Welcome to Wedding Day podcast with your host Sonia Babich, CEO of Iron Diamond Media, a leading wedding resource featuring seven localized wedding brands across the country and Dan Riggs, photography and videography expert and founder of Summit Hill Studios. Come along as they travel from state to state to connect with the most creative and well -respected professionals in the wedding industry. Every episode will arm you with the hottest new trends, wedding day tips and details, and they'll show you all the joys of planning your perfect wedding day. Wedding Day podcast.
Episode 4 is powered by The Society and Two Birds Event Group. This week we're in the heart of historic Milwaukee, Wisconsin, home of Wisconsin Bride Magazine, talking to wedding planners Jaffee and Sarah from Graceful Events. Today we'll learn why hiring a wedding planner is one of the best gifts that you can give yourself, the importance of creating U -time buffers in your wedding day timeline, and some savvy ways to fit professional wedding planning into your budget. That and more is 30 seconds away. Hi, I'm Jenna Culley, owner of LinenFX Minneapolis.
I bet I can guess the third thing you did after getting engaged. Number one, you called family and friends to share the good news. Number two, you started a Pinterest board. Number three, you realized that you have no idea how to bring that Pinterest board to life. That's where we come in. Let the design experts at LinenFX take your ideas and bring them into reality. We have everything including floor length linens, charger plates, table settings, centerpieces, candles, pretty chairs,
lounge furniture sets, and more to make your event picture perfect. Go to our website at lineneffects .com to schedule your appointment today. That's lineneffects .com and see your Pinterest board come to life. Welcome to Wedding Day Podcast. Today we are in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and we're with Jaffee and Sarah from Graceful Events. But I'm excited just to sit down with you both because we actually have been mentioning a lot about wedding planners and how fabulous they are.
We'd agree with that. And so we are like tickled pink because you guys are here just to really like say the importance of having a wedding planner on your wedding day. But first we of course want to hear a little bit about you and your story and how you two found each other. So I've been in the wedding industry for oh I don't want to age myself but probably what 17 years. So I started when I was five.
Just kidding. I'm glad you got the joke. I am blind. Sonya's like, wait a minute. That's an easy one to have. So anyway, so I was working for Geneva National as a wedding coordinator there. So I was planning a lot of the weddings over at Geneva National. Also was planning my own wedding at the time. Of course, always.
And I worked with Jessica Johnson over there, who is on our team now. She's a big planner on our team now. And we did the weddings. We loved it. We were just like in a really good groove. And then the thing that happens after you get married a few years later, we got I got pregnant and I she has her own story. But I, you know, I knew I wanted to be a stay at home mom and be home with my daughter. So I.
left and I was home with my daughter Grace and we were having some fun and then some people just started calling me to do their weddings kind of out of the woodwork friends or people that had heard that I you know knew about weddings and things like that and so so I just started doing weddings occasionally for fun for people.
I guess they would pay me, but I would have done it for free. Don't tell my husband that. In the same way. I won't do anything for free. I can appreciate that. So yeah, so anyway, so then my husband and I were sitting out on the back patio and I was like, I really love this. And he's like, well, make it a thing. And so then we, I was like, all right, I'll form an LLC and start a company and.
I named the company after my daughter, Grace. Oh, I love that. So sweet. That's so cute. And I think, you know, graceful is really embodies how we try to be and who we are, don't you think? Absolutely. You have to. I hope would agree with Seed with grace. I could be wrong. And having a peaceful and graceful wedding today. Thank you. As a planner, you have to have grace. Yes. Sometimes we are grace under fire. Yeah. But.
It's not. They don't know how big the fire is. Right. So anyway, so then I started, you know, doing people's weddings, had a website, started actually putting together contracts, things like that, and then asked, you know, other moms that were, you know, having their still wanting their foot in their career that knew weddings well to come join my team as there was more demand in.
people wanting coordinators and planners. And that was 10 years ago. And today we have 22 people on my team and we do anywhere between 120 and 140 weddings a year. So we keep busy, which is good. Wow. You're rocking it. Congratulations. Thank you. But I did meet Sarah back in 2020. So in 2020,
January 2nd, I found out I was pregnant with my third child and I was like, holy cow, what am I gonna do? We have all these weddings this year. And then this crazy thing happened and the world shut down and the path just cleared itself. So it all kind of worked out. But then when we started gaining the momentum and I had a new baby, we had some weddings that we already contracted and I reached out to Sarah. We...
knew each other from a while back. We crossed paths probably 20 years ago at Lake Lawn. And I just remember her just being, you know, such a fun ball of energy, but so good at what she did. And she just really took care of her clients, but knew everything about the industry and people love her. And anyways, I reached out to her kind of like on a whim and I was like, is there any chance you would want to do a wedding for us? And she's like,
I would love that. She responded right away and the rest is history. And now she was hooked. Yeah. So then she quit her job and came full time with Graceful and she does our top weddings and she's amazing and her clients love her and they are raving fans of her work. So, um, yeah, I also started when I was five. Yeah. So I, yeah, I've been in the industry for 26 years. So, um,
Started off, grew up in Chicago, went to, started right in college at the Hotel Orientin. It was the Omni Orientin, but it was a boutique hotel. Jumped in with weddings and then was at Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan, old school Lake Lawn Lodge that is now Lake Lawn Resort for 20 years. So, and that's where our paths crossed. It just shows like when you're in the wedding, you know, profession, you make...
