Note: It is a value to me to make the wedding industry a more inclusive, accessible, diverse, and equitable place. As such, I want to acknowledge that the word “walkthrough” is ableist. This is because it assumes everyone walks. I have retained the word in the beginning of this resource because it is the term most likely to help people get the information they need. I have also added in an alternative word — “tour — that I highly recommend you use and that I am challenging myself to use in my own work as a wedding planner.
Typically, people planning weddings visit a venue three times before the wedding: one time to tour the space before booking, a second time to tour the space 60 days out from the wedding, and a third time for any rehearsal hosted in the space.
This article talks specifically about that second time: the final walkthrough or, to use a less ableist term, final tour.
To learn more about the first visit, go here.
To learn more about the rehearsal, go here.
Still with me? Great. Here is my advice as a professional wedding planner on what to expect and how to plan for a final walkthrough or final tour at a wedding venue.
Need help picking a venue? Here’s what people have to say about renting my Virgo wedding planner brain for an hour.
When do I do a final wedding venue tour?
I recommend scheduling the final wedding venue tour no later than 60 days before the wedding. For my clients, I aim to have this meeting any time in the two weeks prior to that 60 day out mark.
Don’t know when the 60 day out mark from your wedding is? Google “60 days before [insert your wedding date].” A quick cheat sheet:
If the wedding is in January, the 60 days is in: November
If the wedding is in February, the 60 days is in: December
If the wedding is in March, the 60 days is in: January
If the wedding is in April, the 60 days is in: February
If the wedding is in May, the 60 days is in: March
If the wedding is in June, the 60 days is in: April
If the wedding is in July, the 60 days is in: May
If the wedding is in August, the 60 days is in: June
If the wedding is in September, the 60 days is in: July
If the wedding is in October, the 60 days is in: August
If the wedding is in November, the 60 days is in: September
If the wedding is in December, the 60 days is in: October
Can I do the final wedding venue tour earlier than 60 days?
Yes, though I recommend doing this no earlier than 90 days before the wedding. Earlier than that and it’s unlikely that you’re going to have the information needed to make this meeting the most efficient it can be.
Can I do the final wedding venue tour later than 60 days?
Yes, but I don’t recommend it. This is for two reasons.
The time between 60 days and 14 days before a wedding is often the most productive part of planning because we’re close enough to actually make some final decisions. This time is very valuable and so I recommend cutting into it as little as possible.
Depending on when you’re getting married, there’s a good chance that the team you need at the meeting will be harder to schedule with the longer you wait. For example, where I work (Portland, Oregon), the most popular time of year for me is May through October.
This means that my weddings scheduled for July, August, September, October, November, and December have 60 day out marks that fall right at the height of my season (May through October).
As such, scheduling a final tour later than 60 days puts an extra crunch on the work that needs to be done before the next important deadline: two weeks out from the wedding or my deadline for having a complete and approved day-of wedding timeline.
Who schedules a final wedding venue tour?
If you have a coordinator or planner, it’s easy to assume that this person will schedule the final tour but that depends on when this person is contractually obligated to start working for you. Here’s an overview of the three main scopes of work and price points for wedding coordinating and planning.
Speaking for my level of service, I schedule the final tour on behalf of my clients. This often involves my getting their best availability and then running that against my calendar, the calendar of the venue(s), and the calendars of the other vendors who attend a final tour (more on that below).
It usually takes at least two weeks to get those dates aligned, which is why I start scheduling a final tour between one to two months before we actually need to do the thing. I start closer to the two month out mark if my clients, say, live out of state and need to schedule travel to attend the final tour in-person.
Who attends a final wedding venue tour?
The cast of characters who attends a final wedding venue tour includes:
You and/or your partner(s) — If at all possible, I highly recommend both people starting a legal marriage attend. If both people attending in-person isn’t an option, calling in either via a phone or video call also works.
A rep for the venue — 85 to 90 percent of the final tours I do have a rep from the venue in attendance but this isn’t a guarantee so if you have venue-specific questions such as “When can we get in?” or “Who sets-up and cleans-up the items provided by the venue?”, be sure to keep track of those questions to ask the venue rep either before or after the final tour.
A rep for the caterer of the main meal — 75 to 80 percent of the final tours I do have a rep from the caterer for the main meal in attendance but I’ve recently noticed that more caterers are bowing out of this meeting (my theory: not going is an easy way for their teams to save time and money).
This isn’t ideal, particularly if you’re hiring the tier of caterer that charges $8K+ and is renting items from a rental company, but it’s workable if you ask the caterer ahead of time what questions they might have that need to be answered during the final tour and then, after the final tour, you follow up with said caterer. This is work I do on behalf of my clients and, if you have a coordinator or planner, it’s worth asking if they also do it.
