The South Indian Wedding Vendor Call Sheet for Family Coordinators

What a call sheet is

A call sheet is a single page listing every vendor, the name and number of the person actually attending, when they arrive, what they are delivering, where they set up, and who signs off. It is not a schedule of the ceremony; the priest and the family already know that. It is the operational spine of the day, and its purpose is to make sure that when a truck arrives at six in the morning, someone in the family knows who they are and where to send them. Print six copies. Screens die.

Appoint one coordinator, not three

The single most useful decision a family makes is naming one person as the vendor contact, usually a cousin or an uncle who is not in the ceremony. Every vendor gets that one number. Parents should not be fielding calls while being dressed, and the couple should not be on the phone at all. If the family has hired a planner, the coordinator is still worth having as the person who knows which uncle has the venue keys. Write the coordinator's name and number at the top of the sheet, and put a second name below as backup.

The vendors to list

For a typical South Indian wedding: venue manager, catering supervisor, florist and decor, priest, photographer and videographer, makeup artist and hair, saree draper, music or nadaswaram, sound and lighting, generator, transport for guests, transport for the couple, purohit's assistant, hotel front desk for outstation guests, printing and signage, and whoever is handling return gifts. Add the person delivering the sarees, hampers or trays if any arrive on the day. Anyone who will walk through the gate belongs on the page.

What to confirm against each vendor

Six fields are enough: attending person's name, mobile number, arrival time, what they are bringing, where it goes, and exit or dismantle time. Add a column for balance payable and who holds it. Half of all wedding morning arguments are about money nobody brought in cash, so decide the day before who carries what and write it down. If a vendor cannot name the person attending a week ahead, that is a flag worth raising then rather than at seven in the morning.

Build the timings backwards

Start from the muhurtham and work back. Guests seated fifteen minutes before. Bride ready forty five minutes before that. Draping and jewellery an hour before ready. Makeup two to three hours before that, which for an early muhurtham means starting in the dark. Flowers must be installed before makeup begins, because nobody wants ladders in the room. Catering setup before guests, which means the caterer needs venue access earlier than anybody. Written backwards, the impossible timings show themselves immediately, while you can still fix them.

Venue access is the hinge

Confirm in writing what time the venue opens, whether there is a function before yours, and what time everything must be out. Most timing failures at South Indian weddings trace back to a hall that was booked from five in the morning while the decor team assumed the night before. If the venue only opens at five, the florist's plan for an overnight install is fiction and the arch will not be finished. Ask the venue manager directly and put the answer on the call sheet in bold.

The bride's room needs its own block

Makeup artist, hair, draper, photographer for getting ready shots, and the person carrying the saree and jewellery. Note who has the key to the room and who is allowed inside, because an unmanaged bride's room fills with twenty relatives and the schedule dissolves. Our note on the getting ready room checklist covers what to keep in there. On the call sheet, all you need is names, times, and one person on the door.

Deliveries and who receives them

Sarees, hampers, trays, return gifts, garlands and printed items all arrive separately, usually to different people, and this is where things go missing. Name one receiver per delivery and a single room where everything is stacked. Ask for a photograph on arrival. Count return gifts against the list before the day rather than during the reception. Anything fragile or expensive should be handed to a named person, not left at a reception desk.

What to do when something is late

Decide the fallback in advance for the three things most likely to slip: flowers, makeup, and transport. If the entry flowers are late, what proceeds without them? If makeup runs over, which photographs move to after the ceremony? If a guest bus is late, does the muhurtham wait? Write one line each. The coordinator then makes a decision in ten seconds instead of asking four people, and the family never sees the wobble at all.

The page itself

One side of A4 if you can. Coordinator and backup at the top. A table of vendors with the six fields. A short timings column down the side. Venue access and exit in bold. Three fallback lines at the bottom. Print six, keep one in the bride's room, one with the caterer, one with the venue manager, one with each parent, and one in the coordinator's pocket. Send a photograph of it to every vendor two days before.

If you would like help building one

We put together a call sheet for every wedding we design, and we are happy to share the structure even if we are only supplying sarees or flowers. Our full twelve month planning note sits in the journal, and if you would like us to look over your timings, write to us on the begin page. How we work is set out on the experience page.