Wedding Run of Show: A Sample Timeline That Works

What a run of show is, and who gets a copy

A run of show lists every moment of the event in order, with a start time and the person responsible. It is separate from the schedule for you and your wedding party, which starts with hair and makeup and covers photos. The run of show is for the people running the room: your planner, the venue captain, the kitchen, the photographer, the videographer and the band.

Keep it to one page if you can. Use the same name for each moment that your emcee will use on the microphone, list every speaker in order, and add a phonetic spelling for any name that is easy to get wrong.

A sample run of show

This sample assumes a 5:00 pm ceremony, with cocktail hour and the reception at the same venue. Slide the times to fit your day, and keep the order and the gaps.

From doors to send-off, that is four and a half hours, plus the cocktail hour. WeddingWire puts a typical reception at four to seven hours including cocktail hour, so the sample sits comfortably inside the usual range.

How long each part usually takes

• Ceremony: Joy's order-of-events guide gives 20 to 30 minutes for a non-religious ceremony and 60 to 75 for a Catholic ceremony with a Mass.
• Cocktail hour: 60 to 75 minutes is Joy's standard, trimmed to about 45 when everything is at one venue and stretched to 90 when guests travel.
• Doors to introductions: a planner quoted by WeddingWire opens the doors about 15 minutes before the wedding party is introduced.
• Toasts: three to six minutes per speech, per WeddingWire.
• Dinner: Zola's guides range from about an hour for a three-course meal to 90 minutes or two hours for a fuller service.
• Vendor meals: at least 30 minutes, says WeddingWire.
• Open dancing: 90 minutes to two and a half hours in Zola's reception guide, with cake cutting about an hour into the dancing.

Treat these as starting points. Your menu, the number of speeches and your venue's end time will move them.

Adapting the template

• An earlier or later ceremony: keep the gaps and slide every time. A 4:00 pm ceremony puts the last dance near 9:45.
• Two venues: add the travel time between them to the cocktail hour, and tell the band when the first guests will arrive.
• Photos before the ceremony: if you see each other first, you can join cocktail hour sooner and the introductions can move up.
• A buffet or food stations: swap the course times for table release times, and give the emcee the order the tables will be called.
• Cultural traditions: give each one its own line, such as a hora or a money dance, with the song and the people involved.
• A hard curfew: shorten the dancing, not the toasts or the meal.

Different vendors need different slices of the same page. The planner and the captain need every line, the band needs the music cues and the announcements, and the photographer needs the moments that cannot be missed. One master document, shared with everyone, keeps those slices in agreement.

How the emcee works from it

Your emcee is the voice that moves the room from one line of the run of show to the next. Each announcement is a cue for someone else: the kitchen may hold the first course until the blessing ends, the photographer moves to the floor when the first dance is called, and parents need a quiet two-minute warning before their dance.

That is why the emcee should see the run of show early and meet the planner on the day. Good emcees hold the timeline loosely. If the toasts run long or a course is late, they agree the next cue with the planner and keep the night moving without guests noticing the change.

Tips that keep the night on time

• Leave a five-minute cushion after the introductions and after the toasts. Something always runs over.
• Schedule the toasts during dinner, while guests are already seated and listening.
• Give the emcee the speakers in order, with each person's relationship to you.
• Decide in advance who can approve overtime, so nobody has to find you on the dance floor.
• Put the vendor meals on the page. If they are not scheduled, they end up squeezed around the toasts.
• Send the final version to every vendor a week ahead, and print copies for the planner, the captain and the band.