How 1pm shakes up wedding planning
There is a very particular moment, about ninety minutes before a wedding starts, when the people running the day all silently realise they are working from different versions of the run sheet.
The DJ has v2, printed at home Friday night.
The florist has v4, screenshotted from a text message.
The caterer has v3, but with handwritten notes from a phone call that nobody else was on.
The photographer has whatever was attached to an email that said "final timeline (FINAL)(actually final)(use this one)".
The couple has v5 on their phone, which they have not opened since the rehearsal dinner.
I have shot more than a thousand weddings as a photographer. I have watched this happen at almost every one of them. I built 1pm.app to fix it, and the easiest way to explain what changes is to walk through it from three different angles. The photographer who introduces it to their couple. The wedding planner running ten or twenty weddings a year. And the couple who are planning their own wedding and have already named a folder on their laptop "PROJECT WEDDING / MASTER".
The photographer
I want to start here because it is how a lot of couples first hear about 1pm. The photographer brings it to them.
A wedding photographer is one of the very few vendors who needs the full timeline. Not their bit of it. All of it. The florist needs to know when to drop the bouquets, the DJ needs to know when speeches finish, the caterer needs to know when mains go out. The photographer needs to know all of that, plus when the bride gets her hair done, plus when uncle Geoff is going to make the toast he is definitely not supposed to be making.
For years, photographers have been the ones gently asking the couple, "Could you send me your run sheet?" The couple forwards a Google Doc. Then later, a slightly different Google Doc. Then a screenshot. Then a photo of a handwritten page. Then, twenty minutes before the ceremony, a frantic text message that says "actually we moved cake cutting to 9:30 sorry should have told you earlier xx” that’s if your lucky.
With 1pm, the photographer can flip the script. Instead of waiting for a run sheet, you build the run of show with the couple during your pre wedding consultation. 1pm updates in real-time so they can literally see the run of show being created before their eyes (if you share it with them - easy to do).
Then the couple gets the public shareable runsheet. One link. A QR code that lives on the page itself, ready to be scanned by anyone the couple is standing next to. They forward it to every other vendor. The DJ, the celebrant, the florist, the caterer, the cake maker, the venue coordinator, Geoff (no, not Geoff).
When something changes (and it will change, because it is a wedding, and at some point someone will say "what if we did first look photos instead?") you edit it once. Every vendor's link reflects the change within seconds. No "FYI updated timeline attached". No reply all chain. Nobody printing v3 at home.
A few specifically photographer friendly bits worth knowing about:
The "Now" indicator and the "Starts in N seconds" countdown band let you glance at your phone in a dark reception room and instantly know where you are. No squinting at 8 point Calibri. No pinching to zoom on a paper schedule like you are trying to read a treasure map.
The wedding planner
Planners are the natural home for a tool like 1pm. You already make the run sheet. You already send it to every vendor. You already update it five times before the day and three more times during. You already chase paperwork. 1pm replaces the spreadsheet, the email thread, the printed copies, the WhatsApp group, and the small notebook you keep secret notes in, with one workspace.
A few things change immediately.
The timeline is the working document, not a snapshot of one. Updating it on a phone in the car park five minutes before doors open is now a normal thing to do.
Every vendor gets their own filtered view. The DJ does not have to read through forty timeline items to find their three. They open their link, their items are highlighted in amber, the rest is context. They feel like adults instead of being handed an instruction manual the size of a tax return.
The Requests feature replaces a folder of emails called "PLI certificates 2026 (FINAL)". You ask each supplier for their public liability insurance, their meal preference, their backup contact number, whatever you need. They upload or answer on their phone. Submissions sit on the event in the planner, not scattered across your inbox where you can never find them at the moment you need them.
The event Notes field is for the things every vendor must see. "Bride does not want to see groom before the ceremony." "Vegan main for table 4." "No, the dog is not in the ceremony." Every vendor sees these at the top of their share link, in big readable type, because they will not read them otherwise.
The per crew brief is for the message just for that one vendor. The catering lead does not see the DJ's "do not play ‘Single Ladies’ for the bouquet toss" instruction. The DJ does not see the caterer's seat specific allergy note. They get only what is theirs, like a very polite waiter.
