Eight weeks out: the three anchors
- The date and the venue, together, because each one constrains the other.
- The budget as a number, not a mood - and the first split: venue, food, everything else.
- The guest count as an estimate with an honest range, because every later price depends on it.
Four weeks out: the list becomes real
- Send the invitations with a reply-by date three weeks before the event, and say what happens after that date.
- Start the tracking list: invited, replied, coming, declined, no answer yet - one list, updated in one place.
- Book food against the estimate, not the final count, and confirm the final count later as the contract allows.
- Confirm anything with a lead time: rentals, cake, printing, the person doing the music.
Two weeks out: the shape of the day
- Chase the no-answers; a reply you chased is worth two you assumed.
- Draft the seating while the list can still move, so the final version is an edit and not a rebuild.
- Write the running order for the day itself: arrivals, food, speeches, the end. Half a page, in time blocks.
- Confirm every vendor in writing, one message each, with the times and the numbers repeated back.
The last week: only two jobs belong here
- The final headcount to the food people, on the day their contract asks for it.
- The final seating and the final running order, printed or on a phone that works offline.
- Everything else was supposed to be done. A last week with a long list means an earlier week had a short one.
- Keep the receipts list going as you pay. The honest total, after the event, is next year's budget's best friend.
The free tool for this
There is no calculator that answers this one honestly, so here is the free set: eight calculators for rates, quotes, invoices, splits, prices and fees. They run in the page and send nothing anywhere.
If you would rather not build it yourself
The Event Plan file is this timeline as tabs: guests, seating, budget and the running order, with the counts computing themselves. Event Plan is $14. See it on the shop, and there is a plain page about it here: what it holds.
Questions people actually ask
What if I have less than eight weeks?
Compress the order, never skip it: anchors first, list second, shape of the day third, confirmations last. The reason the order exists is that each step prices the next one - skip it and you pay for the same things twice.
What can safely be decided late?
Table decorations, the music order, the favors - anything with no lead time and no dependency. What cannot wait is anything another person needs in order to do their part.
Read next
How to plan an event guest list and seating without chaos, Which wedding costs to settle first, in order.