Absolutely, absolutely. While you're making wedding days happen that you gotta have fun with your frienders. That means wedding professionals being friends with wedding professionals. Because that's who you're hanging out with on the weekends and the late nights. So you gotta have fun with each other. And we do. We genuinely love our job. Walking into a wedding and getting to work with our collaborative partners is so fulfilling to us. Like I always say,
whenever we drive away from a wedding, I mean, I might be speaking for both of us, but I just feel like I'm on this enormous high of, you know, we just did the most amazing thing and we were able to give somebody the opportunity to fully be present on their wedding day, to get to enjoy it and to, you know, just like take on what the day is and.
how many people get to say that for their work. But then also, in conjunction with that, Sarah does a lot of planning and she takes the stress out of the planning for couples. Because I mean, anybody that's ever planned a wedding could agree that wedding planning can get stressful. It's a year and a half. For sure. I mean, it's a year, most of the ones that I work with are at least a year and a half, maybe two years out. And it's like, you're not just.
an event planner, you're not just a wedding planner, you're a mediator, you're a therapist, you are a seamstress, you are a dog walker, you're everything. I mean, the list is endless, honestly, to what we, and we find most of the time, that patience and grace, that'll get you through just about anything. I think couples underestimate how much work it actually is. They're like, oh, well, you know, I'm just gonna hire a DJ, I'm gonna hire a photographer, I'll hire, you know, I have Instagram, I have a pin...
Pinterest, I can look at all these things. That's not true. You should see the thank you cards that we get. And it's like such meaningful work for us because we genuinely get to serve. We're in a service industry and that is serving people. And I was listening, gosh, I'm gonna forget his name and I'm sorry. I was listening to Oprah interview somebody on her Super Soul series and she was...
interviewing somebody she wrote a book with and he was talking about the four pillars of your life that
constitute a happy and balanced life. And one of the pillars was your work life and how to achieve happiness in your work life. And there were two things that you had to achieve in that. And the first thing was you have to do a job that you feel like you're truly serving others or, you know, fixing their problems or helping people in some way. And the second part is you have to truly feel like you've earned your spot where you are. And those
Those two things, I mean, that resonates with us so much and my team because that's what we do. I mean, we've, hey, we're be passionate. Oh, yeah. You have to be passionate. If you don't enjoy your job, there are so many stressors. There's so much involved in the course of the planning the day of. And if you don't enjoy it, we pride ourselves on, yes, we're a ball of energy, very positive, but we pride ourselves on like not only having a great team, but picking.
the team, picking the vendors, picking the supporters, the support staff, because everybody has to, it's got to be a well -oiled machine. Everybody's got to get on the same page, you know. We have to roll the boat together on this wedding day. The synergy that has to come together is incredible and critical in the success of the event. I love what you said about being present on a wedding day, because that's a lot of a reason why you hire a wedding planner. Well, I can speak to that personally, because when I got married to my husband,
And again, I'm going to date myself, but almost 16 years ago.
So there was nothing like this that existed at the time in our area. In Chicago, Milwaukee, sure, but not in the Lake Geneva area. It just wasn't a thing. Nobody had ever heard of this. And so the day of my wedding rolls around and I had it planned. Everything was planned, fine. But when you bring in 200 guests and some of it is a mini destination location for these guests. And then there's all these moving parts with different vendors and two different locations and.
timeline that is, you know, to the minute, there's things that inevitably will go wrong, right? So the day of my wedding rolls around and I never saw my mom most of the day. So like we're getting ready, she's not there.
you know, getting ready for the ceremony. She's not there. I finally saw her after the ceremony. And I remember, like, she just looked a little frazzled. And I was like, huh, I wonder what that's about. And then it moved on with being the bride. Anyway, back to me. Here we go. It's about me. Yeah.
