A wedding week checklist should not introduce a new round of planning. The final seven days are for confirming the decisions you already made, locking the numbers vendors need, preparing payments and documents, and handing remaining responsibilities to specific people before the wedding day begins.
The part couples often underestimate is the handoff. A task is not truly handled because someone vaguely knows about it; a specific person needs to know they are carrying the marriage license, delivering a payment envelope, collecting gifts, answering vendor questions, or watching a final timing detail. By this point, fewer responsibilities should still default to the couple.
This guide covers the wedding week tasks that genuinely belong in the final seven days, including vendor confirmations, final counts, seating, payments and tips, packing, attire, documents, rehearsal timing, a final weather check, and delegation. For the operating plan once the wedding itself begins, use the wedding day checklist.
The Wedding Week Checklist at a Glance
The table below sketches a typical seven-day arc, but real weeks compress and stretch depending on your wedding’s size and how far along things already were. Use it as a sequencing guide rather than a fixed calendar, and adjust the days to fit your own timeline.
| Day | Task | Owner | Deliver To |
|---|---|---|---|
| By final-count deadline | Final guest count locked and sent | Couple | Caterer and rental company |
| 6 days before | Seating chart finalized and printed | Couple or planner | Venue or print vendor |
| 6 days before | Remaining vendor balances confirmed | Couple | Each vendor, per contract terms |
| 5 days before | Tip envelopes labeled and cash ready | Couple | Day-of delegate |
| 4 days before | Marriage license and documents gathered | Couple | Officiant or designated carrier |
| 3 days before | Attire picked up, steamed, and checked | Couple / wedding party | Getting-ready location |
| 2 days before | Rehearsal run and roles confirmed | Officiant / coordinator | Full wedding party |
| 1 day before | Wedding-day bag packed and handed off | Couple | Maid of honor / best man / coordinator |
Notice how few of these rows involve making a choice: nearly every task is confirming something already decided or physically handing it to the person who’s now responsible for it. That shift, from deciding to delegating, is really what the whole week is about.
Confirm Every Vendor’s Final Details
Every vendor should hear from you once this week, even the ones who already have everything they need. A short confirmation email is an easy safeguard against a scheduling mix-up. Confirm arrival time, load-in access, contact person on-site, and any last detail specific to their service, like an outlet location for the DJ or a cutting time for the caterer.
Build a single contact sheet with every vendor’s name, phone number, and arrival window, and share it with whoever is running point on the wedding day so vendors have someone besides the couple to call with routine questions. This is also the week to confirm final balances due: some contracts require payment on delivery, others by a set date before the event, and mixing those up is an easy way to end up scrambling for cash the morning of.
Final Counts: Give Caterers and Rentals a Real Number
Your caterer and rental company need a final headcount this week, and it’s typically the last number you’re allowed to change without a fee. Confirm the count against actual RSVPs, not the number on your original invitation list, and account for any last-minute cancellations or additions separately with each vendor.
If dietary restrictions or a kids’ meal count were part of your catering conversation, this is the week those numbers get locked too, not adjusted later. Once the count is submitted, treat it as final. Asking for a change three days out puts real pressure on a kitchen that has already ordered ingredients for the number you gave them.
Seating: Print the Chart and Stop Editing It
A seating chart that’s still being tweaked six days out is a chart that isn’t actually finished. Lock it against your final RSVP count, print or format the display version, and hand a copy to your caterer or venue coordinator so table assignments match what the kitchen is planning to serve.
Resist the pull to accommodate one more late request once this is printed. A single swap feels small in isolation, but reopening the chart during the busiest week of planning tends to create more problems than the original seating conflict did.
Payments and Tips: Get Both Ready Early
Handle vendor payments and gratuities before the week gets busy, not the morning of the wedding. Check each contract for how final balances are expected (check, card, or cash) and confirm who’s physically handling that exchange on the day, since it’s rarely practical for the couple to step away from their own reception to pay a vendor.
For tips, a common approach is to prepare labeled envelopes ahead of time, one per vendor, with the amount already decided rather than guessed at in the moment. Tipping norms vary by vendor type, region, and whether a service charge is already built into the contract, so check each contract for language about gratuity before assuming a tip is expected on top of it.
Packing: What Actually Needs a Bag
Two different bags tend to matter this week: a wedding-day bag with everything needed at the venue, and a going-away bag if you’re leaving directly for a honeymoon or a night away. Keep them separate. Mixing emergency supplies with travel items usually means something important gets left in the wrong bag.
A wedding-day bag typically holds documents, rings if they aren’t with the officiant, a phone charger, basic emergency supplies, and anything the couple specifically wants nearby. Pack it a day or two ahead and hand it to whoever is carrying it on the day, rather than assembling it in the final rushed hour before you leave.
