Your Life-saving, Last-Minute Wedding Day Checklist

Planning your wedding can be one of the most fun yet stress-filled times of any bride’s life. While you’re beyond excited to marry the love of your life, you’re also trying to make your wedding day the day you’ve dreamed of for years.

As the big day gets closer and closer, family and friends will be traveling from out-of-town, you’ll be checking in with all of your vendors, and your bridal party and family will be begging to help with any last-minute tasks to make your day perfect. With all that excitement and chaos, it’s easy to forget these last few key tasks before your wedding day!

Make sure your wedding goes off without a hitch with this last-minute wedding day checklist!

1. Vendor Check-in

Wedding days can get a little hectic for both the bridal party and the vendors. Cut back on the chaos by checking in with all your vendors to verify the delivery times, locations, setup, teardown, and any additional items for the wedding day. Each vendor has their own unique set of needs for setup and teardown, so make sure you’re communicating with them about location and timing.

With so many moving parts, it’s best not to leave your vendors to assume when and where they need to be on the wedding day. If you’re using a party planning app or have created an itinerary for the day, share your plan with your vendors to help them know where they need to be and when. The last thing you want is for vendors to show up at the wrong place or time!

2. Final Payments

Each vendor will have their own payment plan. However, most the vendors will request a final payment by your wedding day. Avoid any awkward conversations by having all the checks and payments ready to give to your vendors by the wedding, and check with your vendors to verify what sort of payments they will accept. Not all vendors will accept a credit card, so be ready with a check or cash in case of any unexpected changes.

If you can, try to make the final payments before your wedding day. Many vendors will prefer to receive payment before the wedding to avoid any added confusion or strain. This will also give you and your family one less thing to worry about. You should be focusing on your special day instead of worrying about payments!

3. Tip Envelopes

While we’re on the topic of payments, it’s customary to tip your wedding vendors for their services. While tipping isn’t a requirement, many of your vendors will go above and beyond the call of duty to help your vision of your wedding day become a reality. A tip is a great way to show them how much you’ve appreciated their hard work and extended hours.

To keep the tips from getting confused, divide them up into individual envelopes to make distribution easy. If you’re the writing type, you can also include a nice thank you note to further express your gratitude. And, of course, every vendor will greatly appreciate a positive review on their website or social media!

4. Photo Itinerary

On your wedding day, the photographer will take so many pictures of you and your partner that you will likely lose count. While your photographer knows all the traditional photos, like pictures with your immediate family and the bridal party, there are often a few additional photos you’d like that aren’t on their list.

Have a discussion with your photographer and provide a list of all the group photos you’d like and any other moments you’re interested in capturing. For example, a photo with your sorority sisters, a picture with relatives that have traveled a long distance, pictures of your wedding dress, and candid shots are all photo ideas you can discuss before the big day gets here. It’s your day, so make sure you get every photo you’d love to look at after the chaos of the day is over.

5. Day-of Timeline

Your wedding day is probably going to be hectic. No matter how much you’ve planned and prepared for unexpected scenarios, there will always be someone who isn’t sure where they should be and what they should be doing. It’s simply inevitable!

Fight back the stress of a million questions by creating a wedding-day timeline for your bridal party and family. A timeline will keep everyone organized and on time—and hopefully avoid a thousand questions about where people need to be and when. Distribute your perfectly organized timeline during your rehearsal dinner and send a digital copy to those that have a tendency to misplace things!

6. Gift Caretaker

While some guests will send their gifts or cards to your home before the wedding, there are those that will arrive with gift in hand. Whether it’s a small handful or a perilous pile, somehow those gifts will need to get to your home. That’s where a trusted gift caretaker comes in!

Avoid the game of gift Tetris trying to fit all of the presents in the car along with your dress and other wedding supplies. Instead, ask a family member or friend to drop the gifts off at home for you. Trust us, it will save you the worry of getting everything home and let you focus on enjoying your wedding day and upcoming honeymoon. Just don’t forget to give this person a key to your home or car!

7. Wedding Day Supervisor

Along with having a timeline and someone to take care of the gifts, having a person dedicated to helping you and your bridal party stay on track is a huge help. On your wedding day, all you should be worrying about is how beautiful you look and how excited you are to say “I Do.” While there will surely be a lot of hustle and bustle taking place around you, that doesn’t mean that you have to be the one running the show on your wedding day. Delegate!

Instead of being bombarded with endless questions by vendors, family, and friends—appoint a wedding day supervisor. They will field any issues that come up throughout the day and let you relax and enjoy your celebration! Trust us; you’ll be thankful you delegated!

8. Marriage license

You can’t get married without your marriage license! While you should have already picked up your marriage license from your county clerk’s office, it’s not official yet. Immediately following your wedding ceremony, you and your partner will sign your marriage license along with your officiant and a witness (or two).

After the license is signed, you’ll need someone you can trust to keep track of it. Choose someone trustworthy to keep your marriage license safe both before and after your nuptials.

9. Emergency kit

No matter how much planning you do to make your wedding day perfect, there is always a chance that something will go wrong. But, don’t panic! You can prepare for potential chaos by double checking your last-minute wedding day checklist and compiling an emergency kit full of the following:

• Bobby pins
• Hairspray
• Touch-up makeup
• Lipstick or lipgloss
• Sewing kit
• Traction pads for heels
• Pantyhose
• Umbrella
• Stain remover
• Tissues
• Ibuprofen or Advil
• Band-aids
• Deodorant
• Floss or mints
• Feminine products
• Cash
• Medications
• Tums

The months of planning, meetings, stress, and preparation for your perfect wedding will all be worth it when you’re celebrating with all of your loved ones. In the meantime, take a deep breath, and make sure you take care of everything on this last-minute wedding planning checklist.

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