Often when it comes to creating the wedding itinerary, the couples or wedding planners limit themselves to making a list of the important moments of that specific day. For example, “arrival of MUA artist – arrival of photographers / suppliers – beginning / end of ceremony – beginning of reception – cutting of cake – dances – end of reception” or something that can easily be enclosed in half a page, or at most a full page if the celebrations are divided into 2/3 events. So it almost seems that the final check is done, the list with the timings is ready and then everyone thinks about doing their job well to ensure that everything runs smoothly and without setbacks. But will it really be like this?
The purpose of the wedding itinerary
First of all let’s understand what the wedding itinerary is for. The answer is quite simple: it keeps everything organized in one place. Because you or your wedding planner could have everything neatly arranged on your laptop, with various contracts, agreements, the list of confirmed things; but then when you are on site you definitely cannot always check your computer and try to understand if you remember one thing well or if you ended up confirming something else, or if the supplier who brings the chairs for example, has brought them in the right color or not.
Having the wedding itinerary at hand allows you to have all the information collected in a year of planning, all in one place and so you just have to print and always keep your itinerary with you to check everything in real time, including the timing and orders you’ve made.
What must the wedding itinerary contain to be really useful for you and your wedding planner?
It must contain everything. Yes, absolutely everything. Every single step must be wrote down, from the moment you arrive in Italy for the wedding, until the moment you leave the wedding venue. You need to put down the times agreed with all the suppliers, the menus of all the meals, the description of all the set-ups and where they are to be done, the working hours of the make-up artist / photographers / DJ and all the suppliers, what you have rented for the DJ, what car did you rent for the Baraat… And if you are organizing the wedding yourself, also the contacts of the suppliers you have hired. While the wedding planner should have the contact list always at hand.
This way you can open your itinerary and retrace your events step by step with all the information put in order. And if you have any doubts and don’t remember something, you simply just check the program.
What and who is the wedding itinerary for?
Everyone needs it. You, the wedding planner, the suppliers and the staff of the villa. With the wedding planner you can check everything that you have agreed during the planning, and it is thanks to this itinerary that you can understand if everything is as you like or if something is not right and you want to make changes. So there is no risk that at the last minute you or the wedding planner could say that something was not as agreed.
This itinerary is obviously also for the suppliers because they can realize what is before or after their service and can understand if they can disassemble before or have to wait for the end of the event. By viewing the program, photographers can understand if they have time to take you out of the villa for a photo shoot or if they need to find spots inside the villa itself because there is not enough time. Even the Villa must know what happens, where, when, in what order. And so on. In fact, I always share my itinerary with all my suppliers and when I arrive at the villa, the day before the first event, I spend at least 2-3 hours with the location manager, moving from one area of the villa to another, checking everything; and do so with the couples as well, so that thanks to this itinerary we can also retrace the events in real time before the wedding for a last check and green light.
When should the itinerary be prepared?
Obviously to be able to complete it with all these details, it cannot be done too far in advance. Instead, the program of events is made more in advance, dividing them by days and indicating approximately the times and if there is a food function. Then a month before the wedding more or less, you should already have all the details that would allow you to put together the wedding itinerary. Obviously, some adjustments have to be made in the last month and therefore the itinerary must also be modified accordingly. But I don’t recommend doing it the last week because you risk not having time to check and make any changes. Therefore, from a minimum of two weeks before the event up to one month before, that is the best time to put together all the info on the itinerary and check the details with everyone.
As you can imagine, to have such a full and complete itinerary it takes several days of work just to put it all together, because you have to open every single contract, agreement, confirmation email and report the details on the itinerary, checking that it is the last version established with the wedding planner or with the suppliers. The itineraries that we do at Best Indian Weddings Italy are divided into 12, 14 or 16 pages depending on the duration of the events, but even more if the celebrations are full of complex events and with various details. But this is the only way to avoid hitches, mistakes, misunderstandings, suppliers not aware of the right timing; and only in this way can you truly experience a smooth, well-organized and successful event, as it is precisely this type of preventive work that guarantees a stress-free event.
What I recommend, if you rely on a wedding planner, is to choose the one that adopts this method and really does this type of preventive work. Because the good words can remain only such and in the end you find yourself with a bullet point chart and you have to stress yourself during your days of events hoping that everything goes smoothly and nobody forgets anything. If, on the other hand, your priority is to have a well-organized event with the utmost attention to detail and impeccable organization, then make the right choice and choose the wedding planner that can really guarantee you all this.
If you want to find out more and understand how we can help you organize your Indian wedding in Italy then Start Here.
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