She was that wedding coordinator that day. She was running a team of aunts and uncles and guests. Oh my goodness.
just do all the things that we typically do on a wedding day. And so then after...
you know talking to my mom I was like wow there should really be something like that because this is a problem that is Very reoccurring to all bridal couples. It's not it wasn't just me. I had it planned It wasn't but you need somebody at the bare minimum bare minimal To be that point person the day of your wedding on a typical wedding day This blows a lot of people's minds, but if I were to quantify it for a bridal couple We do about 30 ,000 steps
per wedding day. Oh for sure. And we have two to three people with us on a typical. That's why wedding professionals don't work out because we get our stuff in. We need to. On a wedding day. We gotta get an Orange Theory membership in like December when there's a slow season. Like you said, being present and then we talked about this before on how it's really important. I think everybody going through COVID and going through all this and all the changes and adaptations that we had to do, I think it's really important. We know from
our company that we set aside time. We actually plan it into the schedule for the bride and groom to like, here's 10 minutes, you guys are gonna go for a walk. We're gonna take you aside and plan that downtime. You don't think about it. When you're planning your timeline, it's like ceremony, cocktail reception, dinner. You're kinda going through all of that, oh, we've gotta get our sunset photos and everything, but it's like, okay, taking the time for just the two of you to have your moment. One of the things we do is the room reveals. I know a lot of probably planners do. love room reveal too. Oh, we love it. It's just the two of them. It's like, okay.
Now you can see everything has come to fruition. Stand in the room, just the two of you, by yourself, we'll be off in a corner, just to take it all in. Because it's so important, and we've gotten so many thank yous, so many cards saying that meant the world to me. And forget about the reveal because you have your Pinterest board for a reason. Yes, absolutely. Because you want to see.
your Pinterest board come to life. And a lot of times they don't take the time for the big reveal and they walk in and their guests are already in, they're sitting in their chairs. You're not seeing the whole details to the full table setting. A year and a half of conversations. A year and a half of conversations, exactly. And the pictures don't do it justice. You know what I mean? Like you really need to be present in that moment. We love being able to like, here's a glass of champagne, here's some more drinks. You guys sit down, just take it all in.
You know what I mean? Take a deep breath, you know. One of the trends that I've seen this year, it was actually I only saw it once and I thought it was the coolest thing and maybe you do this, maybe you've heard of it. I'm a videographer, so I get to spend some of that intimate time with the couples, you know, before the ceremony, right after the ceremony and whatnot. And what they did was after the ceremony, you know how normally if you have a buffet or you have a plated meal, normally the bride and groom, they get their plates first and they go through the line first.
What this planner day of coordinator did was they had a private meal for the couple in the bridal suite. So they got to eat their dinner probably 30 minutes before everybody else. It was a plated meal. And it was amazing because the thing that happens during the wedding or during the dinner is the bride and groom they don't get to eat because people are talking to them. The bridal party is talking to them. Everyone's talking to them. They're distracted. There are speeches. There's toasts. And I thought that this was a really cool way to kind of
Fused together some alone time and also let's get some food in your belly, right? Yeah, two very important things recharging the social battery and fueling them for the rest of We can tell we can feel the vibe of a couple literally like after the ceremony Especially too when they're really like we got married. We're so excited It's like steal them take them away for that five minutes so that they can Really have that moment together and not be like now we've got to go into family photos. Now. We've got to go into this
The energy is just so intense, but that's... We've done that. We've done that. That's really so important. I brought that up because this is actually one of my biggest pet peeves when I ran my venue. You may agree, but when the couple are sitting at the head table, the sweetheart table, harvest table, the king's table, the bride and groom need to sit in their chairs. Because if they leave the chairs, they're setting an energy and a presence that...
They don't need it. Nobody needs to sit in their chair. Yeah. Yeah. You got it. And so if you sit at the bride and groom, you're like the lead actors of the day. Right. They follow with whatever you do. So if you're eating, you're sitting in your chair, your bridal party is going to sit in the chairs. Nobody's going to venture off to the bar and keep the bar party going on. Right. You sit in your chair, your dinner experience will begin and continue. That's the struggle. Do you agree with that? No, That's the struggle I think couples deal with. I think they want to be present for their guests. They want to go.
and you've got out of town, you've got cousins you haven't seen in several years. You want to go table to table. Maybe mom and dad are encouraging them to do that. Whatever the case may be, they feel like they have a little bit of that pressure, like, okay, we're gonna go to each table and talk. But what turns out, we all have that crazy.
Bob that will like talk your ear off for 20 minutes. You know I bless America because there's love in it. Right? There's doesn't understand social cues. Yeah. You know what I mean? We can see, like our eyes are constantly focused on the couple. And we can see, we always tell them don't separate. You know you don't want to be at one table and hear the grooms halfway across the room. Or for the simple fact of we want you to eat. We want you to be present and sit down. So it's sometimes extending maybe a cocktail hour for like an extra half hour. Sometimes you know they had this trend last year about
doing this, you know, quick photos. I don't know if as a videographer, if you've done this before, it's like you have a song and it's like, okay, we're gonna get to every table. We're gonna do a photo. It's like a race. Which is crazy. It's insane. But that's one way to visit. And like we kind of play that loving bad guy. Like we'll go with you. Table one, everybody up. Table two, everybody up. You know what I mean? So you can still get that in. But I think that's one of the challenges is like, do we have enough time trying to fit it in and.
