Working with outside planners as a venue coordinator

By Forever Farrah Published 2026-10-20.

A venue coordinator's guide to outside wedding planners: what to send at booking, what to ask for and when, insurance, the walkthrough and contacts on the day.

Treat the outside planner as the couple's lead and agree in writing who decides what. Send the venue's rules, access times and supplier requirements as soon as you know a planner is hired, ask for their contact details, insurance, run of show and floor plan by set dates, hold one joint walkthrough, work from one timeline and one floor plan, name one contact each for the day, and debrief afterwards. The venue keeps its own duties (the building, its staff, safety); the planner runs the couple's day.

Two jobs, one wedding

A venue coordinator and a planner are not competing for the same job. You look after what the venue contract provides; the planner looks after the couple and every vendor they hired. The venue coordinator vs wedding planner guide sets out the usual split task by task.

Safety guidance describes the same arrangement. In the UK, the Health and Safety Executive's guidance on managing an event asks event organizers to ensure co-operation and proper co-ordination of all work activities on the site, and its guidance on getting started tells them to liaise with the venue owner or management. It also says the level of planning should be proportionate to the scale of the event and the degree of risk, which for most weddings means a clear conversation and good paperwork, not a safety plan the size of a festival's.

What to send the planner at booking

Send one document, the same for every outside planner, as soon as the couple tells you they have hired one:

Access times. Earliest vendor load-in, guest arrival, music end, guests out, vendors out.
Load-in and parking. Which door, which lift, where vans park and for how long.
The room's capacity for each layout you allow: ceremony rows, a seated dinner, a standing reception.
Rules. Candles and open flame, confetti and petals, fixings on walls, sparklers, noise limits, decorations outside.
Supplier requirements. Required or preferred suppliers, proof of insurance, risk assessments if you ask for them, and any outside caterer rules.
Deadlines. Final guest count, final floor plan, final timeline, vendor list.
Your contact, and who covers the evening if you hand over to a duty manager.

The planner will build their run of show and vendor arrival schedule around these. A planner who has them at the start will not ask you for them one at a time.

What to ask the planner for, and by when

What a venue usually asks an outside planner for
Item	Commonly due	Why the venue needs it
Planner's contact details and on-the-day team	At booking	One person to speak to, and names for security or reception
Planner's proof of insurance	At booking, or once they are hired	Your venue's supplier requirements
Vendor list with contacts and arrival times	About two weeks before	Load-in, parking and who to let in
Each vendor's proof of insurance, if required	About two weeks before	Your venue's supplier requirements
Final floor plan	With the final guest count	Setting the room and checking capacity
Final run of show	About a week before	Staffing, kitchen timing, music end
Final guest count and dietary list	By the catering contract's guarantee date	Ordering and service

The due dates are common practice, not rules. Use your own contract's dates, and put them in the document you send at booking.

Insurance and supplier paperwork

Asking every supplier for proof of liability insurance is common venue practice, and some venues require the couple to buy event insurance too. The US National Association of Insurance Commissioners notes that some venues require their clients to have a minimum amount of event liability insurance, and that event liability cover is available with or without host liquor liability. Whatever your venue requires, say it in the booking document, say what proof you need and by when, and check it before the day rather than at the loading door.

The joint walkthrough

Hold one walkthrough with the planner, ideally six to eight weeks out, with the floor plan in hand. Cover:

The load-in route, from the van to the room.
The ceremony and reception layouts, and the room flip if there is one. The room flip guide covers how the planner will want to run it.
Power: where it is, how much, and what the DJ, band and caterer need.
The wet weather plan for anything outside; the planner's rain plan checklist will ask about it.
Where vendors eat, where the couple's items are stored and where the planner's team sets up.
Emergency exits and assembly points, and who calls whom if something goes wrong.

Write down what you agreed and send it to the planner the same day.

One floor plan, one timeline

Two documents in circulation is how a room is set for 140 when the caterer is cooking for 152. Agree that the planner's floor plan, once you approve it for the room and its capacity, is the only one, and that their run of show, with your access times built in, is the only timeline. If you need changes, ask the planner to make them and resend, rather than editing your own copy.

The free floor plan tool draws a reception to scale from the room size and guest count, which is a quick way to check a planner's layout against the room. The venue capacity guide explains how legal capacity is set in each market.

On the day: one contact each

Name one person from the venue and one from the planner's team, with mobile numbers, and route everything through them. Vendors ask the planner; the planner asks you. Your staff take setup instructions from the agreed floor plan, not from whichever vendor asks first. If you hand over to a duty manager in the evening, introduce them to the planner before you go.

Agree what neither of you will compromise on, before the day: the music end time, guests out by curfew, fire exits clear. A planner who knows the hard limits in advance will defend them to the couple for you.

After the wedding: a short debrief

A ten-minute call or email the week after: what worked, what did not, and anything to change for next time. Keep the floor plan and the timeline. Planners who work well at your venue are the ones you will want to recommend when a couple asks.

How Forever Farrah helps

Forever Farrah does not have a separate venue account. The free floor plan tool and run-of-show builder work for anyone, with no signup.

The outside planner may already run the couple's guest list and seating in Forever Farrah's planner dashboard. If they do, the seating chart they share with the couple is the one guests see when they scan the QR code at your door, so a late table change does not mean a reprinted board at your entrance. On the planner's Pro plan and up, the print pack includes a caterer sheet with each table's meals and the floor plan. Venue teams who coordinate weddings themselves can use the planner dashboard in the same way; the first 2 client weddings are free.

Frequently asked questions

What should a venue send an outside wedding planner?

Access times, load-in and parking, the room's capacity for each layout, venue rules, supplier and insurance requirements, deadlines for the final count, floor plan and timeline, and the venue's contact for the day.

Should outside planners have their own insurance?

Asking every supplier for proof of liability insurance is common venue practice. Say what your venue requires, what proof you need and by when, in the document you send at booking.

Who is in charge on the day, the venue coordinator or the planner?

Each for their own part. The venue coordinator for the building, its staff and its rules; the planner for the couple's day and the vendors they hired. Agree the hard limits, such as curfew and fire exits, in advance.