--- title: The planning form id: planning-form description: How couples capture every detail of their event — timeline, music, formalities, and more — page by page, without flooding your inbox. category: Features order: 26 tags: [planning, timeline, music, formalities] related: [per-event-view, print-share-document, checklist-and-forms] updated: 2026-08-03 --- The planning form is where couples give you everything you need to run their event. It's a guided, multi-step form that saves as they go — so they can fill it in over time and you always have the latest. ## What it covers The form is organized into sections: - **Event info** — arrival times, reception start/end, vendors (venue contact, photographer, videographer), guest count by age. - **Music** — your DJ personality and genre preferences. Your actual song picks live in [Build your playlist](/playlist-generator), linked straight from this section — the link is always there, even before your DJ has connected their account. - **Ceremony** — whether you need music and audio services, whether the ceremony is onsite (with the ceremony address or location), processional/recessional moments and songs, readings, and the unity ceremony. - **Cocktail hour** *(optional)* — drop in a Spotify playlist link to set the mood while guests mingle. This section is optional, so it never holds up completing your planning. - **Grand March** — who's announced in the entrance and how. First names only are recommended for the bridesmaid & groomsman pairs — they're easier to announce. - **Formalities** — introductions, first dance, parent dances, cake cutting, bouquet/garter, last dance (each with songs). - **Toasts** — speakers and order, plus any blessing or prayer. - **Additional notes** — anything else you should know. ## Make it yours The form above is the starting point, not a straitjacket. In **Settings → Planning form** you can: - **Hide whole sections** you don't offer (no ceremony services? hide Ceremony) and **rename** any section — including its intro line — to match your voice. - **Switch off question groups** inside a section: drop the guest-count-by-age grid, the garter toss, the Instagram handle — each section lists its groups with a checkbox. - **Add your own questions** to any section: short answer, long answer, yes/no, or choose-one. Mark a question **required** and couples must answer it before that section counts as complete. - **Add your own section** — an extra page at the end of the wizard that's entirely your questions, with its own title. Two guarantees worth knowing: couples' **answers are never deleted** — hide a question (or remove a custom one) after someone answered and their answer stays stored and still shows on the printed sheet, marked accordingly. And **progress follows your form**: "planning complete" is measured against the sections you actually show, so hiding a section never strands a couple at 7-of-8. Custom answers appear on the [print / vendor sheet](/print-share-document) under each section, labelled as your questions. ## Reception timeline The moment-by-moment reception timeline now lives on its own **Timeline** page (linked from the event) rather than inside the planning form. It opens with a first empty row ready to fill in: pick a time (to the nearest **5 minutes**) and an activity from the list — listed A–Z: Blessing/Prayer, Bouquet Toss, Cake Cutting, Ceremony Starts, Cocktail Hour, Dinner Served, First Dances, Garter Removal, Grand Introductions, Last Dance, Open Dance Begins, Receiving Line, Reception Ends, Reception Starts, Toasts — or choose **Other** and describe it in your own words. Use **+ Add Activity** for each new moment. Your DJ prints this to run the night, and the same page shows your upcoming milestones and a subscribe link for your calendar. ### Ordering: on your say-so **Add moments in any order, then press Sort by time.** Every row jumps into chronological order. Times after midnight (a 12:30 AM last dance) correctly land at the end of the night rather than the start, and rows you haven't given a time yet wait at the bottom. The button greys out once everything's already in order. Your timeline is **also sorted automatically each time you open the page**, so it's tidy whenever you come back to it. What it deliberately *doesn't* do is re-sort while you're mid-edit — a row sliding away as you're setting its time is more annoying than helpful. To slot a moment into a specific place, use the **+ Insert** button that appears between any two rows; the new row lands exactly there and you can pick its time after. The ↑/↓ arrows move a row by hand whenever you want a different order. **There's no Save button.** Changes save on their own a moment after you stop typing; the status beside **Submit** tells you where things stand ("Saving…", "Saved 4:32:10 PM"). If a save ever fails you'll see it, with a **Retry**. ### Submitting **Submit timeline** tells your DJ it's ready and ticks the timeline item green on your checklist. It doesn't lock anything — you can keep editing and **re-submit** any time. (See [Checklists & forms](/checklist-and-forms).) If you need the item reopened entirely, your DJ can un-submit it for you. **Already have a timeline?** Rather than retyping it, you can **attach a timeline document** on the same page — a planner's or caterer's PDF, an image, a Word doc, or a photo of a handwritten schedule (up to 10 MB). It's stored for your DJ to download for reference; it sits alongside the builder, so you can do either or both. Timelines can also be **imported via the API**: an integration (or an AI that read a document) can push the parsed rows onto the event so they land in the same builder — see [Using the SpinBook API](/using-the-api). ## Saved page by page Each section saves on its own, and progress is tracked. When every required section is complete, the event's planning is marked done — which auto-completes the matching checklist item (see [Checklists & forms](/checklist-and-forms)). The optional Cocktail hour section doesn't have to be filled in for planning to count as complete. ## Share it with vendors Need to hand the timeline and music details to a photographer or venue? Use the **Vendor sheet** preset when you [print or share a document](/print-share-document) — it includes the planning form but leaves out the contract and payment amounts. ## Checklist - [ ] Point the couple to their planning form - [ ] Encourage them to save as they go (no need to finish in one sitting) - [ ] Review their music and formalities ahead of the event - [ ] Export a Vendor sheet for the photographer / venue