Wedding Week Checklist: The Day-by-Day Plan for Your Final 7 Days

This is the day to finalize your guest count and pass it to every vendor who needs it — caterer, venue, rental company, and officiant if seating matters for the ceremony. Call or email your caterer directly rather than assuming your RSVP tracker is enough; most contracts require a final headcount 5–7 business days out, and this is often the last date you can adjust it without a change fee. While you're at it, confirm your seating chart is finalized (or close to it) so place cards and table numbers can go to print or get handwritten. If you've been using a digital seating tool, this is the moment to freeze it — print a backup copy in case wifi or a laptop fails on the day. Also confirm final payment amounts due and to whom; many vendors expect balances paid in full this week, either by check or transfer, so set that money aside now rather than scrambling on Thursday.

Send a single email to each vendor — photographer, florist, DJ or band, hair and makeup artist, transportation — confirming arrival times, setup windows, and contact numbers for the day. Attach or restate your ceremony and reception timeline so everyone is working from the same script. This is also the day to confirm delivery windows: what time do flowers arrive, what time does the cake get dropped off, does the rental company need someone on-site to receive linens and chairs. If you haven't already assigned a point-of-contact who isn't you or your partner, do it now — a detail-oriented parent, sibling, or your day-of coordinator should be the one fielding vendor calls on the wedding day itself, not the bride or groom.

Hand off anything that requires lifting, driving, or errands. Assign one person to pick up the rented tuxedos or suits, another to collect the wedding dress from its final pressing, someone else to be responsible for getting the marriage license to the officiant. Write these assignments down and send them in a group text or shared note so nothing relies on memory. If you're building welcome bags for out-of-town guests, this is the day to assemble and drop them at the hotel front desk with a delivery list of guest names and room numbers. Anyone still owing you a vendor payment, a final dress alteration, or a signature on a contract should be gently but clearly followed up with today — five days out is your last real buffer before things become urgent.

Gather everything that needs to travel to the venue or getting-ready location: rings, marriage license, vows if you're reading them, any ceremony props (unity candle, sand, family heirlooms), gratuity envelopes for vendors, and your emergency kit. Speaking of which, build one now if you haven't: safety pins, fashion tape, stain remover pen, blister pads, mints, a phone charger and portable battery, bobby pins, deodorant, and a small sewing kit. Pack it in a labeled bag that stays with your day-of coordinator or a trusted bridesmaid — not in your own overnight bag, where it's easy to forget. If you're using a printed or shared seating chart, print two extra copies today: one for the venue coordinator and one as backup in your emergency kit.

Call the venue to confirm setup and breakdown times, parking arrangements, and whether they need a certificate of insurance from any outside vendors. Confirm hair and makeup trial notes are on hand for the artist, and that everyone in the party knows their appointment time in writing. If you built your plan using the 3-month wedding checklist earlier in your process, this is a good moment to scan back through it and catch anything marked pending that quietly never got closed out. Reconfirm transportation — who's driving the getaway car, what time does the shuttle for guests leave the hotel, does the limo company have the correct pickup address. Small logistical gaps like these are what actually cause wedding-day stress, far more often than anything dramatic.

This is typically rehearsal day. Walk the ceremony space with your officiant, wedding party, and anyone with a speaking role, and time it — a rehearsal that runs long is a sign your actual ceremony will too. Pick up your dress or suit for the final time and hang it somewhere it won't wrinkle or get exposed to sunlight. Confirm the rehearsal dinner headcount with the restaurant or caterer, and make sure toasts, if planned, have a rough order and time limit communicated to whoever's giving them. If you haven't handed out final tip envelopes, prepare them tonight so they're ready to distribute without a last-minute cash search.

The day before should have almost nothing left on it except rest, hydration, and light logistics — pick up flowers if they're not being delivered day-of, drop off any last items at the venue, and eat a real meal. Lay out everything you're wearing the next morning, charge your phone and any cameras, and set two alarms. If your week has felt like a sprint, this is the day to protect sleep above all else; a full night's rest will do more for how you look and feel in photos than any last treatment or product. For a broader view of how this final week fits into everything that came before it, it can help to revisit the ultimate wedding planning checklist and confirm every earlier phase is genuinely closed, not just checked off.

Every couple needs one person during wedding week who isn't emotionally in the middle of it — not the bride, not the groom, ideally not a parent who's also managing their own emotions about the day. A maid of honor, best man, or hired day-of coordinator should hold the master timeline, the vendor contact list, and the emergency kit, and should be the one fielding calls and questions on the day itself. Give this person a printed copy of your full timeline and vendor list by 5 days out, not the morning of. If you built your schedule using a digital planner, our free wedding checklist tool lets you assign tasks to specific people and mark them complete in real time, so your point person always has the current version instead of a week-old screenshot.