Attire: The Last Fitting and Final Pickup
Pick up attire with enough buffer to catch a problem (a hem that’s slightly off, a missing button, a suit that needs a last press) while there’s still time to fix it. Try everything on again once it’s home, including shoes and any undergarments you’ll actually wear, rather than trusting that the fitting-room version will travel perfectly.
Confirm who’s responsible for steaming or pressing attire the day before or the morning of, and where it will hang until then. A garment left folded in a suitcase for a week is a common and avoidable source of wrinkles nobody notices until the photos are already being taken.
Documents: Get the Marriage License Organized
Marriage license requirements, waiting periods, and what needs to be presented on the wedding day vary by state and county, so confirm the specifics with the office that issued yours well before the week starts. What this week covers is logistics: knowing exactly where the license physically is, who’s bringing it, and who’s responsible for it after the ceremony.
Assign one person, often the officiant, a coordinator, or a specifically named family member, to carry and safeguard the license, along with any other paperwork the ceremony requires. Confirm the same person, or another named one, knows the process for filing or returning it afterward so it doesn’t sit forgotten in a jacket pocket for weeks.
Rehearsal: Where It Fits in a Busy Week
The rehearsal usually lands one or two days before the wedding, and it’s worth protecting that slot rather than letting it get pushed later by other final-week tasks. It’s the one chance to test the ceremony sequence with everyone in the room together before the actual day.
Because the rehearsal deserves its own walkthrough, who attends, what actually gets practiced, and how to handle common hiccups, the wedding rehearsal guide covers that in full. This page’s job is simply making sure it’s scheduled with enough breathing room around it, not squeezed between a dress pickup and a vendor call.
Weather: A Quick Check, Not a Rebuild
If any part of your wedding is outdoors, this week is for checking the forecast and confirming your existing backup plan still holds, not for building a weather plan from scratch. That decision-making work belongs earlier in the process.
Confirm with whoever is authorized to make the weather call that they still have the information they need, and that the indoor or covered alternative is genuinely ready to go if it’s needed. The ceremony planning guide covers how to build that contingency plan in the first place, including who should own the final call.
Delegation: Naming the People Who Aren’t the Couple
By the final week, nearly every remaining task should have a name attached to it that isn’t “the couple.” If a question is still routing back to you by default, that’s a sign the handoff hasn’t actually happened yet, even if the task itself feels handled.
Make a short list of every person taking something on this week: who’s carrying documents, collecting gifts, managing vendor questions, watching the timeline, and handling breakdown, and confirm each of them knows it. A plan that only exists in your head isn’t a plan the rest of your wedding party or family can actually execute on the day.
Finish the Planning and Hand Off the Wedding
The wedding week should feel less like another planning phase and more like a controlled series of confirmations and handoffs. Lock the numbers, prepare the documents and payments, confirm the people who need final information, and give every remaining responsibility a clear owner.
If a new idea appears this late, ask whether it solves a real problem or simply reopens something that was already finished. The goal of the final seven days is not to keep improving the plan. It is to reach the wedding day with the decisions closed, the responsibilities transferred, and as little left for the couple to manage as possible.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
What should you do the week of your wedding?
Focus on confirming decisions that are already made rather than creating new ones. Send final guest counts, lock the seating chart, confirm vendor details and balances, prepare tips, organize the marriage license and other documents, pick up and check attire, attend the rehearsal, review the weather plan, and make sure every remaining task has a named owner.
What should be finalized the week before the wedding?
The final guest count, seating chart, vendor arrival details, payment responsibilities, tip envelopes, attire, ceremony documents, transportation details, rehearsal timing, and wedding-day handoffs should all be locked or confirmed. The goal is to enter the wedding day with very little left that requires a decision from the couple.
How many days before a wedding should the final headcount be due?
The deadline varies by venue, caterer, and rental company. Many contracts require the final number several days to two weeks before the wedding, but your own agreement is the source of truth. Confirm the exact deadline and what changes, if any, are allowed after the count is submitted.
Who should carry the marriage license on the wedding day?
Assign one specific person who is unlikely to lose track of it, such as the officiant, coordinator, or another trusted person with a defined role. Also confirm who is responsible for the license after the ceremony and for any required return or filing. The important part is having clear ownership before the wedding day begins.
Should you make any final decisions during wedding week?
Only when a real problem requires one. Wedding week should primarily be a confirmation and handoff period, not a time to redesign décor, reopen seating, add vendors, or make optional changes. Late changes tend to create extra cost, new dependencies, and avoidable stress when the existing plan is already in motion.
What is the difference between a wedding week checklist and a wedding day checklist?
A wedding week checklist covers the final seven days before the event: confirmations, final counts, payments, documents, packing, rehearsal, and handoffs. A wedding day checklist begins once the event itself is underway and covers the responsibilities, items, and real-time logistics needed to execute the plan.