they need to do their jobs well, so lean into their expertise and ask away. It’s part of their job and helping you at this point saves everyone stress on the day.
Finalise your timings 6–8 weeks out
Timing comes up on almost every enquiry form. Whether you’re enquiring about hair and makeup, photography, videography, florals or photo booths, most forms will ask what time the person will be needed on the day.
The time you give at enquiry is a guideline. You’ll confirm final timings with your vendors 6–8 weeks out.
While most venues have a standard ceremony time, this can change depending on the time of year, package extensions and more. Your ceremony time is usually officially confirmed during a planning meeting with your venue, which happens a couple of months before your big day. In this meeting, we go through your full run sheet, from the time your florist arrives to set up your ceremony space to the time you wave farewell at the end of the night. In other words, it gives you a full picture of your wedding timings at the venue that you can use to brief your vendors.
And if you want to lock in your ceremony time before you book your vendors, just ask your venue! We can only speak for ourselves at The Batesford Hotel and Barwon Edge, but we’re always happy to lock it in and give you peace of mind, even if you’re doing so 12 months out.
Your wedding run sheet template
Now, it’s time for your wedding run sheet template, a handy guide that gives you an overview of how a typical wedding day flows. This is designed for a typical wedding at one of our venues, for 100 guests and a seated reception.
| Time | Wedding run sheet: template |
|---|---|
| 2:00PM | Vendor bump in: Florists, photo booths, musicians, etc. |
| 4:00PM | Guest arrival |
| 4:30PM | Ceremony commences |
| 5:00PM | Ceremony concludes and cocktail hour begins |
| 6:00PM | MC welcome and housekeeping |
| 6:10PM | Couple entrance and cake cutting |
| 6:15PM | Speeches x 2 |
| 6:30PM | Entrees served |
| 7:20PM | Mains served |
| 8:00PM | Speeches x 2 |
| 8:15PM | First dance |
| 8:20PM | Dancefloor starts |
| 8:45PM | Wedding cake and/or dessert canapes served |
| 11:00PM | Reception concludes and guests depart |
While this is a standard run sheet, every wedding takes its own shape! This is a base to work from, and you can change it to suit your dream day with your venue team. At the end of the day, it’s your wedding day, and it’s our job to make it run exactly how you want it to!
Thank you, Jordan (we love the insider tips from the experts!). From here, we’ll take you through the timeline around the venue’s run sheet.
How to plan your wedding morning: start with the ceremony and work backwards
The venue template picks up at 2pm, when vendors bump in. Your day begins well before then, and a reliable way to plan it is the one Jordan suggests: lock in your ceremony time, then work backwards. Your morning timings all relate back to that one moment, so once it’s set, each of your vendors can tell you when they need to begin.
Brief your vendors in this order and the morning comes together in layers.
- Your hair and makeup artist kicks off the day. Share your ceremony time, how many people they’ll be styling, where you’re getting ready and when your photographer would like you camera-ready. Then ask:
- How long do you allow for each person, including each of us getting married?
- How many artists will you bring for our group, and will they work side by side?
- Who should sit in the chair first, and who should go last?
- What time will you arrive to set up, and what do you need in the room?
- Will you stay on for touch-ups before the ceremony and photos?
- Your photographer and videographer build their coverage around hair and makeup. Ask:
- When would you like to arrive, and which moments of the morning would you like to capture?
- Which details should be ready and waiting for you (rings, invitations, shoes, fragrance)?
- Would you suggest a first look, and where would it sit in our day?
- How many hours does our package cover, and when would you advise you should start and finish?
- Your florist brings the bouquets, etc. Ask when bouquets, buttonholes and any additional florals will arrive, so they’re ready for your photographer’s detail shots.
- Your celebrant guides the ceremony. Ask:
- What time would you like us and our wedding party at the ceremony location?
- How long will our ceremony run?
- Are we signing paperwork during or after the ceremony?
- Your transport provider gets you there. Ask how long the drive will take at that time of day and when they’d suggest leaving. If you’re getting ready at the venue, ask your venue team where you’ll wait before you walk down the aisle.
