On a normal workday, email is fine. On a wedding day or a corporate event, it's basically useless. Vendors are driving, setting up, unloading equipment. Nobody is checking their inbox at 6 AM. A confirmation email sent at 8 PM the night before is already forgotten by the time they're on the road.

Text reminders fix this. A message that hits someone's lock screen at the right moment — "doors open in 30 minutes, load-in at the service entrance" — actually gets read. This is why most working event planners have already moved their day-of communication to SMS.

EventRundown now includes text reminders as a Pro feature. Here's how the system works and how to use it well.

What makes text reminders different from email confirmations

An email confirmation sent two days out serves a different purpose than a text reminder sent two hours out. The email is a record — vendor has it, can search for it, can reply with questions. The text is a nudge. It needs to arrive at the moment the vendor is about to leave their house or finish setup so the right information is in front of them right then.

The open rate difference is real. Email averages around 20% open rates for business messages. SMS is closer to 95%, and most messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery. For day-of coordination, that difference matters.

How the consent flow works

Before a contact can receive any reminders, they have to opt in. This isn't optional — it's how SMS compliance works, and EventRundown handles it automatically.

When you add a contact's phone number and request consent, they receive a confirmation text: "[Your business name] uses EventRundown for day-of event reminders. Reply YES to confirm, STOP to opt out." Once they reply YES, their status flips to confirmed and reminders can be scheduled to their number. If they never reply, or reply STOP, no reminders go out.

This means you want to collect consent well before the event — ideally when you're onboarding a vendor or sending your first confirmation. Don't wait until the day before and expect to have confirmed numbers in time.

What the reminder says

The message format is fixed. When a reminder fires, the recipient gets: "Reminder from [your business name] via EventRundown: "[timeline item name]" at [time] — [event title], [location]" followed by a STOP opt-out notice.

The item name, time, event title, and location all pull from your timeline automatically. Your business name shows as the sender context. There's no free-text field — the reminder is intentionally short and structured so it reads clearly on a lock screen.

When to send reminders

Reminders are tied to individual timeline items, and you set how many minutes before each item's start time the reminder should go out. The lead time is bounded between 5 and 120 minutes — text reminders are a day-of nudge, not an advance notification. For anything earlier than that, send an email confirmation. Two patterns that work inside that window:

2 hours before call time (120 minutes): The highest-value send and the maximum the system supports. The vendor is getting ready to leave and probably doing a last check of their equipment. A reminder confirming the time and location lands at exactly the right moment.

15–30 minutes before a cue (15–30 minutes): For vendors already on-site who need to hit a specific moment — a musician starting cocktail hour, a performer making an entrance, a caterer firing the first course. Keeps them sharp without you having to track them down.

If a vendor needs a reminder more than 2 hours out — for early call times, overnight setups, or load-in the day before — handle that with an email or calendar invite. The 2-hour cap exists because longer-lead text reminders tend to get acknowledged and then forgotten, which defeats the point.

Current limitations to know

Text reminders support US phone numbers only. International SMS is planned but not available yet — if you're working with vendors outside the US, you'll need to handle those reminders manually for now.

Two other caps worth knowing: the SMS contact roster on a timeline holds up to 20 confirmed recipients, and any single timeline item can fire reminders to at most 5 of them. Lead time is capped at 120 minutes, as covered above.

What reminders can't do

Text reminders don't replace a good briefing. A vendor who shows up confused about their role, the dress code, or the venue layout isn't going to be saved by a well-timed text. The reminder assumes the vendor already knows what they're doing — it just makes sure they show up at the right time and place.

Do the briefing call a week out. Send the full timeline and confirmation email 48 hours out. Use text reminders as the final layer — the nudge that makes sure nothing slips through on the day itself.

For building the timeline your reminders are tied to, start with the vendor run of show template or the hour-by-hour vendor timeline. More on getting vendors to actually follow your schedule in how to keep event vendors on schedule.