A fillable, savable checklist for couples & DJs — songs, name pronunciations, do-not-play list, and an auto-built reception run sheet. Download the file and email it to your DJ.
Used as the document title and in announcement scripts ("Please welcome Alex & Jordan!").
Headers the printout. We flag dates already in the past.
Setup / access info on the run sheet.
The anchor. Every segment is scheduled forward from here. Results show 12-hour AM/PM.
Used to compute available minutes and flag overruns.
Documented ideal is 60 min. (Runs before the entrance; shown for reference.)
Buffet nudges the dinner default & adds a dismissal cue.
Leave blank to auto-fill from style & guest count. Type a number to override.
Only used to size the buffet dinner default — never overrides your number.
The #1 make-or-break cue. Always store the artist to avoid the wrong version.
Note whether to start from the intro or a specific drop-in point.
Mispronounced names are the biggest live-failure risk. A phonetic spelling for every person is the core safeguard — e.g. "Siobhan" → shiv-AWN.
Best practice limits toasts to Best Man + Maid/Matron of Honor (and optionally a parent) — each one adds ~4 min of dance time.
Reserve ~5–10% of dance time for these plus crowd requests.
Your explicit veto list — kept separate & flagged in a warning color.
A documented preference prevents the "too much talking" complaint.
Cue → song mappings. These are mission-critical and time-sensitive.
Logistics that cause day-of failures if missing (no power, locked dock, decibel limit).
Enter your reception start time to build the run sheet.
The music and announcements are what your guests remember about a reception — and they are exactly the details that get lost in email threads and static PDFs. This wedding DJ checklist is the fillable, savable sheet most "wedding DJ checklist" searches are really looking for: one place to capture every song cue (grand entrance, first dance, parent dances, cake, tosses, ceremony), the wedding-party introduction order with phonetic name spellings, your toast-givers, your do-not-play list, must-play requests, the run-of-show timeline, and all your venue, vendor, and day-of access details. As you fill it in, the tool auto-builds a clock-time run sheet forward from your reception start, a pronunciation card for the MC, and a validation panel that scores completeness and flags overruns. Then you download it as a file and email it to your DJ — no more "which version of the song?" confusion on the day.
Say "Alex & Jordan" set a 5:30 PM grand entrance and a 10:00 PM curfew — 4 hours 30 minutes (270 min) of reception. They choose a Buffet for 100 guests, so the dinner default is computed as 60 + 0.30 × 100 = 90 min (rounded to the nearest 5). They keep cake cutting on (8 min) and skip both tosses. They list 2 parent dances (3 min each = 6 min) and 2 toasts, Best Man and Maid of Honor (4 min each = 8 min). The tool schedules forward: grand entrance 5:30–5:35, first dance 5:35–5:40, welcome 5:40–5:45, dinner 5:45–7:15, toasts 7:15–7:23, parent dances 7:23–7:29, then open dancing fills the slack, with cake cutting placed in the back third after the bulk of dancing (so it doesn't signal guests to leave early). Adding up the fixed formalities (5 + 5 + 5 + 90 + 8 + 6 + 8 + 5 last-dance = 132 min) and subtracting from 270 leaves ~138 min of open dancing, so the headline reads roughly "Reception plan 88% complete — timeline runs 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM (4h 30m), with ~2h 18m of open dancing." The tool then suggests reserving about 7–14 min (5–10% of open dancing) for must-play and crowd requests. If they piled on six toasts instead of two, the extra 16 minutes would shrink open dancing and — past a point — trip the overrun warning.
This is a planning and coordination checklist, not a guarantee. Segment durations (5 min grand entrance, 4 min per toast, 3 min per parent dance, 8 min for cake and each toss, 5 min last dance) are documented industry rules of thumb from sources like The Knot, WeddingWire, and Zola — not fixed standards. Every venue, officiant, caterer, and DJ runs differently, so treat the generated timeline as a starting draft to confirm with your venue coordinator and DJ. The buffet dinner formula (60 + 0.30 per guest) only approximates table-dismissal time and is used solely to set the default — it never overrides a duration you type, and real duration depends on buffet lines, staffing, and how tables are released, so verify with your caterer. The cocktail-hour (60 min) and plated-dinner (90 min) defaults reflect commonly cited "sweet spots," but receptions often run 4–5.5 hours with different splits — adjust to your contract. The 5–10% request-time budget is a DJ guideline, not a rule. Pronunciation phonetics are user-supplied — the tool cannot validate them, so the MC should still rehearse names aloud with the couple before the event; any name left without a phonetic is flagged, because silence there is the exact failure this tool exists to prevent. Everything runs client-side in your browser: no data leaves the page, and because local storage can be cleared (or is unavailable in private mode), the JSON download is your durable backup — download it and email it to your DJ rather than relying on the saved session.
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The grand-entrance song, first dance, parent dances, the wedding-party introduction order with phonetic name spellings, toast-givers, cake/bouquet/garter songs, a do-not-play list, must-play requests, ceremony cues, the run-of-show timeline, and venue, vendor, and day-of access details. This tool captures all of it in one fillable, savable sheet.
You enter your reception start time and the tool schedules every segment forward from it — entrance, first dance, welcome, dinner, toasts, parent dances, cake, open dancing, optional tosses, and last dance — using industry-average durations. Open dancing fills the remaining time to your curfew.
Mispronouncing a name during the grand march is the most visible live failure. Every wedding-party member and toast-giver gets a dedicated phonetic field, and the pronunciation card flags any name left blank so the MC knows to confirm it.
Plated, stations, and family-style default to 90 min. Buffet nudges the default to 60 + 0.30 per guest (rounded to 5 min) and adds a dismissal cue — but it never overrides a duration you type. Confirm the real number with your caterer.
Yes — everything auto-saves to your browser and restores when you return. Click Download JSON to save a file you can email to your DJ; the DJ loads it back into this tool to see the exact same plan. You can also copy the run sheet as text or print a clean PDF.
Your explicit veto list of songs, artists, or genres. It lives in its own red-flagged block, separate from must-play requests, and the tool warns you if the same track appears in both lists.
No — it's a planning draft, not a guarantee. Durations are industry averages; every venue and caterer runs differently. Confirm the run sheet with your coordinator and DJ, and watch the overrun warning when fixed formalities exceed your start-to-curfew window.
Everything is calculated and saved only in your browser. We don't store or sell your data. Planning aid only — confirm every block with your venue & DJ.