How We Handled the Ultimate Wedding Crasher: Hurricane Irene

What would you do if you found out, four days before your wedding for

250 of your closest friends and family, that a potential hurricane

could ruin your event? Our bride was grateful that she chose the

Granite Rose.

Our main goal for everyone, bride and groom included, was to stay

calm. We knew we could have a reception here because we are fully

generated and have our own water source. That was a non-issue. We were

concerned for the guests traveling from the ceremony in Massachusetts

during the worst part of the storm. Guests arrived an hour early and

were welcomed inside. The kitchen made some magic happen and in

minutes, food was being served to guests. We had an extended social

hour to allow all guests to arrive and for the kitchen to catch up

with food preparation.

Another concern we had was that staff wouldn’t be able to get here.

Fortunately, most critical staff lives in the backyard and we were

fine in that regard as well. The wedding was beautiful and all guests

had a great time. With a little patience and lots of friendly and

smiling staff, it appeared as if we deal with Irene everyday.

What will my wedding day really cost???

    The cost of a wedding and reception can range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars with a lot of territory in between.  Like many other high dollar purchases, the final cost, which is what really matters, is obscured by the pricing and fee structures that many businesses use.  When buying a new car for example, the sticker price is never the “sales” price and the final price is never the “sales” price either.  In addition to factory rebates, sales incentives and a host of other ways to say “discount”, we all know that in the end there will be “dealer prep”, title fee, and a host of other nickel and dime fees. The total cost of a college education has little to do with the cost of tuition, as tuition is only a part of the total final cost.

    Unfortunately, the actual wedding reception pricing is usually even more blurred from the published price than a used car.  The wedding/banquet trade is the only business that publishes a price and then says but “please add 20% Service Charge or Gratuity”.  The origin of this additional fee goes back to labor unions in the 1920s.  Labor unions negotiated for a 1% gratuity to be added to the total of banquet invoices in major hotels that was to be distributed to wait staff in addition to their salaries.  As time wore on, this 1% eventually rose to the 7%+ range and soon made the wait staff the highest paid employees in the entire Hotel!  Another issue with the % gratuity was the fact that some wait staff members were paid significantly more per shift when they were assigned to a function with Filet Mignon as opposed to a lower priced Entrée.  Eventually, wait staff wages were renegotiated and are now predominantly based on a per diem or hourly basis.  Service Charges remained and became a convenient way for facilities to increase revenue by 1 or 2 percent per year without actually raising prices.  In essence, it became part of most facilities pricing structure.

   After you have added the 20% “service charge” to the published price, you are now ready to sort out the various fees that might pertain to your event.  The infamous “cake-cutting” fee is from a time when a wedding cake was not used for dessert, but rather when the hotel cut, boxed (in the hotels’ boxes) and passed out the wedding cake to guests as they left.  That custom has long since disappeared, but the fee still shows up on many facilities’ invoices.  Some facilities in major Metropolitan areas charge extra for chairs!  Then there is the fee to use the Bridal Suite, setup fee, outside vendor fee, room fee, bartender fee, bar setup fee, new customer fee (who isn’t a new customer in the bridal market!), corkage fees, etc., etc..

    Now to further mix things up, it is nearly impossible to compare “apples to apples” since most facilities differ in what they do and do not include in their menu pricing.  It may or may not include the use of the room, the Service Charge, a toast, 3 course dinner vs. 4 course dinner, the wedding cake, hors d’oeuvres, centerpieces, open bar, the infamous “House Bar”, linen choices, and on and on.  The only way to really accurately compare the cost of one facility to another is with a spreadsheet that allows you to add or subtract the costs of your particular needs at different facilities.

