Okay, now we're going to talk about the timeline meeting. I am so excited to really now be diving into the meat and potatoes of this course, we talked about packages and pricing and you know the timeframe, but now we're really diving into how to perform these services. So before we move forward, I just wanted to throw out there that I use a software called IO planner and I will be showing a lot of the planning processes on IO planner, however, you certainly don't need it. I plan weddings without IO planner for years until they started in about 2014. And what was unique about this software is that Christina who founded it used to be a planner herself. So she actually knows what a planner needs out of a planning software.

And they have been such an amazing company. They are constantly taking feedback from their users and have made so many updates like I owe planner in 2014 compared to what I owe planner is today is not even the same software I use it now for contracts and sending online invoices and all that kind of stuff. So I planner has been so gracious they actually offered you all the users of this course a free 30 day trial plus 25% off your first three months. So if you use that code simply sweet, you can get that free trial and discount and I within that timeframe yearn to know if it's for you and I I'm just so grateful that they are passing that on because it's really changed my life and made a lot of my planning so much quicker and more efficient than it used to be.

So, all right, back to the course. So in this section, we're going to learn how to schedule a timeline meeting with your client What they need to bring, and then how to actually run that timeline meeting. So first out scheduling the meeting. So about three months out, you're going to reach out to your client to schedule their meeting. And you're going to tell them to fill out the client questionnaire on IO planner, or Google Drive. If you're using that, not on our planner, tell them to fill out the vendor info on aisle planner or Google Drive.

I actually personally use Google Drive still, I'll show you and then tell them the meeting. Tell them to expect the meeting to last one hour. So as you'll see throughout this course, short, sweet, you don't have to overly complicate or fluff anything. So this email I send out will be something very simple like, hey, Jesse, I can't believe we're already three months out. I'm so excited to schedule our timeline meeting. If you can do me a favor and fill out the client questionnaire and your vendor information.

You know, that would be great. I just want to let you know you can expect this meeting to last about one hour. This timeline used to take this meeting used to take me a lot longer, sometimes even two hours before I started implementing these questionnaires. So moving on with that, why do we include the client questionnaire, this questionnaire ensures the client is prepared for the meeting. So one, you want them to come to this meeting with as much information as possible. And by having them fill out a bunch of information, they're kind of now starting to think about things which is going to kind of prime them for all the questions that you're going to be asking.

This questionnaire minimises your workload as the day of coordinator. You want to put as much of the work back on them as you can add because you're providing such a minimal amount of services for them. This will actually save you a lot of time in the long run. Then this questionnaire also saves time at the, at the meeting, which you'll see when we go over these questionnaires right now. So I'm going to show you the Google Doc version and the i o planner version. So you can see both.

Funnily enough, I actually had to re record this section before I released this course because I Oh planner rolled out a new feature of questionnaires. From the time that I initially recorded the section which is another reason IO planner is so cool, they're constantly rolling out new updates. So this is the questionnaire. I love this new look. I used to do it in a note like a Word document on i o planner. But now I have like this super professional looking questionnaire to send My Brides which I'm so excited.

I haven't even sent it to anybody yet I literally created adjust for this course. So okay, first step, we have VIPs and family photos. So I have please list brides immediate family members and VIPs Be sure to include relations example Sally mother Jo father. So we have brides immediate family grooms immediate family. Then we also have brides please list everyone to be present for Bright Side immediate family photos, Brideshead extended family photos, groom side immediate family photos and groom's side extended family photos. So this is very easy information.

And this is not something they need your expertise or guidance on. These are just straight facts. So I actually used to spend a lot of time at the meeting I gathering all these things like oh, what's your mom's name? What's your dad's name? Who do you want in your immediate family photos? Like now I've cut out that whole section.

And I have it all here. It's information that I need, but I don't need to necessarily be a part of if that makes sense. So then we have ceremony standing order, please is the order of your bridesmaid standing closest you defer this and then please list the order of your groomsmen standing closest to furthest. So this is another thing that became a big time. I don't want to say waster but not efficient use of my time. So it asked, oh, who's your maid of honor?

Okay, who's going to be sitting next to her? What about next to her? And if they haven't thought about this, for some people, this can take them a long time to think about and then there'd be times at the meeting, where the bride and groom would now be going back and forth of like, well, Who should we pair with this person? Oh, well, she's taller than him. So I don't want them together or they used to date so they can't be together and it would be comic, this whole long drawn out thing and I wanted to like, rip my hair out. Now, they can decide that together at home and just provide me the list because that's all I want.

Then we're moving on to song selections. processional presentation of the bride recessional grand entrance firsthand. Father daughter, mother son, cake cutting bouquet toss garter and then the last song of the evening. So this is the one section that will likely be blank at all of your timeline meetings and but and people come say oh my god, I didn't fill out any of the songs I just don't know yet. And my response is always, don't even worry about it. We have plenty of time but I'm glad I at least got you thinking about it.

So leaves you've primed them to start thinking about it. Now we have our decor and setup section. So I have the ceremony, decor and setup and I'll say please select the following items that you will be providing for us to set up so these are the general most popular items for setup that you know like a card box, you know, reserved rows signs, guestbook programs, you need to candle that kind of stuff. So they have a little check boxes. And then we have reception decor and setup. So this is where they can check off all the items that they'll be if they will be providing to us to set up so like toasting glasses, cake knife, All that kind of stuff and then I say you know, please list Oh, I need to fix that.

Please as any other items to be said that were not included above along with setup instructions. And then lastly, I have VIP ceremonies eating please those who should be seated in the first row Brightside. First row, groom side, second row bride side and second row groom side because we create a small little ceremony seating chart that you will see coming up. So that's that I love this new questionnaire on eyeliner. It's just so much more professional looking. I love it.

I feel so legit. So now let's look at the same questionnaire if you are not using a planner and you want to see it on a Google Doc. So I definitely recommend using Google Doc because it always updating in real time and then your client can fill it out and then you can print it out for the timeline meeting. So you can see it's all this same information. Photos VIPs song selections, ceremony scanning order, decor and setup. The only thing that I have in here is I do have a little chart for the ceremony seating.

Whereas I couldn't create that chart on aisle planner however, still worth it for me to use eyeliner. And then lastly, we have this vendor section for them to fill out. So I asked them to fill out the vendor names, the contact names, the phone number and the email for all of their vendors. And I actually even though I am a huge cheerleader for Iowa planner, I actually still personally like to collect this information in this Google Doc because I can copy and paste it into our timeline later which you'll see. I used to ask for like, fax number address and like all these you know crazy details for their vendors. But I realized at the end of the day, all I want is the vendor name of content.

Person, a phone number and an email. So keep it simple. And that's it. So we have the client questionnaire and yeah, so next up we are going to be talking about how to actually run this timeline meeting. So this first section was about scheduling the timeline meeting and making sure your client comes prepared. And then next lesson, we're going to walk through my personal questionnaire and how I actually orchestrate these time line meetings.