Didn’t hire a professional caterer? All good. Whomever is in charge of the food and/or drink could attend the final tour though I find it’s usually more efficient to follow up with this person afterward. Bonus points if you ask them ahead of the meeting if they have any questions that they need answered.Other vendors — I can count on one hand the number of times another vendor such as a DJ, florist, or photographer has attended a final tour. This makes sense as really, they don’t need to go. If they do go, they nearly always charge extra because it’s outside the scope of the original contract.
There are two exceptions to this rule: 1) If the vendor has told you otherwise or included attending a final tour in their contract with you or 2) The vendor is responsible for something that takes a fair amount of prep (e.g. a floral install, a floating arch, curtains, drapes, lighting, etc.).
When in doubt, ask. One way this can look: “I’m scheduling the final venue tour and wanted to ask: Do you want to attend? I ask this with no expectation that you do as I want to be respectful of your time.
If attending, please let me know your availability for [insert the times and dates you’re thinking of scheduling the final tour] and if there will be an additional charge for your attendance.
If not attending, please let me know if there are any questions that I can ask on your behalf during the tour. I’ll be sure to follow up with you afterward.”Wedding VIPs — This is my shorthand for the inner circle of loved ones at a wedding and, when it comes to a final tour, I recommend they don’t come. This is because wedding planning already involves a lot of cooks and often, adding even one or two more makes the whole thing more stressful than it needs to be.
That said, if a certain VIP or two has been particularly helpful in the planning, yes, invite them. This would be particularly relevant if you’ve elevated a VIP to be the day-of contact for the wedding and/or responsible for doing any set-up on the wedding day.
How do I prepare for a final wedding venue tour?
Aim to have a 75 to 80 percent final idea of how many people will be eating. Remember to include vendors who will eat during the reception. (This is typically any vendor who is at the reception except the caterer; they’ll feed themselves.)
Print or save this list of questions.
Print or save a rough draft timeline and a vendor directory for the wedding.
Pack a snack and a beverage. Final tours typically take an hour and a fair amount of brain power so it’s in your best interest to stay fed and hydrated. You might even consider scheduling a fun destination to go to after the final tour such as a favorite place to eat or grab a drink.
What can I expect during a final wedding venue tour?
In my experience, final venue tours usually go like this:
Everyone arrives and introduces themselves and their relation to the wedding.
The venue rep takes the folks in attendance through the space to discuss what will be set up where. Someone, usually the venue rep, catering rep, or a coordinator or planner, will volunteer to create the floor plan to send around after the tour.
The group talks about day-of timings. The most important timings to discuss, in order of priority: ceremony start time, venue entry time, venue exit time, and reception end time (ideally, an hour before the venue exit time).
As available, I also recommend discussing when the main meal will start, when any photos will take place, when last call is, if there’s a cut-off time for any music or amplified audio, and if the venue is available for a rehearsal.
What do I do after a final wedding venue tour?
Every final wedding venue tour I do generates about two hours of post-meeting work to do immediately after the meeting. I typically do this work the morning after the final tour and the tasks include:
Sending the meeting notes to the client and all vendors who attended the final tour.
Updating my main tracking docs for the wedding: the timeline and the vendor and VIP directory.
Corresponding with vendors. Depending on the vendor, these emails are a mix of answering questions they asked me to ask on their behalf during the final tour, sharing a rough draft timeline with them for their approval and expertise, and confirming their arrival and exit times on the wedding day.
Updating the rental order (as applicable). I’m the type of coordinator who creates and edits a rental order on my clients’ behalf but this work can also be done by the client and, often, the caterer (though be sure to ask if the caterer charges extra for this; it’s often referred to as a “rental coordination fee” and can cost several hundred dollars).
Creating or reviewing floor plans for the wedding. The one I use and see other vendors use most often is called Allseated; I use the free version.
From here, I begin to more actively fill in the missing pieces on the timeline so that the timeline is completely filled in and ready for the client’s review two weeks before their wedding.
Once my clients review and approve their wedding day timeline, I send customized versions to all of their vendors and VIPs using emails that look like this.
Writing and answering these emails, both after the final tour and after the final timeline, can take anywhere from 10 to 15 hours over the course of the (usually) 60 days between the final tour and the two week out mark from the wedding. Sometimes it’s more. Sometimes it’s less. It depends on the size of the vendor team and the complexity of the wedding.
Do I need to do this if I’m getting married at a private home?
Yes. In fact, I find a final tour is even more important for weddings hosted at private homes because these spaces are not typically set up to host events and thus require more conversations on what’s being sourced where and what set-up looks like.
You might also need to invite additional vendors to the final tour such as anyone doing tenting and/or flooring.
Do I need to do this for all of my venues if I have more than one?
Typically, a final tour is only necessary for the venue where the reception is being hosted if the venue where the ceremony is being hosted is a space such as a religious institution that regularly hosts weddings.
If your ceremony is being hosted at a separate location that does not regularly host weddings (e.g. a park, etc.), I strongly advise doing a final tour at each location, following the same recommendations listed above.