What our wedding planner actually does in the final week

The final 7 days before a wedding are when the planner earns their fee. The bride's family thinks the wedding is being decided in 50 small WhatsApp messages a day; from our side, we're running a 200-item checklist that quietly makes those messages unnecessary. Here's the day-by-day breakdown.

Day 7 — Monday (assuming Sunday wedding)

• Guest count freeze. The final guest count goes to the kitchen and the décor team. Any add-on requests after Monday cost PKR 1,500 per head (kitchen cost) — we never charge the family extra, we charge it back to the planner's contingency.
• Vendor confirmation calls. Photographer, videographer, mehndi artist (if outside the package), DJ, dhol player, qawwal (if any), florist. Each gets a written confirmation of arrival time, parking spot, and on-site contact.
• Bridal mehndi schedule check — final timing with the mehndi artist.
• First family briefing call — 30-minute call with the bride's father (or whoever's the family decision-maker) walking through the 7-day plan.

Day 6 — Tuesday

• Kitchen menu finalised + procurement starts. Specialty ingredients (saffron, premium meats, imported seafood for upgrade packages) ordered today for Friday delivery.
• Stage build kicks off. Stage + entrance arch get built and tested with rigging.
• Music playlist call with the bride and groom — they share the entry songs, dance-floor playlist, and the "no-play" list (songs of ex-partners, family-sensitive choices).
• Drone footage permission check (if planned) — Lahore drone restrictions are real; some venues need a 48-hour application to local police for drone shots.

Day 5 — Wednesday

• Décor sample setup. We build a 1-table sample of the table centerpiece and 1-corner of the entrance arch. The bride visits in the evening for approval. Any changes happen Thursday; nothing changes after Thursday.
• Bridal suite stocking — refreshments, the bridal-suite chai station, the touch-up products list shared with the MUA.
• Photographer pre-shoot walkthrough. The photographer visits the hall, scouts angles, agrees with our lighting team on what lights stay on, what shifts colour.
• Family member briefings. The bride's mother gets the bridal-suite tour. The father gets the toastmaster handoff. The brother gets the dance-floor cue list.

Day 4 — Thursday

• Final décor changes (if any). After today, only colour-adjacent changes are possible — no major theme shifts.
• Police escort coordination (if VIP guests). Letters submitted to local SHO.
• Mehndi day (if Friday-Saturday-Sunday cluster) — full mehndi event execution. About a third of our weddings are 3-day clusters.
• Catering tasting — chef serves all the signature dishes to the family + planner. Last chance for "the karahi needs more chili" type adjustments.

Day 3 — Friday

• Logistics check — power backup tested, generator fuelled, lighting circuits verified.
• Setup phase 1 — chairs, tables, basic linens placed. The hall starts looking like a wedding.
• Bridal sehra ceremony at home (if applicable) — we send 2 of our team to coordinate the timing of the bride's arrival at the hall on Sunday from the home ceremony.

Day 2 — Saturday (eve of wedding)

• Setup phase 2 — full décor build, flowers placed, stage finalised. Final lighting program tested.
• Photographer walk-through final — exact placement of the bridal entrance, the lighting calibration for the head-table shot.
• Family briefing call #2 — 20-minute call confirming Sunday morning timings: when the bridal makeup starts, when the groom arrives, when the rukhsati happens, when the cars need to be at the door.
• Sleep early (we tell the family) — we'll send the morning wake-up WhatsApp at 9 AM Sunday.

Day 1 — Sunday (wedding day)

The planner is on-site from **8 AM** for an 8 PM start.

• 08:00: Final hall check, table count, chair count.
• 10:00: Bridal makeup artist arrives at the suite. Our team coordinates her parking + setup.
• 12:00: Catering team starts prep (slow-cooked items go on at 12 PM for 8 PM service).
• 14:00: Florist arrives, places final centerpieces. Décor team does the touch-up round.
• 16:00: Photographer + videographer arrive. They get a hall walk-through.
• 17:00: Family arrives at the suite. Our team's bridal attendant briefs the bridal family.
• 18:00: Sound check + DJ test. Lighting program rehearsed.
• 19:00: Guests start arriving. Welcome team activated.
• 19:30: Family briefing #3 — final timings adjusted based on bride's makeup completion.
• 20:00: Wedding begins.
• Then: 5 hours of execution, with the planner roving between the bride's family, the groom's family, the kitchen, the photographer, and the DJ.
• 01:00: Wedding ends. Our team starts wrap-up. The family goes home. The bride and groom leave for their honeymoon hotel.
• 02:30: Final hall walkthrough. Lost-and-found inventory.

What we DON'T do

• We don't handle the actual nikkah ceremony's religious officiation — that's between the family and their nikkah khwan / qazi.
• We don't handle the wedding photography content edits — that's the photographer's contract.
• We don't take responsibility for guest behaviour — security handles disruption.

---

The PKR 25,000 admin fee in our Gold and Platinum packages covers this 7-day pre-event work — the planner's time, the family briefings, and the on-site execution coordination. It's the difference between a wedding that runs on time and one that doesn't.