Are you ready to book your 2011 wedding?

Today is December 27, 2010 and it is 8:29 pm. I am sitting in my studio office at Belmont Mansion getting ready for the annual avalance of wedding calls that will hit soon. You see, nearly half of all proposals and engagements happen during the holiday season between Christmas and New Years Day. The next bump is Valentine's Day. Many of my remaining available dates for 2011 will dissapear in the next 6 to 7 weeks, starting on January 2--when the holidays are over. Just tonight I got the first email from a bride who had gotten engaged over Christmas. So, for any of you brides who find yourself reading this blog entry, I have some suggestions. First, think Rich Events for all your officiating, coordinating and wedding venue needs :) ...I know, shameless self promotion. But seriously, the most popular dates fill up quickly and those would be Saturdays in May, late September and October. There are weddings all 12 months of the year, but not in the volume as those times. So, if you are one of those May/September/October brides, don't waste precious time! Find your venues and put down deposits and sign contracts as fast as you can. If you are interested in a March, April or November wedding you'll find a lot more opportunities for open dates. Also, you may get the month you want if you are willing to take a Friday or a Sunday instead of the coveted Saturday.

Amber's Flaming Purse and Grand Entrance

So I had something new happen last night. My bride's purse cought fire while sitting too close to a votive candle during the rehearsal dinner. My assistant director of weddings grabbed the purse and we RAN out front, flames and smoke billowing through the Grand Salon of Belmont Mansion. Her purse strap will never be the same!

And then there was the wedding. Her violinist broker her arm. Her cake designer broker her foot. The topper though, bless her heart, was her grand entrance into the ceremony. As she decsended the steps in to the Grand Salon of the mansion...she fell down the steps. She caught herself on the railing and she wasn't hurt...but still, she fell down the steps.

Four weddings but no funeral

The beginning of Autumn is always a busy time for weddings and that has been the case in 2010. the last two weekends in September 2010 were particularly fun and noteworthy. September 18 was a date to remember. I participated in four weddings personally on one day. I started the day officiating a wedding on Center Hill Lake. As I arrived, not having met the couple in person, I was intrigued to see a guest arrive dressed from head to toe....wait for it...in a duck costume. White fur, yellow beak, tail and with a lovely human woman on his arm. The groom had bemoaned the fact that the bride would not allow him to see her dress before the wedding. He threatened to wear...are you there yet?.....a duck costume. So, when the pre-wedding photos were about to begin the bride was greeted by our duck. After a few minutes, the real groom appeared.

The next wedding was much more conventional and traditional and it went off at Belmont Mansion without a hitch. The third wedding was a lovely affair at an outdoor venue in Williamson County. The only thing out of the ordinary was the Secret-Service-looking security agent monitoring the festivities. The groom plays in the band of a famous country singer who needs a little protection out in public.

My last wedding of the night started late and ended on a somewhat Las Vegas note. The DJ/entertainer was...wait for it...an Elvis impersonator, white jump suit and all!

There is NEVER a dull moment when you work as a wedding minister/planner!

Christmas Weddings

It's not even April yet, but it is time to start booking venues for Christmas weddings. Some brides may not consider the Christmas-New Year's holiday time of year as an ideal time for a wedding, but it is. Many indoor venues such as mine (Belmont Mansion and Cabinberry Farm) are beautifully decorated both inside and out, which helps cut down on the bride's decorating and floral budget. Another plus to a December wedding is the weather. That might seem like an odd statement, but as someone who has been to more weddings than I can count, I can tell you that cool-weather weddings are a blessing. Weddings require a lot of work and a lot of time spend lifting, lugging, hauling, walking and working. Even if your wedding is an indoor event, there is a lot that has to be done out that involves being in the punishing heat of Summer.

One great advantage of a wedding scheduled around a holiday is the fact that many of your guests may already be in town or otherwise off work. Certainly, you will want to poll your closest friends and family and make sure that your venue can accomodate a holiday wedding before you get too far into the planning process. You will also want to make sure that your consider conflicting holiday parties and other events during the busy holiday season. I have coordinated and officiated for many couples during the Christmas holiday season and it worked out beautifully each time.

Keep in mind that many wedding venues such as mine host more than just weddings. Christmas tends to attract a lot of non-wedding rental events at these venues, so the time to book a Christmas wedding is NOW!

Picking Your Wedding Venue

I am a wedding coordinator, wedding minister and a venue manager. As someone who functions in different roles in weddings, I have a unique perspective. There are several things that brides (and grooms) need to consider when booking a wedding venues.

First, where do you want to get married? There are four good options to consider: bride's hometown, groom's hometown, a city between those two places, or finaly a resort/destination wedding.

Second, do you want a single venue wedding with ceremony and reception in one place or do you want a split venue wedding with ceremony in one venue and reception in another?

Third, how many guests do you want to be present?

Fourth, do you want an outdoor or indoor wedding?

Fifth, what venue style appeals to you, i.e. church, hotel, historic building, beach/waterside, privagte residence, resort?

Sixth, do you want to serve alcohol?