Giving them that yes and to add to that a little bit on an operational standpoint the catering Staff, you know, they're looking at the bridal couple as like you said the main actors and that's their cue to start the next course is if they're ready So they lead the service of the food so much
and wouldn't you agree with that? Absolutely, they're always looking for them. Like can you have them sit down so we can serve the entree, you know? Or we want to keep it hot so when they're down, can you let us know and That's a good point because if you have a plated dinner, that filet.
that is not going to taste good 10 minutes long. We're looking at that chef, you know, with the daggers, you know. And the looking at them. They're looking at the planner and the chef is just standing there and goes, my filet mignons are ready to be eaten. Sharpening his knives. Or when the sales start executing, that's when he's like, I'm ready to finish them off. Yeah. So that's probably the key to my mind.
The is huge. You can't screw up the timeline. The timeline is set for a reason. Yeah, the caterers sweat too because it's their food. So the guests don't know that something was off at the timeline. They just know that they got an overcooked steak. That is a perfect example of why you need a wedding planner because they're there to make sure working with the coordinator on the venue, right? Because the coordinator is working with the catering team or the chef.
You're also working with the DJ or whoever's doing the grand march entrance. Exactly. It's host. That's when my blood pressure would get so hot. I'm like, all right, right parties with the DJ. Cool. They're gonna do the grand march. Everybody lined up. Is everybody here? Cool. Who's doing the prayer? Where's dad? Where's dad? Yeah. Oh, chef is looking at me. We gotta go. Everybody smile.
Yes. Should we tell about the gala that we did with the torrential? Grace Under Pressure. This is what we're calling it. You have a whole series of catchphrases for the grace. Grace Under Fire, Grace Under Pressure. It's amazing how we use that a lot. But yeah, we were... people called us that. So then we were like, you know what? Don't tell us. Tell us, Shma, what is it? So like this great opportunity that you guys have given us today, we were given this huge opportunity to be...
the planners, we were asked for Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, which is historic. Iconic. Iconic was connected to the University of Chicago. We were asked to do their gala, but it was an attempt at Yerkes on the grounds, and it turned out to be a torrential downpour. Yeah, of course it did. I could not describe more severe weather. Exactly. And people need to know with a tent, it's like...
popping up, it's a blank canvas. And you're making a venue from scratch out of a tent. So you have to think about all the things from a, think of a building going into a tent from restrooms. Where's the catering tent? Where's all those things? So just keeping in mind, you're popping up a venue. Absolutely. It's like the day before, two days before I think, we're like, okay, to get guests from the observatory to the tent, we need a marquee. We're gonna have to add this on last minute because we need to have a walkway. Special plug to Blue.
peak. They were amazing at executing. I was sure it was last minute. Last minute. Yeah. Another reason for a planner to help solve those problems last minute and knowing who to call. Absolutely. I mean the power went out. The power went out at a moment. So we had a kitchen constructed. The blue plate out of Madison. They were phenomenal. They brought a whole kitchen. David and his crew. I cannot say enough good things about.
Anyways. But the amount of quick interaction, the amount of quick like on your toes, like she's saying 30 ,000 steps. I mean we probably doubled that that day. How many people were in that event? We had our entire team. We had maybe 16 of our girls that were there. But the amount of like you need to be quick on your toes running around. And the thing is like the grace under pressure, it's like you do it with a smile on your face. You move quick.
You get it done, whether you're dancing across the dance floor with everybody there or you're helping to cater, helping whatever it might be, you don't show fear ever. You don't show fear, you don't show the angst of what you're dealing with.
Voted Minnesota Bride's Best Jeweler every year since 2010. Continental Diamond has an amazing selection of diamonds, engagement rings, wedding bands, jewelry, and timepieces. Providing the best experience possible, their team is friendly, knowledgeable, and there to make the process fun and easy. Trust the reviews. They're top rated on Google. Visit Continental Diamond, the jewelry store Minnesota adores. Online at continentaldiamond .com. When engaged couples are starting their wedding planning process, we've...
Definitely as a brand encourage finding the planner right away. I actually say get the planner first before you find the venue So how how does that look when people when engaged couples reach out to you and ask you questions? Like why should I book a wedding planner? Why is that? Why is that an important important investment to have the perfect wedding day? That's a great question. So I think you know if your budget allows
Booking a wedding planner is one of the best gifts you could give yourself to A, enjoy the process of the planning and not feel stressed, know what we should be doing and how we should be doing it and where we should be doing it, but then also get to be present on the day of your wedding. So you're spending all this time, money and energy into planning this perfect day, why not be able to actually enjoy it? So that I say would be the reason why they would book a wedding planner or a wedding coordinator.
