If you are reading this, is because you just got engaged (Congratulations). Now you need help planning or understanding what steps to take next. Well we are here to help you every step of the way. First step should always be finding a venue and then finding a wedding planner or catering company. These three services can potentially be the most expensive parts of your big day. Good venues can range anywhere from $6000 to north of $30,000. Second should be catering, but we can give you a little advice on how you can book a planner second, then catering to help you save money. A plate for a wedding can run you anywhere from $150 per guests or more. So now multiply that with your guest count and just for an example let's say you invited 100 guests, multiply your guests with each plate and you can see we are in the $15,000 range. Now here is a trick, if you hire a planner second, they can act as your representative to get you the best price possible for your catering along with all your other services. Basically saving you enough money where the planner will eventually be free because of all the money they saved you. We have seen weddings with no planner and if you see the stress level the couples go through on their big day and all the money they throw out the window all because they decided to plan it themselves. So now let's say you will go with a planner as your second booking. It is really important when you start looking for a planner, to hire one who has worked at the venue plenty of times and has a great understanding of what can work and not at your selected venue. Many mistakes happen when planners plan a wedding at a venue they have no experience with. We see it all the time. If the planner is not familiar with the venue and you decide to move forward with them then it is important to have your planner put together a vision board and do multiple walk throughs with the couple to avoid any surprises. The only surprises we like for our couples is, at the end of the night when they open those envelopes full of money from their guests. Anything out of that, we don't want as a surprise. So now we are making progress. You have your venue, wedding planner (Which was free because they saved you XYZ amounts of $$$ from catering) and catering. Now you have to see what is left in your budget for all the rest of the services. This is very tricky because all couples vary. Some prefer to spend more on flowers than a photographer/videographer and some prefer to spend more on a DJ and have decent flowers just to make the wedding seem elegant. There is no right or wrong in this so do not feel stressed. Envision yourself at the end of the night and what is your ultimate result. Always try to go with vendors who have allot of experience in the wedding industry and avoid hiring family. (Trust me, I will make another blog about this and why you should not hire your family). Hire a professional to get the job done right and make sure everything is contracted to protect you and the vendor. If the vendor does not have a contract that should be your first red flag. Ask plenty of questions, so there is no assuming of anything on your wedding day. I can say this, the word ASSUME is not allowed in our company. If we have a doubt we ask, because if we assume wrong it can come back to bite us and we can't risk that on your wedding day. I hope this helps all my couples who took the time to read our first blog. We plan to have many of these in the future. Please share and comment. Thank you Felix Cruz
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