Seventh, when do you want your wedding to take place? Morning, afternoon or evening? Weekday or weekend? Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter? On or near a major holiday?

Eighth, how much are you willing to pay for your venue(s)?

Ninth, what ameneties or services would you like or do you need for your venue(s) to include for you, i.e. event planning, catering, bar tending, officiating, tables, chairs, linens, valet, salon, etc.?

Tenth, will this venue photograph well?

Eleventh, is this venue accessable to and comfortable for my guests? Is it easy to find? Is their available parking?

Finally, does my venue work for my wedding? Does is do what I need it to do and do I like it? Lots of people will give advice, solicited or not. Parents or others may pay for some or all of the venue cost, but at the end of the day the bride and groom should be happy with their wedding venue, because it is THEIR wedding!

Cabinberry Farm

I have a multi-faceted event business. I have several ordained ministers who are affiliated with Rich Events who go out and officiate weddings for me. I go out an officiate and coordinate many weddings myself all over midde and west Tennessee and northern Alabama. I also have two wedding venues under contract management: Belmont Mansion and Cabinberry Farm. The mansion takes up a lot of my time due to is prominent place in the Nashville wedding community over the past 20 plus years. I want to spend some time talking about my other venue, Cabinberry Farm. This is such a special place to me. When I am at Cabinberry Farm, I feel like I've gone to a private retreat in Gatlinburg or that I am at my beloved Disney's Wilderness Lodge in Florida. Even though you are still in Davidson County, you feel as if you are out in the country, miles from the hustle and bustle of the big city. The decor is charming and warm. The grounds are inviting and peaceful. This is such a special place for couples to take their vows and share their most special day with their friends and family. We also host rehearsal dinners, parties, photo sessions and many other types of events. I invite you to check out the website. http://www.cabinberryfarm.com/.

The Busy Season -- How to be a good bridal client

January, February and March have been a blur. I have actually lost count of the number of brides I have met with. For those of you new to weddings, either as a bride or a wedding professional, there are a huge number of brides who get engaged between Christmas and New Years. The next big push is after Valentine's Day. I always appreciate brides who do their homework. These are the brides who read the whole ad or the whole website before they call or come in for a visit. There are other brides who see an ad or stumble onto a website and pick up the phone, send an email or drop by without doing ANY homework at all. I can't tell you how many times I find myself giving out information that was right on the screen in front of them. For the brides who are reading this entry, please make sure to take the extra 1 or 2 minutes to read the information available before you call, email or go to see a wedding professional. If you are looking at any of my three websites, you will get the answers to most key questions before you talk to me.

Doing your homework involes a lot of important things when planning your wedding. How many guests do you want to attend your wedding? What will it cost to host a wedding as large as you want? Who is paying for what parts of the wedding? What time of year do you want for your wedding? Have you allowed enough time to plan your wedding? Are you planning a wedding too far in advance? (Chances are that if your boyfriend has not proposed, it's too soon.) I shouldn't know about your wedding before he does!

Wedding professionals tend to be very busy people. We work odd hours. We work long hours. We work during the day and during the evening. We dork during the week and during the weekend. Some of us even work when we're on vacation--BlackBerrys and iPhones let us/make us take our weddings with us everywhere we go. A dedicated wedding and event professional will welcome your calls and emails--that is if he or she wants to be sucessful. What we need from our clients is consistency. We need you to get a handle on what you want, when you want it and how you plan to pay for it. We can guide you, we can counsel you, we can help you...but in the end you still are the ultimate wedding planner. We cannot and should not plan your wedding. We should help you to plan your wedding.

So, if you want your wedding planner, officiant, photographer, caterer, cake designer, florist, musician, DJ, limo company, rental company, venue coordinator and all the others to help you have a great wedding...then help them do their jobs by being a good client. Be organized. Be focused. Be realistic. Be willing to work work with them when things don't go as planned. Realize that your wedding will not take place in a vacuum. Bad things happen to good people, and to good weddings. One of my cardinal rules of wedding managment is that something always goes wrong in every wedding. NO wedding escapes this rule. Sometimes the one thing, or the two things that go awry are so small and so insignificant that nobody even notices, sometimes not even the bride. Sometimes big things, obvious things go wrong. Good wedding professionals and good brides will do everything possible to avoid this in advance with good, detailed planning, but sometimes life gets in the way of our best laid plans. As brides and wedding professionals our goal should be excellence, not perfection.

Do you have the rings?

There are several questions that a minister asks in a wedding. These questions asked are almost rhetorical. The answers are predetermined as are the questions themselves. "Who presents this woman in marriage?" "Do you take this woman?" "Do you take this man?" It is ceremony. It is tradition. We ask these questions, not because we don't know the answer, but becuase it is our western tradition to do so.

I married a couple this week in one of the two wedding venues that I manage. I went through my littany of rhetorical questions and got to this one. "Do you have the rings?" .....silence.....
....red faces....no rings. Someone said, "they're upstairs in my coat pocket." So, we sent the photographer's wife upstairs to retrieve the missing rings.

We got them married and on their way and with a fun story to tell.