      Let’s presume that you are planning a Saturday Night Wedding Reception for your guests with a single plated entrée and cash bar.  You would like hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, a toast, and a 4 course dinner.  You also plan to have a wedding cake and centerpieces supplied by you or the venue.  When you look at published prices within a 15 mile radius of The Granite Rose, you will see that they appear to be $9.55 more expensive than anyone else.  However, the facts are that when you add in “apples to apples” expenses, The Granite Rose is as much as $63.05 CHEAPER than the actual highest priced venue.  Room Fees can add as much as $30.00 per person.  Adding a toast and an appetizer course can cost an additional $6.00 to $8.50 per person PLUS 20%!

This Spreadsheet shows how quickly a bargain price can become very expensive!!

Costs are based on venues’ published prices for similar entree.  Centerpieces are based on $50 per table.  Wedding Cake is based on $4.50 per slice.  Room fees are based on published Saturday Evening fees divided by maximum capacity of the room.  Missing Items are included at the published price of that venue.

Always get a written quote that specifies that it includes everything that you want.

Always get a written quote that states that it includes all fees.

Don’t forget the Tax.

Do the Math.

Reprinted from Special Events Magazine  March 2011

Although this article was written for wedding planners and professionals, it demonstrates how important it is to choose an experienced, trained wedding planner. 

Great Vendors = Great Weddings

Along with price-shopping brides who haggle over every penny in the wedding budget, veteran wedding professionals face another headache these days: the newbie wedding planner. Often armed with little experience—other than their own wedding—the newbies drive down fees and taint the value of experienced wedding pros, many in the business say.

Newbies are not a recent phenomenon, explains Joyce Scardina Becker, president of San Francisco-based Events of Distinction and founding president of the Wedding Industry Professionals Association. "However, they do come in waves," she says, "and right now it feels like a tidal wave!"

The San Francisco Bay area sees "at least one newbie a week," says Jenne Hohn, founder of Napa, Calif.-based Jenne Hohn Events. Although the recession has pushed the newly jobless to try to break into weddings ("I've heard of corporate planners who said they would never touch weddings now seeking advice on how to plan them," Hohn says), she thinks the problem started while the economy was still healthy. Many planners and vendors "saw that the wedding planners were doing well and decided to add planning to their repertoire a way to get a piece of the pie."

DAY-OF DILEMMA

One of the most galling trends, Scardina Becker says, is the low-cost, "day of" wedding coordination service many newbies offer.

"I'm not sure how the term 'day of' coordination originated, but it is a term that needs to be eradicated from the vocabulary of the wedding industry," she says. "No wedding planner of sound mind, experience and education would simply show up on the day of a wedding, wave their arms in the air like a symphony conductor and expect everything to flow flawlessly." Instead, she says, a professional wedding planner would spend from 30 to 45 hours a month out from the wedding date, making sure all plans are in place.

Note: Hohn shares her thoughts in "The Myth of 'Day Of' Wedding Planning"; click here to read more.

INTERNATIONAL ISSUE

The problem stretches across the Atlantic to England, notes London-based wedding planner Siobhan Craven-Robins, a 15-year veteran professional.

Until 1995, weddings in England and Wales had to take place in a church or register office. But when the law changed, a wide range of venue options became available to brides, and wedding planning blossomed. Craven-Robins notes, "In the U.K., wedding planning is still a growing industry, and a difficult one to get into if you are not setting up your own business. Consequently there are always new planners setting up." She adds, "Most don't survive long as they have a somewhat rosy view of what the job really entails! I get on average four CVs [resumés] a day from people wanting to be wedding planners."

Although her strong brand has protected her business thus far, Craven-Robins sees the same problems with newbies in the business. "A number of planners have complained about the novices starting up and seriously undercutting on price," she says. "In the long run, it does no one any favors. They will be unable to sustain a business on such small fees, it devalues the brand, and makes the industry unnecessarily cutthroat."

REPUTATION AT RISK

Along with driving down fees, some newbies are compromising the reputation of wedding planning by their ignorance or—or disdain for—professionalism, some veteran planners say.

Colette Lopez, head of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based La Fête, said she was "floored" a few years ago when her client posted photos of the wedding Lopez created on the Web site of the new "planner," claiming they were her work. "I see a lot of blogs that are showing just table designs and set-up shots instead of actual events," Lopez adds.