Here’s how those answers slot together. Fill in each time as your vendors confirm it, and your morning sits neatly above the venue’s run sheet. Your vendors may suggest a different order, so go with their guidance – they’ll know the particulars of your location, time of year, weather considerations etc.
| Time | What’s happening | Who sets the time |
|---|---|---|
| ______ | Hair and makeup team arrives to set up | Your hair and makeup artist |
| ______ | Hair and makeup for your wedding party | Your hair and makeup artist |
| ______ | Florals delivered to your getting-ready location | Your florist |
| ______ | Photographer and videographer arrive for details and getting-ready moments | Your photographer and videographer |
| ______ | Something to eat for everyone getting ready | Whoever’s in charge of snacks |
| ______ | Your hair and makeup | Your hair and makeup artist |
| ______ | Getting dressed | You, with your photographer |
| ______ | First look, if you’re having one | Your photographer |
| ______ | Depart for the ceremony | Your transport provider |
| ______ | Arrive at the ceremony location | Your celebrant and venue |
| 4:00PM | Guest arrival | Your venue |
| 4:30PM | Ceremony commences | Your venue and celebrant |
Once the times are in, share the plan with your wedding party and anyone else getting ready with you, so everyone knows when they’re in the chair and when they need to be dressed.
How to fit your vendors around the venue’s run sheet
Once your venue hands you their run sheet, the afternoon and evening have a structure to work from. Each of your vendors can then map their part of the day onto it, and a few questions to each of them will fill in the gaps.
Your venue timings set the initial schedule. Ask:
- What time can our vendors bump in, and when do they need to bump out?
- Who on your team will be our contact on the day?
- Will you share the final run sheet with our vendors directly, or would you like us to?
- What time do you make the call on our wet weather plan, and does it change any set-up times?
Your photographer and videographer will have their eye on both the run sheet and the light. In the template, cocktail hour runs from 5pm to 6pm, straight after the ceremony. Ask:
- How long do you need for family photos and for portraits of the two of us?
- Which moments of the reception would you like to capture, and when does our coverage finish? If your first dance and those first songs on the dancefloor matter to you, check that your coverage reaches them.
- Your vendors will need a meal during the reception. Let your venue know your vendor meal numbers ahead of time.
Your MC sets the pace of the reception, from the welcome at 6pm through to the dancefloor opening. Share the full run sheet with them, and ask how they’ll work with the venue team on the night to keep speeches, meals and the first dance flowing. The template places speeches in two pairs, at 6:15pm and 8pm, so your MC can let each speaker know when they’re up.
Your cake maker, stylist, photo booth and anyone delivering to the venue will each slot into bump in. If your venue isn’t reaching out to them ahead of time, ask when they’ll arrive, who they’ll hand over to, and when they’ll collect anything that needs to go home at the end of the night.
How the time of year changes your wedding timeline
This is where your vendors’ local knowledge comes into its own. Jordan mentioned that a venue’s standard ceremony time can shift with the time of year, and the light is a big part of why.
In Melbourne, the sun sets around 8:45pm in early January and around 5:10pm in June. Picture the same 4:30pm ceremony in each month. In January, you say your vows in full afternoon sun, with more than four hours of daylight still ahead, and the sunset lands right around the template’s 8:45pm dessert. In June, the sun sets about ten minutes after your ceremony wraps, so your family photos and portraits are working with the last of the light.
Your photographer will know how the light falls at your venue in your month, and your venue and celebrant will know how it affects the ceremony space. Ask them:
- What time is sunset on our date, and how should we adjust our run sheet accordingly?
- Where will the sun be during our ceremony, and does that change where we stand or where our guests sit?
- Would you suggest stepping out for sunset portraits during the reception, and where should that sit in the run sheet?
If your date falls in early April or early October, check which side of the daylight saving change it lands on. In Victoria, clocks go back an hour on the first Sunday in April and forward an hour on the first Sunday in October.
Putting it all together
Your run sheet will shift a few times before the big day, and that’s part of the process. Start with your ceremony time, lean on your venue’s template and let each vendor tell you what they need. By the time you sit down with your venue to finalise the plan, you’ll arrive with your morning mapped out and a list of answers, ready to brief your whole team.
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