I love that gift to yourself. That is a great way to look at a plan. We had a groom that basically in one of our referral our thank you letters basically said it was an investment that I wouldn't change. You know I wouldn't change anything because it was an investment in the day for them. I give always another example when people ask me should I should it because again close friends still contact me. So you should I invest in a wedding planner. I go absolutely. The perfect example is when.
when you're sitting in your chair as a bride and you're getting your hair and makeup done and your phone is blowing up and things are going wrong and you're trying to delegate while you're trying to relax and be a bride and soak in and can't wait to see your partner at the end of the aisle or that first look. When it goes rogue with that tension, the whole energy goes away. When you have a planner,
Your phone doesn't blow up. You don't have Auntie Janet calling with panic saying, where do I put the cakes, honey buns, to keep them cold? You have a day of hero, too. There's a lot of things. We had talked about you have kits to fix things. You can go and get people.
We have dress malfunctions. Been there. Totally funny wedding story, but yeah, we've had, like you're saying, we've got our wedding emergency bag. We all carry them around with us, so whether it's seamstress, whether it's whatever. I've sewn a wedding dress right after one of the groom's men stepped on it and tore the tooling, and I've literally sewn it right after the ceremony so that they still had it for pictures. So the biggest thing I think that we do is doing a group text with the parents, doing the group text with the guys, doing the group text with the girls.
Because you don't want the bride's phone blowing up saying, oh, the shuttle's here. You guys need to get on. Oh, your florals are here. We want to be the one person to take all that burden off so that mom and Aunt Sally and everybody else can sit and enjoy that. So it's one point person saying, your photo, first look, 1 o 'clock, be there, you know, and make it really seamless. That's so awesome. And it helps because then they're not the person. Because what tends to be is that.
The groomsmen, the bridesmaids, they're all looking to the bride. Oh, I forgot what the schedule is. I forgot what this is. Or they're asking mom and they're not present. They're all not together. And when we work at these resorts, they're scattered all over the place sometimes. You know what I mean? So trying to track people down and to keep with that timeline. That's why we we tend to do that a lot just to keep everybody on the same path. So we talked about being, you know, a planner is a gift to yourself. Not everyone can not everyone thinks they can afford a planner. Right. Are there some places where?
maybe we could cut in the budget other areas, like maybe you don't have floral, maybe you don't have... Well, you gotta have it all, David. Do your guests really need to eat? Yeah. Can you do hot dogs? Yeah. Well, that's the thing about, you know, like our company is we have all these different price points. So we try to do that because we really do find the value in every bride deserving, every bride, bridal couple, deserving to enjoy their wedding day.
Um, so we've, you know, we, we started out low and that is a day of coordination package. And you're at the bare minimum, you get to be present on your wedding day. Um, and I always think of like the analogy of like, let's say you're throwing a party and you're the host or hostess. And one of the things that allows you to be a gracious hostess is to protect your energy. And one of the things that will steal your energy the most is stress.
you people become completely different versions of themselves when they are under intense pressure and stress and we have such an emotionally charged industry. I mean, there's so many layers of potential stress, but also excitement. The day of a person's wedding, they're getting married, A. B, they're being a hostess to 200 of their closest friends.
See, they've just invested in the biggest amount of their life up until this point, typically, on this large scale event. And that is going to go by in the blink of an eye. So I think about like the analogy of planning like a little birthday party or something. I know personally, you know, like, I just get so worn out by the time the guests get there. And I'm just like, I just want to go lay down. And we don't want our bridal couples to feel that way. We want them to be.
Preserved with their energy and charged up and ready to go because your whole wedding feeds off of your energy They're the lead actors Yeah, and that's why it's important to put those little buffer moments in to where hey take ten minutes and just go sit go outside breathe some fresh air get away from people Yeah the one thing that I know that we pride ourselves on too is that you know obviously Jaffe will get leads and calls that come through but doing a consultation call so You know a lot of times she'll reach out and say you know I've got this couple they really want to know like
maybe what package they should go with or they want to meet with you. So like we do a lot where I might get on a call, they'll invest a very little amount of money to have an hour phone call to kind of go and see like where are you at with your planning process? Maybe like you said, they didn't book us right away, they already have their venue, they already have their caterer or whatever it might be. So it kind of helps them, gives them just a little bit of a foot in the door to help them kind of find out, you know, what help do I need?
There are some that will reach out, you know, and they're already six months away from the wedding and they're like, okay, we realize this is a huge undertaking. We need help now, you know, and then it really kind of gauges. But we've got this giant, you know, master document, Google doc that we work off of. We pull all the information together. Um, we have, depending on packages, we have multiple meetings, unlimited emails. Um, the one thing that we pride ourselves too on, I know we talked about this, is that we have such a large team.
but part of graceful events is the extra security. Everybody's gone through like business is closing down and oh, I don't have access to my dress or these types of things. If ever something should happen, knock on wood, we have a backup. We have a backup plan. If somebody should get sick, if somebody should, we have an entire team to jump in and it's happened where someone's.
come down with the flu or what have you. So it's always that security we tell couples. That is a perfect reason why planners always have a backup plan and a backup plan. They usually have two backup plans to every situation. So even if you have a tent wedding, they are planning for the rain and then they're planning for a thunderstorm. And then they're planning how to...
had to do the emergency exit of a tent. We had a backup bar inside ready to go. We had or derbs all ready to go inside just in case we had to evacuate the tent. Like everything was in a seamless way. And that's perfect for even like a ceremony as well because again this is the Midwest.
