Free planning tool
Tell it what you are planning and the hours you have the venue. It starts you with a realistic day, then tells you whether everything you want actually fits in the time you booked.
Most day-of problems are the same problem: the day is longer than the hours you paid for. These two times are what we check everything against.
Does your rental include setup and teardown? Pick one
This decides which parts of the day we put on your schedule. You can delete anything that does not apply.
Pick one to begin. If you continue without choosing, we will build a wedding day and you can change it at any time.
This is usually the one time somebody else already set. We work backward from it so you do not have to do the arithmetic.
When do guests start arriving?
Dinner is usually the longest block of the evening, and how long it takes depends on the style and on how the room is run. Published guides disagree, so we mark it clearly until you confirm it with your caterer.
Is someone calling tables?
A buffet moves as fast as the room is run. One person releasing tables is the difference between a line and a wait.
Your schedule already has the usual people on it. Add anyone it cannot know about, and take off whoever is not part of your day.
Nothing here is missing from your schedule. These are the numbers only somebody else can give you, and who to ask.
Example day
Your day so far
What is happening on your day?
Add your venue hours
Your timeline saves itself on this device as you work. Save a copy downloads a file you can open here again later, or on another device.
Your day at a glance
A picture of the schedule below. To change anything, use the schedule itself.
The timeline view needs a wider screen. On a phone, try the Day view.
Your schedule
Every row can be changed. Open one to set how long it takes, when a vendor arrives, or to remove what does not apply.
Every block has been removed. Start over to bring the schedule back.
Things to confirm
Nothing here is missing from your schedule. These are the numbers only somebody else can give you. Pick one to jump to it.
Load in, service timing, and teardown are the blocks most people guess at. We do them every weekend across San Antonio.
See our catering servicesMost schedule tools will happily let you build a nine hour day inside a six hour rental and never say a word. This one adds up the blocks against your venue window and tells you when you are over. It also works backward: pin your ceremony time and it tells you what time hair and makeup has to start.
Hair and makeup happens at a house or a hotel, hours before anyone can get into the venue. So your day is longer than your rental. Only the blocks that happen at the venue count against the hours you paid for, and this tool keeps those two things separate on purpose. The morning still shows on your schedule, it just does not eat your reception.
Almost every wedding morning is decided by a single number: the ceremony time. Pin it, and everything before it falls out of the arithmetic. With the timings this tool starts you with, a 4:00 PM ceremony means hair and makeup has to start at 8:15 AM. Most people are surprised by that number the first time they see it, which is exactly why it is worth seeing early.
Most venues rent a block of time, and the question that catches people out is whether load in and teardown happen inside it. If you think you have the room from four until midnight, and setup starts at four and teardown has to finish by midnight, you have less reception than you think. Ask before you sign, and put the real answer into the tool.
The thing that decides how long a buffet takes is not the guest count. It is whether somebody is releasing tables in an orderly way and keeping a smooth train going. With an MC or a coordinator calling tables, a single line works at any size party. Without one, even a short line backs up fast. So the question to settle is who is calling tables, not how many lines to set.
Travel between the house and the venue, and the changeover between two things in the same room, are the blocks people leave out and then run late on. They are on the schedule here as their own rows so you can see how much of the day is neither ceremony nor party. For a conference, the same idea covers room turnover: clearing one speaker, setting up the next, and letting the audience filter back in.
The beats are their own: the misa, the entrance with the court, the vals, the surprise dance, and the group of traditions around the crown, the changing of the shoes, and the last doll. Those three have no fixed order. Families set them with their choreographer, so the tool keeps them together as one block you can move wherever it belongs in your night.
Every block on the schedule is labelled with where its number came from. Common practice means it is a published starting point you should adjust to your own day. Not set means it is something only your caterer or your venue can tell you, so the tool asks instead of guessing. Tap any label to see the reasoning behind it.
Catering 210 runs full-service events across San Antonio: buffet lines, plated service, staffing, and the day-of timing that keeps dinner moving. Tell us what you are planning.
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