Setup, turnaround and strike
Midlands Wedding Styling Setup, turnaround and strike
This is the page that decides whether a styling plan is possible. Everything else is a preference; the access window is a fact.
Three time constraints govern the day, and every styling decision sits inside them.
The three windows
Setup. From when you may first access the room to when it must be guest-ready. Set by the venue, and shorter than people assume.
Turnaround. Between the ceremony ending and guests entering the reception space. Thirty to forty-five minutes is typical for a room flip. Everything that has to move between rooms moves here.
Strike. From the end of the evening to when everything must be out. Frequently the same night, occasionally the next morning, and it determines who is packing boxes at midnight.
Establish all three in writing before you book a supplier, not after. See venue restrictions.
The night before
The single factor that changes what is possible more than any other. A venue with no event the day before will often let you dress the night before, which turns a frantic morning into a calm evening and removes most of the risk from the plan.
Ask directly. The answer is free and it reshapes everything downstream.
Sequence
Suppliers arrive in an order and it is not the order they choose. Give every supplier the same written sequence:
- Lighting and anything at height, because they need floor space and ladders
- Furniture and layout, because everything sits on it
- Linen, steamed, then tables laid
- Flowers, as late as sensible so they are fresh
- Stationery, place cards and final touches
- Final walk-through with the venue
Two suppliers who each turn up when convenient will collide, and the one who loses is whoever needed an empty floor.
How long dressing really takes
For a hundred and twenty covers with place settings, two experienced people take three to four hours after the linen is on. Add ninety minutes if the linen needs steaming. Add an hour if place cards are individually laid. Add more if the room also has to be laid out from scratch.
Compare that against the access window before deciding to do it yourself. See what a stylist does.
The turnaround, in detail
The tightest window of the day and the one that goes wrong. What typically has to happen: chairs moved and re-dressed, ceremony flowers moved, the arch struck, the room reset, and the plan and signage repositioned.
Three rules make it work. Name one person who owns it, and tell the venue who that is. Write the sequence down. And do not schedule anything that depends on a supplier returning, because they will be somewhere else.
Guests need somewhere to be during it. That is the venue's problem in principle and yours in practice, so ask what happens.
Strike
The part nobody plans and everybody does tired.
Establish who packs down, whether the hire company collects the same night or the next morning, whether the venue will store items overnight, and who removes packaging and waste. In a dry-hire venue the answer to the last one is usually you, and a large hire delivery generates more packaging than a car will hold.
If collection is next morning, someone has to be there to meet it, and it will not be you.
The document worth writing
One page, sent to the venue and every supplier a fortnight out: access time, sequence, contact numbers, turnaround plan, strike arrangement, and who is the named decision-maker on the day.
It takes twenty minutes and it prevents most of what goes wrong, because almost everything that goes wrong on a wedding day is two competent suppliers holding different assumptions.
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