Not sunny California.
Dan Riggs (31:18.382)
the ultimate symbol of luxury and excellence in hair and makeup artistry. So when they're selecting the perfect wedding planner, like again, the smart ones get one before they get a venue, but a lot like don't, like you said, get them after they book a caterer and a venue and that is perfectly fine. But when they ideally reach out to you for the first time, how do you like to start that wedding planning process with a booked couple?
Sure, and this is prior to the venue and everything? It could be prior to the venue. We don't have anything. Okay, so nothing. This is great. I'm not even engaged yet. I'm not engaged. That's good. Alright, let's find a partner for you first. I know some people, yeah. But no, I would say this is a really great opportunity for us and I would say only maybe 5 % of people come to us in this position, but this is...
very helpful to make sure your entire wedding day is seamless and cohesive in not only design but timeline and vendor coordination and collaborative partners and all of that. So then we can really understand, you know, like a few things about our couple. What brings them alive? What...
keeps them up at night? What is something they're really into? And we can kind of like, and Sarah might add to this, but we can take all of those things that really, you know, make the couple so unique and find the venue that will honor them in that way. And does the venue speak to them? And so go, so you're saying like when you first meet with them, you want to know what is their number one? What makes them tick? The first meeting, honestly, is get to know them.
We'll dig deep. The whole joy of being a wedding planner, to me, I don't wanna speak for everybody, but it's getting to know them. It's really the personal connection. You might be dealing with just kind of a year and a half out, two years out. It could only be a short amount of time, but really getting to know them personally. So if you're starting from. I planned a wedding in a month last year. Oh my gosh. I got in two weeks. I did it in three hours. You win. No you did not.
But getting to know them because I totally, if they don't have, like for example, if they don't have anything lined up and they're looking at us first, it's like getting to know them, getting to know, okay, what's your background? Where did you grow up? Because that will help to assist in like helping to pick a venue. Once you get the venue locked in, then it's kind of like you were saying earlier about how can brides, how can couples save on certain things? A resort.
venue is a lot different than a venue where you're bringing everything in or a tent wedding where you're building everything from scratch. So it's really looking at their budget too. Unfortunately, it's the unhappy, it's the non -popular question of like, okay, where's your budget at? Most of them really have you have to talk about it. You have to. Most of them don't know sometimes. It's like, okay, if you don't know what your budget is, what are you uncomfortable with? Give us a range or where is your, this is, we can't exceed this.
Not that we're saying we're going to get you there, but we need to know what you're comfortable with, what's not going to add on to this helps us protect the bridal couple too, and know what planet we're on when we're recommending different things. Especially if you present different ideas about floral. Right. Yes.
in my budget. This is what your Pinterest board showed me. Right. And then a couple is different too. Like you know for grooms they're like oh the food's really important, the bar's really important, the band's got to be really good. So we need to know kind of what are your you know your top three you know top three items on your wedding day. If flowers are really abundant you want it to be we know what vendors, we know our friends or you know people that we work with. Or what wedding professional that they prefer to
to make that come to life and maybe be more adaptable to a certain budget. Exactly. When we're talking about budgets, too, I think there's two different schools of thought here. So if you're hiring a planner, you need to be honest with your planner what your budget is. Absolutely. If you're doing it on your own, I think a lot of people, a lot of couples will, they'll say, oh, because I'm a videographer. So in our inquiry form, we have, what's your budget? Yeah. And I think a lot of people go, well, I'm going to tell them my budget is $0 .00.
$500 because then you know, maybe they'll change the price down to that it's completely different with a planner because you are working with the vendors directly and you are negotiating for them on their behalf what what these you know what you're gonna pay for video photo I'm buying a car exactly. Yeah, it was each wedding professional like in like a catering You don't realize that it's 50 bucks ahead. You're planning 20 bucks ahead, right?
So that's why you have your planners as a negotiator, but again, knowing what the budget's all about. In certain venues like resorts, the tables, the chairs, the linens, the china glass silver, that's all included most of the time in those packages.
Whereas we want to talk them through that because if they're looking at a venue that you have to bring everything in, that can really jack up your budget. You may pay 14 ,000 just to rent the venue and then you're adding all of that on top. Because some venues don't provide tables and chairs inside the flat wearing glassware. And it's the coordination of that. Women, all of that. Yeah. And it's.
All budgets come in all shapes and sizes. And every time I ask that, because that's one of the first questions I ask on a consultation call is, and I always hear the hesitancy in their voice and I say, listen, whatever your budget is, it's a very respectable amount. And I have zero judgment. I just need to know candidly because it helps me do a good job for you or us do a good job for you. That's really good. I love that.
