How do you keep every vendor on the same page on the day? Four things: one day-of contact for every provider, one point person on your side who is not one of you, one timeline that everyone got the same copy of, and one group text thread that every one of them is on. Do those four and the day communicates itself. Skip any one of them and you are the one getting pulled aside during the toasts. Your team of providers will do whatever it takes to make your reception a success, but only if they know what the plan is and what just changed, before, during, and sometimes after the reception (last-minute changes happen all the time). In this article, how that dialogue actually gets built.
Before the day: the sheet
You will be collecting contact information from every provider anyway. Get the name of the person who will actually be there on the day (not the office, not whoever sold it to you), their cell, and whether they text. Try to deal with the same person throughout planning. Don't assume your providers will contact each other on their own. Good ones will (a good coordinator always does), but you should at least start the thread and share one team sheet with everyone on it: every role, every day-of contact, arrival and departure times, who eats, and who has to talk to whom. The photographer and the DJ have to talk about the last dance and the send-off. The caterer and the DJ have to talk about when dinner service starts and ends, because nothing happens on the mic while the entrees are going out. Put those pairs on the sheet so they are not discovered at 7 o'clock.
The point person
If you have hired a coordinator, they are the contact for the rest of the team on your behalf, and every provider gets their number as the one to call. If a friend or a parent is directing the day, the same: one name, one number. If you are managing it yourselves, then you must send everything in advance, because the two of you will be less than available on your wedding day. You will be pulled in too many directions, trust me. The point person's number goes on the sheet, your phones go in a bag somewhere, and that is a good thing.
During the day: the room
While the reception is in full swing, it is very, very important that the team knows what is coming next and what has changed. That is why you vet your providers for being team players when you hire them: people who communicate, and who keep each other informed during a reception. From the middle of the room, I have always asked the other providers to tell me when they are stepping out and when they will be back. Not to control anyone, but so that I am not looking for the photographer when the cake is about to be cut, and so they do not miss it. Whoever is on the mic gives the room a two-minute warning before every formality, and the photographer, the videographer or content creator, and the caterer all move on that warning. There are no take 2s. A cake cutting with no camera on it is a cake cutting you do not get back, and that is a communication failure, not bad luck.
In a large crowd, eye contact and hand signals go a very long way. I've seen catering teams run a whole dinner on discreet radios, and a good captain checks in with the DJ before each course. Encourage your team to check in with each other often.
The thread and the copy
Two weeks out, one group text with every day-of contact on it, and the run of show attached as a file, not as a screenshot of a screenshot. The vendor copy of the timeline puts the cue owner and their contact on every row, so the florist knows when the cake table gets cleared and the photographer knows exactly when the parent dances start. When something changes on the day, it changes in the thread, once, from the point person, and everyone sees it at the same time. The last-minute change that reaches one provider and not the others is how the lights come on with the couple still in the room.
Build the team sheet below, and it counts the copies you need and pairs the people who have to talk.
Print the vendor copy of the run of show from the builder and send it in the same thread; the two together are the whole communication plan.
Quick answers
- Email or text? Email for the sheet two weeks out. Text on the day. Nobody is reading email at 6 o'clock on a Saturday.
- What if a provider will not join a group text? Then the point person calls them with every change, and you note that on the sheet. Rare, but it happens.
- Who talks to the guests? The MC, and only the MC. Announcements from three different people are how a room stops listening.
Communication is key in any successful venture, and weddings are no exception. Establish clear communication, and establish it early. Stress it, and put someone in charge of it.
Thanks! Chuck