For wedding planners and day-of coordinators
How to send the wedding-day timeline to vendors
Every vendor needs the timeline, but not every vendor needs all of it. Here is how to decide between one shared timeline and a call sheet per vendor, what each sheet should contain, when to send it, and how to handle the changes that always come in the last week.
Full timeline or one sheet per vendor?
Planners and couples disagree on this. In one WeddingWire discussion, a couple sent the full timeline to their coordinator but a simplified version to vendors, showing only each vendor's arrival and departure times and where to be; a caterer argued for one timeline for every vendor, because it's important that everyone is on the same page.1
Both sides have a point, and you can have both:
- The master timeline (every line, every vendor) goes to you, your assistant, the venue coordinator and anyone who runs the day with you. The couple usually gets it too.
- A call sheet per vendor shows that vendor's own lines first, so the DJ doesn't hunt for the grand entrance among hair-and-makeup slots. Add the few shared moments everyone should know about (ceremony start, dinner, last dance), so nobody is surprised.
The caterer in that thread named the real risk with separate versions: if one gets changed and the others don't, the vendors won't know.1 So cut every sheet from the same master, and never edit a vendor sheet on its own.
What every vendor call sheet should include
| Item | Why |
|---|---|
| Couple's names, date, venue name and full address (and a second address if the ceremony is elsewhere) | Vendors work several weddings a week; the sheet should stand on its own. |
| The vendor's arrival (call) time and load-in point | Arrival is usually earlier than the first moment they work, and the load-in door is rarely the front door. |
| Every moment that vendor works, in time order | Their part of the day without the noise of everyone else's. |
| The shared anchor moments (ceremony, dinner, toasts, send-off) | So they can plan around the parts they don't work. |
| One day-of contact with a mobile number | Not the couple. Philly Mag's coordination advice: a trusted person, not you, as the point of contact for last-minute questions on the day.2 |
| A version or "last updated" date | So a vendor can tell at a glance whether the printout in their bag is the latest one. |
When to send it
Philly Mag's expert suggests emailing vendors about two weeks before the wedding with the agreed times, meeting locations and the main contact's details.2 Many planners send a final version again in the last week, after the final guest count and the seating chart are done. Two weeks gives vendors time to flag a conflict (a photographer who needs more time for family photos, a caterer whose service can't start that early); the final week catches the changes.
Get every vendor to confirm
Ask each vendor to reply "confirmed" or with a correction, and keep a simple list of who has confirmed which version. A vendor who hasn't confirmed by the final week gets a phone call, not another email.
Handling changes in the last week
- Change the master first, then regenerate only the sheets that contain the changed line.
- Send the new sheet with the change spelled out in the first line of the email ("Change: first look moved from 2:30 to 2:00"), so the vendor doesn't have to compare two PDFs.
- Bump the version date on the sheet, and ask for a fresh confirmation from those vendors only.
- Bring printed copies of every sheet on the day; phones die and venues have bad signal.
Build in buffers before you send anything
Photos, speeches and travel between locations tend to run long. Put a buffer before each moment that can't move (ceremony start, dinner service), not at the end of the day, and give vendors the real times rather than padded ones, so the buffer stays yours.
Make the call sheets in a few minutes
The free vendor call sheet maker lets you type the timeline once, tick which vendors each item involves, and print or copy a sheet with just one vendor's times. It runs in your browser and stores nothing.
We're also building Vendor Call Sheet, where each vendor gets a personal link that is always up to date instead of a PDF. It isn't built yet; $19/month for unlimited weddings with a 14-day free trial, and the waitlist hears first.
Sources
- WeddingWire forums, "Vendor timelines: do they need them?", weddingwire.com (read 2026-10-16).
- Philadelphia Magazine, "Ask the Expert: How Do I Coordinate All of My Vendors When I Don't Have a Wedding Planner?", 2016-04-25, phillymag.com (read 2026-10-16).
Last updated 2026-10-16.