Yeah, there's nothing worse than getting three months out and going, Oh, my word, we have no more money. Or we always tell bride stuff looking at the Pinterest board. Yes. You're done. Oh, I love that. Actually, I think once they solidify their theme, you lock that Pinterest board. You do not keep adding to that because that just confuses your wedding professionals that you're working with. The other thing, too, is that we have a wonderful designer. Katie is our designer on our team.
So we have brides that you know they're like we've got all these ideas my Pinterest board is gigantic we need to kind of pull some things together and sometimes they'll have three different color palettes of three different styles and they're like this is my only someone this is yeah I need that person to pull it together that's when it comes the budget really comes in because Katie will put together these gorgeous like you know 12 page design boards based off of your Pinterest board based off of like what you want well that can what
what's listed there could be $100 ,000 wedding. And realistically, that's why we want to really have a more realistic number. I you actually just brought up design boards, aka mood boards. So a lot of wedding professionals like to work off of a mood board to help continue the design of the wedding day, right? To make sure it's staying cohesive with the food, with the look, with the flowers, et cetera. Absolutely.
So it is very common to be presented a mood board and that just fills my bucket. I think it's the coolest thing and I love that it's becoming popular. But I have any couples like presented mood boards, because the Pinterest board is kind of like a mood board, but like when you present them a mood board, are they like, whoa, is that like that cherry on top? It is. I think it's like the giant sigh of relief because the Pinterest board can be just.
it could be years of putting ideas and things into there. This isn't just during the planning process. You could have things in there that are like, oh, this is what my dress is gonna be. When they see the mood board, it's almost like we've done the, we've kind of pulled out what we feel is the best parts and kind of getting to know them too. We know what their personality is. There's things like.
you know, creating a different vision of like their menu cards or their guest book and kind of like really incorporating them personally. When you show them this and it's everything from the whole tablescape to what their, um, their guest book is going to look like, what the interaction of like their table seating chart, what the late night snacks and you know, the, the dance floor, everything, everything is incorporated. It's such an aha moment. I think every time we see it and it's that sigh of relief, it's like, Oh, I have this huge burden that's like off my shoulders now.
it all makes sense, you've pulled it together. There's always gonna be someone. It's gonna be that aha moment, be like, they got it. Right, and they can finally see their wedding. But then they can pick and choose, they can be like, I like that, maybe we'll give them two options, I like that, gobble it over this one, or something, you know? So then they have it narrowed down better for them, so they have a better understanding. So once they book the planner, again, how do you help hold their hand with selecting their wedding professionals? Who's next? Yes, who's next? Absolutely. So...
A lot of times I think when they're contracting with us, they already have their venue. I think most of them already have their venue in place. Depending on the venue, if it's a resort, you've got catering, you've got beverage taken care of. But I think what we're seeing just industry -wise for a trend is if it's a venue that does not have a caterer, you need to lock your caterer in right away.
because they take so many per weekend, whatever the case may be. And that's why they have you to help lock in that caterer. Exactly. And to recommend the right one that goes with their budget, their style, the presentation they're looking to achieve. Everything too in terms of distance. I a lot of, you know, in terms of travel expenses, you know, I mean there's things that you can, that we see contracts obviously all the time if they're coming from further out, you know, what's the additional cost that's going to be, you know, how many staff did they provide, all of that.
The other one, pretty much after catering, I would say would be your music, especially if it's a band. DJs, we have a little bit more flexibility with, but I think bands especially, they tend to book up really quickly. Photographer would be next, photographer, videographer, we always recommend too, if you can find a team that does photographer and videography together, that's fabulous. You wanna be able to work.
You know well and Dan so that's something that I know about of and I think and I think the reason for that is you want to make sure that they get along well that they gel throughout the day because you're spending this these are the two people your photographer and your videographer are the two people that you're spending pretty much all day with I mean they're yeah the planner too but so you have the photographer and videographer all day with you you if they're on a team if if you know for instance Summit Hill Studios offers both photo and video we know each other
We know we get along well. We know our personalities. We know during the ceremony like okay photographer you're gonna be there videographer I'm gonna be here and it just you work really well together to get all those great shots. Yeah, there's nothing worse You all says wedding planners know the energy of this couple and who they're gonna mesh well with
certain type of wedding professional as well. Absolutely. So you kind of again help the interviewing process to go a little bit faster. The important thing about photographers to and videographers is make sure they're comfortable with the site where you're going to be at the venue. If they have and if they haven't and if it's like we've fallen in love with them have them do a site visit. I think it's really important that we tell our couples that because...
If the photographer shows up the day of the wedding and they have no idea where the first look location is going to be, or they have no idea what the venue provides or what areas they have access to, that can really throw your timeline off. And if they don't show up earlier to kind of do that pre -work. So that's something we always recommend. The other thing too that we've noticed, hair and makeup. This is crazy. And maybe it's just a year to year thing, but this year I think that we have talked to 26 plus hair and makeup vendors because...