Event templates mean you build your standard wedding timeline once and reuse it forever after. The structure of every wedding looks roughly the same (hair and makeup, first look, ceremony, family photos, cocktails, reception, speeches, first dance, cake, send off, the inevitable last call where someone tries to extend the bar by half an hour). Templating it once means a new event is two minutes of work, not two hours.
The public shareable runsheet handles the venue staff and the couple's family. You do not need to make a crew record for the porter or the bride's mum. The QR code on the public link spreads itself. Stick it to a backstage wall. Anyone who needs the schedule scans it. Anyone who does not need the schedule does not.
And when the day is running, every Start and Mark finished tap is visible on your screen if you enable this feature. You can step away from the rehearsal dinner area, glance at your phone, and see that speeches are running ten minutes long without having to walk into the room and make eye contact with anyone holding a microphone they should not still be holding.
The couple (specifically for control freaks)
Some couples plan their own weddings. Not because they cannot afford a planner. Because they actively want to. They have a folder. They have a colour coded spreadsheet. They have a vendor contact list that already notes Maria the florist's preferred contact times. They have a sub document called "If it rains". They are not anxious. They are organised. There is a real difference and we should respect it.
1pm is built for them.
The biggest thing the control freak couple gets back is visibility. Real time visibility into who has the link, who has opened it, who has uploaded what you asked for, who has acknowledged the things they need to acknowledge. Maria the florist has not uploaded her public liability insurance yet? The little dot on her name is still red on the planner. The DJ has not seen the updated playlist note? You can see when his link was last opened.
The second thing is being able to update the day without re emailing everyone. You change the photo schedule at 6pm the night before. You make the edit on your phone, sitting in bed, with one hand. Every vendor's link reflects the new schedule the next time they refresh. No FYI email. No "did you get the latest version?". No printed v3 in the wrong hand at the wrong moment.
The third thing, which is the secret thing nobody warns you about until you are in the middle of it, is removing yourself as the human router. When a couple does not have a shared run of show, they end up being the routing layer between vendors. The DJ asks "what time do speeches finish?" The couple answers. The caterer asks "when is the cake being cut?" The couple answers. The photographer asks "are first look photos still happening?" The couple answers. Same question, every time, from a different vendor. 1pm makes the timeline answerable by the timeline itself. The couple gets to be at their own wedding, instead of being the help desk for it.
A few control freak friendly features:
The Important notes field is where you put the things every single vendor must read. Use it. They will actually read it because it is at the top of their screen in big type.
The per vendor "Crew member only brief" is where you put specific instructions you do not want shared. The song the DJ must not play under any circumstances. The dietary need at table 4. The photographer's no posed shots instruction. These stay private to the one supplier they are for. Geoff still does not see them.
The Files and Links panels take the venue floor plan, the seating chart, the catering brief, the photographer's shot list, the playlist, the wet weather plan, and any number of "if X happens we do Y" documents you have written, all attached to the event in one place. Vendors stop emailing you asking where the seating chart is. Which is good, because you have already sent it to them four times.
The Requests panel lets you collect public liability insurance certificates, ABNs, meal preferences, dietary requirements, backup phone numbers, signed safety acknowledgements, anything else you want, without sending fifteen separate emails. You ask once. You watch the submissions tick in. You feel a deep sense of calm.
The mobile first and offline cached run of show means when the internet connection has decided it is staging a small protest against you, the timeline still works on your vendors' phones. They cached it. They can read it. They can still tap Start and Done. The taps queue up and post when the connection comes back. The day does not stop because of some router security upgrade somewhere.
Closing
A wedding works when everyone knows what is happening next, what is happening now, and what is happening just after. The tools we have used for that, for a long time, have been pretty bad. Spreadsheets, printed paper, group chats, and Geoff's mental notes. They worked, technically. They just did not work well.
1pm is the run of show app I wish someone had handed me a thousand weddings ago. Whether you are the photographer introducing it, the planner running on it, or the couple deciding that yes, you would in fact like the wedding to go exactly the way you planned it to go, it is built for you.
Chris
Founder, 1pm.app
