Week 14 — Shortlist and deposit

Three venues, in the same week. Visit if you can; if not, hold three video tours back-to-back and let the contrast tell you which one is right. Once a venue is chosen, a 30% deposit secures the date. This is the only step that meaningfully gets harder if you delay — wedding-grade Bali estates book a year out for Saturdays in dry season.

Lock the date and the venue first. Everything else flexes around them.

Week 10 — Vendors locked

Four people decide the day's tone: planner, photographer, floral designer, music. Sign them in this order. A planner who has worked your specific venue ten times is worth more than a more famous one who has not.

If you are flying a photographer in, book their flights in this week too. They are usually a separate line item from the venue and the easiest to forget.

Week 6 — Tasting, attire, paperwork

Fly in for the tasting — the food and your venue's energy together tell you everything you cannot tell from a deck. Try the final menu, sit at the table you'll seat parents, watch how the staff move.

Pickup or final fitting for both partners' attire happens in this window. Order rings if not already. If you are doing a civil ceremony abroad and a symbolic ceremony in Bali — the route most international couples take — file the home-country paperwork now, with a comfortable buffer.

“Eat the menu before the wedding. You do not want to find out at dinner that the prawns are too cold.”

Week 3 — Guest count, RSVPs, transport

Send the final RSVP nudge at three weeks out, not two. The 5% of guests who reply last hold up your seating chart, your transport count, and your dietary list — getting them moving early buys back two weeks of evenings.

Confirm the airport-to-hotel transfers for arriving guests, and the hotel-to-venue transfers for the wedding day. In Bali, traffic can quadruple a 20-minute drive on a Saturday afternoon; plan ceremony call times accordingly.

Week 1 — Rehearsal, brief, last calls

The rehearsal dinner is its own event — small, warm, ideally at the venue or a five-minute drive away. Use it to walk the ceremony order with the wedding party, brief speeches (ask for under three minutes each, gently), and hand parents their copy of the timing sheet.

Your planner should produce a one-page run sheet for the day — vendor names, contact numbers, transitions to the minute. Print it. Distribute it to the planner team, parents, and best people. Leave a paper copy with the venue manager. Then put your phone away.

On the day — the rhythm

A good day, in three blocks: morning (private, quiet, optional first look), late afternoon (ceremony, cocktails, sunset photos), evening (dinner, speeches, dancing). The biggest mistake we see is over-programming the evening — long speeches at minute 20, multiple performances, late food. Build space. Let it breathe. The couple should look up at 10pm and realise they have been dancing for an hour without knowing it.