What should I confirm with suppliers?

Date, arrival time, exact address including which entrance, and a mobile that will be answered on the day — a business number is often unanswered on a Saturday. Do it in writing, because details drift over months of planning and this is the cheapest way to find a drifted one in time.

Which jobs need a name against them?

Who has the rings, who brings anything that has to be at the venue, who greets suppliers, who holds the phone list, who handles a problem, who looks after anyone who needs it, and who clears up at the end. The last one is forgotten at almost every wedding and lands on whoever is nearest at midnight.

What if something is still not booked two weeks out?

Ask whether it can be dropped rather than how to fit it in. There is not room for open tasks and confirming at the same time, and confirming is the part that determines whether the day runs. Dropping one thing at this point buys back more than it costs.

What does not need to be finished?

Something will be unfinished, universally — the list of things that could be done for a wedding has no natural end. What genuinely has to be right is short: the legal requirements are met, the people are there, and somebody who is not you knows the running order.

The final fortnight

It has one job: confirming and handing over. It goes wrong when people arrive still carrying open tasks and try to do both at once.

The fortnight has one job

Confirming and handing over. That is the whole of it.

The reason it goes wrong is that people arrive at this point with tasks still open — a supplier not booked, a decision not made, an item not bought — and try to do those alongside the confirming. There is not room for both, and the confirming is the part that actually determines whether the day runs.

If something is still open at fourteen days, the honest question is whether it can be dropped rather than how to fit it in. Most of it can, and dropping one thing now buys back more than it costs.

Two weeks out: the confirming

Contact every supplier, in writing, and confirm four things with each: the date, the arrival time, the exact address including which entrance, and a mobile number that will be answered on the day.

That last one matters more than it sounds. A business number is frequently unanswered on a Saturday, and the number you need is the number of the person who will physically be there.

Do it in writing so there is something to point at. This is not distrust — details drift over months of planning, and a written confirmation two weeks out is the cheapest way to find a drifted one while it can still be fixed.

Confirm the final numbers with the caterer and the venue at the same time, and make sure the number you give matches the seating plan you built.

Two weeks out: the handover

Decide who is doing what, tell them, and write it down. Every question that is not assigned to somebody will arrive at one of you on the morning.

The roles that consistently need a name against them: who has the rings, who is bringing anything that has to be at the venue, who is greeting suppliers, who has the phone list, who handles a problem, who deals with anyone who needs looking after, and who clears up and takes things home at the end. That last one is forgotten at almost every wedding and lands on whoever is nearest at midnight.

Give the phone list to more than one person, on paper. The one-page document is the thing being handed over here.

One week out

Chase whoever has not replied to anything. The seating plan, dietary requirements, transport. There will be three people and they will be the same three every time.

Do the practical errands that only work late. Cash if any is needed, anything perishable, anything that has to be collected.

Try everything on, fully. Shoes included, in the shoes you will wear, walking around. This is the last week in which an alteration is possible.

Confirm the timings with the people running the ceremony. Who stands where, who speaks when, what happens if something runs late.

Pack, and pack early. Whatever goes to the venue and whatever goes with you. Packing at eleven at night the day before is where things get left behind.

The last two days

Nothing new. Confirm nothing new, buy nothing new, decide nothing new.

Eat and sleep. This is not a soft suggestion — a long day on very little of either is what most people describe when they say the day passed in a blur, and it is largely avoidable.

Hand over the last things and stop carrying the list. If somebody asks you a question that is on the page, point at the person who has the page.

What will not be finished, and does not need to be

Something will be unfinished. That is universal rather than a failure — the list of things that could be done for a wedding has no natural end, and it is finished when the day arrives rather than when the list is empty.

The things that genuinely have to be right are short: the legal requirements are met, the people are there, and somebody who is not you knows the running order. Everything else is decoration in the literal sense.

The schedule works backwards from your date, so the fortnight arrives with the right things already behind it rather than beside it — which is the only way this stretch is manageable.

Editor's notes

Written by Wedding Checklist Free about the piece above — not reader submissions.

"Ask whether it can be dropped" is the advice that will be ignored
It appears early because it is the highest-value sentence on the page and because it stops being available a few days later. A task still open at fourteen days is competing with the confirming, and the confirming is the part that determines whether the day runs. Almost nobody drops anything at this stage, which is precisely why it is worth saying.
What is genuinely optional
The clearing-up role is listed last on purpose
It is the job nobody assigns and it lands, reliably, on whoever is nearest at midnight — frequently a parent, occasionally one of the couple. Putting it in the same list as the rings is not a joke. It is the item most likely to produce a bad memory of an otherwise good day.
Eating and sleeping is not filler
It is in the last-two-days section as an instruction rather than a wish. A long day on very little of either is what most people are describing when they say the day passed in a blur, and unlike almost everything else on this site it is entirely within your control on the night before.

Common questions

What should I do in the last two weeks before the wedding?: Confirming and handing over, and nothing else. Contact every supplier in writing to confirm the date, the arrival time, the exact address including which entrance, and a mobile number that will be answered on the day. Then assign every role to a named person and write it down.
What should I confirm with suppliers?: Date, arrival time, exact address including which entrance, and a mobile that will be answered on the day — a business number is often unanswered on a Saturday. Do it in writing, because details drift over months of planning and this is the cheapest way to find a drifted one in time.
Which jobs need a name against them?: Who has the rings, who brings anything that has to be at the venue, who greets suppliers, who holds the phone list, who handles a problem, who looks after anyone who needs it, and who clears up at the end. The last one is forgotten at almost every wedding and lands on whoever is nearest at midnight.
What if something is still not booked two weeks out?: Ask whether it can be dropped rather than how to fit it in. There is not room for open tasks and confirming at the same time, and confirming is the part that determines whether the day runs. Dropping one thing at this point buys back more than it costs.
What does not need to be finished?: Something will be unfinished, universally — the list of things that could be done for a wedding has no natural end. What genuinely has to be right is short: the legal requirements are met, the people are there, and somebody who is not you knows the running order.