2.09.2010

Soooo Wedding Planning... Friend or Foe

Lets start with that Michael and I have been engaged for approximately 5 days. YAY! In this time span I have decided to start calling places for pricing of venues etc. Some places have been really reasonable and others have been absolutely outrageous! By outrageous I don't simply mean the initial cost of renting a space to house a wedding. But ridiculous in the sense that as soon as you mention that event you are planning is in fact a wedding the cost seems to increase by like 40%. It's as if you can hear the person on the other end of the phone, giddy with excitement, calucate "bridal event" into the equation and this immediately adds all kinds of fees.

A perfect example... If I am paying $5000 to rent an open space to have a wedding... I would expect there to be something in it. Things that I would expect would be maybe a chair, or a table for say the 250+ guests we will likely have. But no, as soon as they realize its a Wedding they want to charge you $8 per table and $2 per chair (keep in mind these are not beautiful chairs, they will also need a $5 a piece chair cover to make them look decent), and an additional set up and cleanup fee. A clean up fee? Really? Needless to say we will not be having a reception at this location.

Here's a tip for venues...Most brides are probably not going to want to come to a venue in there wedding gown and set up or clean up anything on the day of their wedding....period. And for $5000 just to stand in an open building, should you really expect them too? So a word to the wise...bundle your little "fees" into the cost of the space along with all the chairs, tables, silverware, light bulbs, trash bags, and every other crazy expense you come up with! Brides will be less distraught over prices when everything is included in one price tag. (You're Welcome)

In reaction to all this silliness Michael and I realized that we are clearly in the wrong business because wedding people are cleaning up. Plus, in most cases its not repeat business, so once you sign a contract people dont have to be that nice to you. Michael and I may construct an immaculate wedding venue one day. You know when we are ready to retire. It will cost viturally nothing to use but we would charge you for everything inside. A per head bathroom cost, an additonal price to include forks in the silverware bundles (as they are the most popular utensil...duh) and possible charges for the number of tiles your guests dance on while they are shaking it on the dance floor to whatever music is popular 50 years from now.

The good news is the wedding will probably be June 4, 2011. So we have plenty of time to find the perfect place, in our budget, that we love, to celebrate with all the people we love the most! So as I go through this planning process I appreciate your patience and hopefully your advice, so please send me some! The verdict so far...Wedding Planning Foe!

3 comments :

  1. I think you would be great in the wedding business!

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  2. Do TONS of research and call around to a lot of different places. Make sure you always say, "Hmm, I've been calling around and someone told me I could get the same things for this amount.." This peaks their interest and they immediately try to find things to include to get your business. Maybe even lower the initial price. And, if you are crafty, do a lot of things yourself, that's what we did and it saved us tons of money. Also, we got married in December and the December before I got tons of stuff on clearance (after the holidays) to help me decorate. Worked wonderfully!

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  3. We were orginally thinking that we would get married in December and do kind of an "inside a glittery ornament" theme. But we have so many friends getting married this year and in the fall especially we were concerned that we wouldnt get to enjoy being with our friends on their days. So we decided to push things into the summer so we could have time to plan post wedding season of 2010. So June is on the table now!

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