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By Forever Farrah Published 2026-10-20.
How planners build a wedding run of show: start from the ceremony time, work outward, name who is on for every moment, then share one version with every vendor.
To build a wedding run of show, fix the ceremony start time first and work outward: back through photos, getting dressed and hair and makeup, then forward through cocktail hour, the entrance, dinner, toasts, dancing and the send-off. Give every line a time, what happens, who is involved, where it happens and a note or cue. Then send one version to every vendor and the wedding party, and change it only in that one place.
Couples usually have a wedding timeline: the handful of moments they need to know. A run of show is the planner's version of the same day. It is longer, it is timed to the minute where that matters, and every line says who has to be there. Australian and UK planners often call it a run sheet. The name matters less than the rule that there is only one of it.
Many planners keep two documents built from the same times: the full run of show for vendors, the venue and the wedding party, and a shorter couple timeline with only their moments. That is a common practice, not a rule, but it saves a couple reading about the caterer's load-in at 1:30pm.
The run of show template uses five columns, and each one answers a question someone will ask on the day.
You can start from the free run of show template, which fills the first four columns for a standard day from the ceremony time you enter.
Some times are not yours to move. Write these down before anything else:
Everything else is built around these. If a fixed point changes, the whole run of show moves with it, which is why building from the ceremony time outward is easier than writing it top to bottom.
From the ceremony start, count back. In the run-of-show builder, a 4pm ceremony with a first look and getting ready coverage gives this shape: guests seated from 3:30pm, the couple out of sight from 3:15pm, portraits and wedding party photos from 2:30pm after a 2:15pm first look, getting dressed at 1:45pm, detail photos at 1:00pm and hair and makeup from 10:00am.
The builder's lengths are planning defaults, not industry statistics. The hair and makeup start in particular depends on how many people are being done and by how many artists, so ask the stylist for their own schedule and put their start time in, rather than the other way round.
After the ceremony, the same 4pm day runs like this in the builder:
| Time | Moment | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 4:00pm-4:30pm | Ceremony | Couple, wedding party, officiant, photographer, DJ or band |
| 4:30pm-5:00pm | Family photos | Couple, wedding party, photographer |
| 4:30pm-5:30pm | Cocktail hour for guests | Caterer, DJ or band, venue |
| 5:45pm | Guests seated for dinner | Venue, caterer |
| 6:00pm-6:10pm | Grand entrance, then first dance | Couple, wedding party, DJ or band, photographer |
| 6:15pm-7:15pm | Dinner service; vendor meals at the same time | Caterer, venue |
| 7:15pm-7:40pm | Toasts | Wedding party, DJ or band, photographer |
| 7:40pm-8:00pm | Cake cutting and parent dances | Couple, caterer, DJ or band, photographer |
| 8:00pm-10:15pm | Dancing | DJ or band, photographer |
| 10:30pm | Send-off | Couple, photographer, venue |
Two choices in that table are worth explaining. Toasts come after dinner, so guests are fed and the kitchen is not holding plates while speeches run long. Vendor meals are served at the same time as guests: a planner quoted by The Knot on vendor meals says they try to make sure the team eats while the guests are eating, so the photographer is ready again when the toasts start.
Go down the Who column line by line and ask: if this person is not there, does the moment fail? The officiant at the ceremony, the DJ at the entrance, the photographer at the cake. If yes, they are on the line. If they are only nice to have, leave them off, or the column stops meaning anything.
Then fill in Location with the venue's own names, and add a wet weather location in Notes for anything outdoors. A run of show that says "lawn" with no plan B is a run of show that will be rewritten at 2pm on the day.
Put the slack where things actually run late: getting dressed, family photos and the move from ceremony to reception. Fifteen minutes at each is a common planner habit; it is a judgment, not a measured figure. Do not add slack to the end of the night, where the venue's curfew is the hard stop.
Once the day is set, write the vendor arrival schedule from it. Arrival times should come from the run of show, not the other way round. The wedding vendor arrival schedule guide covers that step, and the vendor contact sheet gives you one place for every arrival time and phone number.
Send the run of show to every vendor, the venue coordinator, the officiant and the wedding party, about a week out, and ask each vendor to confirm their lines. Put a version date in the file name. When something changes, change the master and resend it with the new date, rather than texting one vendor a new time. Two versions in circulation is how a band and a caterer end up working from different dinners.
Print copies for the day too. Phones run out of battery, and a printed run of show taped inside the kitchen door is read more often than any shared link.
The run-of-show builder is free and needs no signup: enter the ceremony time, the reception length and the moments the couple wants, and it lays out the day with who is on for each moment and when each vendor arrives. With a free planner account you can print it or save it as a PDF. Saving a run of show to a client wedding inside your planner dashboard is not available yet, so keep the PDF or the template with your files.
What the planner dashboard does today is the guest side of the day: each client wedding's guest list, RSVPs and seating chart, with Matchmaker (automatic seating) to place guests and a QR code guests scan to find their table. Your first 2 client weddings are free.
A wedding timeline lists the main moments for the couple. A run of show is the planner's full version for vendors: every moment, timed, with who is responsible and where it happens.
Commonly about a week before the wedding, with a request for each vendor to confirm their times. Resend the master with a new version date whenever anything changes.
Five hours from the end of cocktail hour to the send-off is a common length and is the run-of-show builder's default. Check it against the venue contract and any curfew.
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