Getting started as a wedding planner

As a planner, Wedding Computer is the hub for every wedding you manage. You coordinate vendors, hold the timeline, and create the workspace that everyone else joins into. Getting set up properly means every wedding you take on runs through a consistent, professional system.

Step 1 — Complete your business profile

Go to Settings → Profile and fill in:

Business name — what couples and vendors will see when they view your profile
Category — select Planner
Location — your base city or region
Timezone — your local timezone, used for all dates and calendar events
Bio, website, Instagram — these appear on your public directory listing and in your vendor profile when you’re added to a wedding

Why: Your profile is what other vendors see when you invite them into a wedding. A complete profile — business name, location, photo — tells them immediately who they’re working with. Vendors are more likely to accept an invitation from a planner who looks established.

Step 2 — Build your enquiry form

Go to Settings → Enquiry form and customise the questions couples answer when they contact you.

For a planner, useful questions include:

Wedding date (required)
Wedding location or venue (or “shortlisted venues”)
Estimated guest count
Ceremony type (outdoor, indoor, destination, elopement)
Which planning package they’re interested in (if you offer tiers: full planning, partial, day-of coordination)
How they heard about you
Any detail about their vision or style

Turn on conditional logic to ask different follow-up questions based on package interest — day-of coordination clients need different information than full-planning clients.

Why: A good enquiry form qualifies leads before you invest time in a response. If your form asks the right questions, you’ll know from the first message whether a couple is the right fit, what their date is, and what service level they need — before you pick up the phone.

Step 3 — Create a service contract template

Go to Settings → Contracts and create your standard planner agreement. Include:

Scope of services (full planning, partial, day-of coordination)
Payment schedule (deposit, instalments, final balance)
Cancellation and postponement terms
What happens if a vendor you recommend is unavailable
Communication expectations

Why: Your contract protects both you and the couple. Attaching it to an invoice means they read and sign it before paying — no chasing signatures separately. You can create multiple templates for different service tiers.

Step 4 — Configure Stripe for deposits and payments

Go to Settings → Payments → Connect Stripe and complete the Stripe onboarding.

Set up your payment schedule in each invoice: typically a deposit (20–30% of the total fee) at booking, a mid-payment at a certain milestone, and the final balance 4–6 weeks before the wedding.

Why: Automated card payments mean you don’t have to follow up manually for every instalment. Couples pay online through their booking page — no bank transfer references to check, no payment confirmation emails to track down.

Step 5 — Set your availability

Go to Settings → Availability and:

Mark which days of the week you take on weddings (most planners work weekends)
Block out personal dates and holidays
Set your availability sharing — Public so enquirers can see your available dates before they contact you

Why: A public availability calendar means you stop getting enquiries for dates you’re already booked. Couples check your calendar before they enquire, so the leads that do come through are for real available dates.

If you have Pro, enable AI auto-reply — when a new enquiry arrives for a date you’re free, the AI sends an immediate personalised reply acknowledging the enquiry and confirming your availability. Couples expect fast responses; this handles the first reply automatically.

Go to Settings → Calendar and copy your iCal feed URL. Subscribe to it in your calendar app:

Apple Calendar: File → New Calendar Subscription
Google Calendar: Other calendars → From URL

Why: Your iCal feed shows all your upcoming weddings as events in your personal calendar. As you book weddings, they appear automatically. You always have your wedding schedule visible alongside your personal commitments.

For two-way sync (Pro), set up CalDAV under Settings → Device sync. This is recommended for planners managing multiple weddings — changes sync to your phone’s calendar in real time.

Step 7 — Create your first wedding workspace

When a couple books, open their contact record and click Promote to wedding. Fill in the wedding details:

Date and location
Ceremony and reception start times
Getting-ready time
Guest count

Then, immediately:

Set yourself as the managing vendor — go to People → your name → enable Can manage. This means other vendors must submit a change request before altering ceremony time, reception time, or other shared timing fields. You approve or decline each request.
Invite the couple — Add people → Invite couple. Enter both email addresses.
Invite the vendor team — as each vendor is confirmed, add them to the workspace. They join as members and can add their own timeline items.

Why: The managing vendor role is the key thing that makes Wedding Computer work for planners. Without it, any vendor can change the ceremony time and everyone else’s timeline breaks. With it, all timing changes go through you first. The timeline stays accurate because you’re the gate.

Step 8 — Build the initial run sheet

Go to the wedding → Timeline and start building the day’s structure. Use the AI → Generate run sheet feature to get a starting draft based on the wedding details, then edit it into your preferred format.

Add your own planning milestones as timeline items: bump-in time, supplier arrival windows, room-flip timing, end-of-night schedule. Set your items to vendors visibility so the team sees them, or private for your internal notes.

Why: The sooner you have a structure in the timeline, the earlier vendors can see where they fit. Your photographer can see portrait time, your celebrant can see ceremony start, your venue can see their setup window — all from the shared workspace rather than separate emails from you.

Step 9 — Add team members (Pro, if you have staff)

If you work with an assistant or coordinator, go to Settings → Team and invite them. They get their own login to your account and can access all your weddings.

Why: A team member doesn’t need their own Wedding Computer subscription — they access yours. This means your coordinator can update run sheets, respond to vendor queries through the workspace, and manage weddings when you’re unavailable.

You’re ready when:

Your profile is complete (name, category as Planner, location)
Your enquiry form is live and asking the right questions
You have at least one contract template ready
Stripe is connected and your payment schedule structure is decided
Your availability is set and visible to enquirers
Your calendar feed is subscribed in your phone/desktop calendar
You know how to create a workspace and immediately set yourself as managing vendor

What to do right now

Take your next booked couple and create their workspace. Set yourself as the managing vendor, invite them, and invite any vendors you’ve already confirmed. Start adding your coordination milestones to the timeline.

Seeing it work for a real wedding is the fastest way to internalise the system. The planners & venues guide covers the managing vendor role, change approvals, and live mode in depth.