How do I check a wedding timeline for vendor clashes?

Take each vendor in turn and write down when they can arrive, how long they need to set up and when they leave. Then compare those times against every moment they serve. Any setup that ends after its moment starts, and any departure before its moment ends, is a clash to fix now, not on the day.

Journal

How to check a wedding timeline for vendor clashes before the day

Why clashes hide in a timeline

A run of show is usually written moment by moment: ceremony, cocktails, portraits, dinner, speeches, party. Vendor logistics are written somewhere else: in emails, contracts and venue access rules. The clash lives in the gap between the two documents.

A florist who can only reach the terrace at 14:30 and needs 90 minutes cannot finish an arch for a 15:00 ceremony. Each fact is correct on its own. Only the comparison shows the problem.

The vendor by vendor method

1. List every vendor with three times: earliest access, setup length, latest departure.

2. For each vendor, list the moments they serve.

3. Check that access plus setup finishes before each moment starts, with a margin you are comfortable with.

4. Check that the departure is after the last moment they serve ends, including the moment running late.

5. Check the overall finish against the venue's agreed end time.

Plan for moments running late

Speeches and dinner service often run over. Give each moment a shortest and longest realistic length, then rerun the check using the longest lengths. A photographer leaving at 22:00 is fine on paper and a problem once dinner runs 20 minutes long.

How Aisle helps

Aisle's Conflict check reads your run of show and every vendor's arrival note, goes through each vendor one at a time, and returns the clashes ranked by severity with a one line fix and a checklist in order. It is a second pair of eyes, not a replacement for your own review.

See it on a demo event How the score works