Some of them do outsource. They have their own team. They outsource and bring in some others from other companies and so forth. So that's one that we've noticed. And if they can work together again in tandem, that is much better. All right. So we have we have planner. We have venue. We have catering, photography, videography, makeup artist. We stationary. We need stationary rentals. Can come a little bit later, but then maybe a baker.
A lot of people are doing more dessert stations or sweet tables, things like that. Some of those unique vendors. So like if you're looking, we've noticed too like vintage cars. During COVID, a lot of those companies went and sold their cars, which is crazy. We've got maybe a handful that we know to work with.
little specialty bars, bitsy bar, and some of these things. So some things that are very unique, special entertainment, dueling pianos, you know, amazing waiters, things like that are ones to create that personal touch and make it different. Can I go back though? Did we mention florist? No. I would bring that back up to the top. That's a huge part. I just got a quick trip.
Go to Quistrip, grab a couple of sims. Stop it. I would say that's up there. That's another reason why a planner is great because they can actually knock this all out super fast. Because honestly, you need to honestly book them all right away. Yeah. Like don't wait. Just get them done. You know, it depends on the couple's jobs too.
So we always ask that, like, what is your job? If they're in nursing, if they're a doctor, whatever it might be, they may have no time for research. They may have no time. So we'll do that work of contacting. We'll send them three links. Here's three bands. Which one do you like? And then we'll reach out for the contract for them to help them out. And even if they do the research, their Instagram may be flawless, right? They have all these gorgeous pictures. What if they don't show up? What if they don't come? I mean, you can't tell about still need to interview them.
You still need to meet who you're going to be working with on the wedding day. Right. Exactly. And you can meet less if you have a planner who has trusted vendors. Another one that we often recommend is a hotel block in our area. It's a mini destination location and hotel blocks are huge. Another unsung hero for the day is transportation.
Oh, yeah. Well, we know that there you're going to be seeing that one from Butler Transportation. So, yeah, right away. Episode episode number three on Wedding Day podcast was was Rod Childress from Butler Transportation in Seattle. And honestly, we we learned so much. That's it's number three. Rod Rod, of course, Rod, of course, thought that it goes planner, venue, transportation. But every wedding professional with certain categories again at the same.
book us right away. And that goes to what you said Sonia is like they're all important. Yeah. And if you want them book them. Depends on the location too though for transportation. Our area I mean so a lot of our weddings are logistically complex right so they a lot of times we incorporate the Lake Geneva cruise line with our weddings which means that guests need to be picked up from a pier taken to another destination on the lake.
and dropped off, well, where's their cars, right? So we need a shuttle spot on. We need to have clearance to make sure there's shuttle, some shuttles of 55 passengers cannot fit in the locations that our weddings are, like private estates or things like that. So we need to really know those vendors. And this is why Auntie Janet can't be your wedding planner. This is why a wedding planner is asking those questions, thinking of those little logistics from how many the boat can hold versus a shuttle bus can hold.
Absolutely. That's why they hire a wedding planner. We always love Auntie Janet. Because she kind of becomes a personal attendant and becomes buddy buddy with the wedding planner, right? Absolutely. Janet likes to drink though. She takes a little nip here and there, you know, you think everything's great. At the end of the night. Yeah. And she's high fiving the wedding planners. We did it! Yes we did.
Well, thank you so much, you two, for joining Dan and I here in Milwaukee at The Society. Like, we learned so much from you two, and it's just such a joy to hear your story and all the tips and tricks and trends that you're seeing to share with our engaged couples. Really appreciate it. Well, we wanted to take a second to just say thank you both and your entire team for everything that Wisconsin Bride does for our industry. I don't...
think that you probably even know like the innovation that you guys inspire in our industry and the vendors. Anytime I talk to another vendor, I'm always like, you have to get a membership with Wisconsin Bride. It will up your game in so many ways. Just, you know, like you bring so many vendors together. You help us to collaborate and make those connections, which helps our bridal couples, but also, you know, just like.
Your magazine helps brides and grooms and... Your energy is infectious, honestly. We get so excited just the couple events that we've been to and everything. We kind of leave there with such a just really exciting outlook on what the next year is going to be.
Sonya knows how to throw a party. Yeah. I love to throw a good party. Well, you do fabulous. Thank you. I know Team Bride's listening in, so they really love that. And Team Wedding Day. Team Wedding Day. Yeah. Well, thank you all for tuning in. Dan, that's a That's me. Yep, that's a wrap. Thank you for joining in. Yep. Here on Wedding Day podcast. Join us. If you're listening on Spotify right now, you can watch this. You can see us on YouTube. You can also listen on Apple.
Apple podcasts and anywhere that you get your podcasts, please follow us on Instagram and all the places at wedding day podcasts. Have a great day. See you. Bye.