So you get engaged and one of the first things you do is find an amazing venue. You and your Fiancee go to the venue take a tour, talk to the catering manager, talk about everything you want, get all excited and sign a contract right on the spot!! Great Right, WRONG.
First thing you should do is to hire a planner. However if you have already signed your venue contract before you hire your planner, please make sure she looks it over ASAP.
Most venue contracts are very generic. Time, date, room block rates, your cost and then a lot of contract language that does not say anything specific about your wedding. So why is this bad? Well, here is your scenario:
You sign your contract on a verbal agreement only. You talk about all the things you need like, when you can get in the room, if there is anyone in that particular room on the day of your wedding, what other rooms can we utilize, will there be AV in the room, and is there any extra charge for these items. So lets say none of those items are in your contract. You go for a site walk through one month prior to your wedding and surprise, now part of your room is being used prior to your event. When you ask if you are still going to have the room for a receiving line prior to the reception, you are told you have to pay extra and you can't have the room that was agreed upon in prior discussions.
What are my options you ask? You need to make sure every item you want is written in the contract. Room time, linens, AV, water service, coffee service, etc... If it's not in the contract they don't have to honor your request. Also anytime you email back and forth with your venue be specific in the questions you need answered and save all your emails.
Most of all, hire a planner and save yourself some unwanted stress!!!!
Happy Planning,
Lisa
Megan had covered every detail, linens by BBJ, flowers, cake by The Cakery, tent by Traube , food by Patty Long Catering, photography by L Photographie band Mirage. We set up the tent, tables and chairs on Friday before the wedding. I was watching the weather closely, you know how St. Louis weather can be, changes every 2 minutes! So of course weather is calling for a very large Summer storm to hit! We ordered sides for the tent just to be sure, good thing we did we had a pretty nice storm that night, because of the sides we were high and dry on Saturday and it was a spectacular sunny day for Justin and Megan's day.
Congratulations!!
It was really beautiful. Most of their guests flew in from out of town, so it was kind of like a destination wedding.
We had fantastic music provided by Millennium music with live music provided by Downtime and our awesome DJ Jason from Millennium.
The band then took off and played the Have Nagila. So much fun!!!
These are not monograms but I really loved the idea. These are lottery tickets for your guest favors. They are put into little glassine bags. You could also do a monogram tag on the front as well.
One of my favorite moments is when I see the couple turn after they have been announced to their family and friends. They turn and walk back down the isle toward me, and they are so happy. It's priceless. My husband and I aren't we cute. See how happy we are, still goin strong after 18 years!!
Pictures are very important and a good photographer can make or break your day. A seasoned professional photographer knows all the tricks of the trade and knows all the shots that need to be taken. A novice photographer can also be good, just make sure you really interview them and see their work in person. A personal reference is a good thing. As you can see pictures are forever. Remembering to get all the important events, from you walking down the isle, arriving at your reception, the cutting of the cake, the last dance, to your final exit. All those moments need to be documented.
Well, that was a wonderful trip down memory lane. I was a wonderful day and I always think about how everything went perfect, NOT. I thought it did though, because my mom had to run interference for all of the issues throughout the day. From the limo being late to pick us up from the church after pictures, so we kind of missed the whole passed hors d' oeuvres. To numerous other issues. It wasn't until after we got back from our honeymoon that I knew there were issues. That's when my mom said " I sure wish we would have had someone to take care of all of the planning for the day so I could have enjoyed all the hard work and planning we did" and a wedding planner was born that very day. I started planning weddings in June of that year. And I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