Tara Wilson, founder of Tara Wilson Events in Fort Worth, Texas, has been pestered in recent months by callers pretending to be prospective brides. She knows why they ask detailed questions about her pricing and services: "It's very frustrating to have newbies calling and pretending to be brides to pick my brain," she says. "I would much prefer a start-up planner ask to take me to lunch and discuss her questions rather than try to sneak answers past me. I would be happy to share my insights about this challenging and unique business with the right person, but honesty is the best way to go about it."

Besides knowing little about the wedding business, many newbies know little about business period. For a presentation at The Special Event 2008, Scardina Becker polled wedding planners and learned that 45 percent did not carry business insurance, and 13 percent had no license. "This was a motivating factor for me to help start the Wedding Industry Professionals Association," she says; WIPA members are required to have a business license and insurance.

WEDDING-DAY WOES

Yet the shortcomings of the newbie planner show up in time. "I hear all the time from my vendors all over," Lopez says, "that the florist, photographer, band emcee or head captain ends up taking over the event to keep it on track with planners that are not experienced."

Janice P. Blackmon, with more than 25 years in wedding planning, was called on recently to bail out a newbie herself. The head of Janice Blackmon Events in Atlanta—a market "saturated" with wedding planners, she says—tells the story of a newbie planner so ill-equipped to handle a wedding "that on several occasions she even asked the client what they should be working on next," Blackmon says. The worried bride checked with her venue for a recommendation on a planner, and Blackmon's name came up. "I was able to come in with two weeks until the wedding, pull everything together, and create and produce the flawless wedding that the bride had been dreaming of," she says.

Blackmon hopes for the day to return when clients "understand that to have the event they desire, it takes quality vendors and professionals to work together to achieve that goal." But with the bumper crop of inept newbies, "I fear we will continue down the road as we are today," she says, "with having to spend extra time explaining why we charge what we charge for our services and why we can't just give away our time and expertise."

Hohn, however, is more optimistic. "Ethical planners have held a constant fee structure as a way to maintain the integrity of the industry," she says. "These planners have found ways to reword their assistance structure and more clearly define what it is that they do. Not only that, they are educating brides along the way. This type of education is what will save the industry from the 'attack of the newbies.'"

Welcome to The Granite Rose’s new Blog!  We plan to post articles about all of the different aspects of your wedding day including many helpful hints and to dispel some of the “urban myths”.

Today’s’ weddings are a far cry from even 10 years ago.  Back then everyone was seated at the head table including the parents, grandparents, Minister or Priest, as well as the bridal party.  Today the majority of head tables are Sweetheart Tables for 2.  The balance of the bridal party often sits at nearby tables and are able to socialize with their significant others while having dinner.  It also gives the Bride and Groom at least 10 minutes alone!!

The introduction of wedding ceremonies at the Reception Site is quite new also.  This really started to take hold in the late ‘90s’ and today they account for over 2/3s of the Ceremonies at The Granite Rose.  The real upside of this transition is twofold; Brides are not limited to reception facilities that are close to their church or home, but rather they can expand there venue search for many, many miles.  Of course the other bonus is that your guests have only to go to one location.

Entertainment has also done a complete 180 over the past few years. In the 90’s bands were the norm and a DJ was uncommon.  Today the DJ is the norm and the band is quite uncommon.  The reasons for this are really quite simple; the DJ is ¼ of the price of a band, they can play anything including downloading new songs from the Internet while on stage, they never take a break, and the new equipment that they use is a huge improvement from past years.

Traditional wedding cakes were always round, white, and had several tiers.  Some even had fountains and other props such as staircases leading from one cake to the next.  Today’s’ cakes are introducing color, square layers, Monograms and hundreds of cake, filling, and frosting combinations.  You can find some great examples of these at Jacquespastries.com .

Keep watching our Blog as we highlight some of the newest trends for your wedding!