Important Questions to Ask Your Vendors Part 1: Venue Questions

Planning a wedding can and typically is SUPER stressful, especially if you are a DIY bride or a couple planning your own wedding (without a wedding planner).To keep you and your loved ones at ease it is important to make a list of what you and your future spouse want or would like to have at your wedding/reception.We started by making a generic list of things we thought would be cool or nice to have to add a special touch of personalization to our day.  From there we priced out our favorite things to determine if they would work for our budget.  If they didn’t work, we reassessed the budget and list of “must haves” to see if we could make it work or if it was something that we could live without.  After a few rough drafts and much discussion we were able to finalize the list and determine what we needed/wanted for our big day.

Having a “picture” in mind of how you see your wedding and reception really helped us understand what we needed to ask each of our vendors when negotiating a price or talking about the services they provide. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind when talking to your key vendors.  I’ve broken these questions down into three parts; Venue, DJ, and Photographers for you J This post will focus on  just venue questions!

Venue Questions

Your venue will be the biggest decision you make while planning your wedding and will therefore require the most “customization” or questions to be asked when making a decision.

1. What is included in the cost of dinner?-  Most times when you request information from a venue they will provide you will the cost of a buffet style and seated dinner along with a description or sample menu.  Although this may seem like it will cover what you need it is important to ask what the price per person includes.  For example does the cost per person include:

• Open bar?
• Dessert/cake/cake cutting?
• Champagne toast?
• Linens? (table/napkin/chair covers)
• Place settings?
• Coffee/tea?

Many of these things may seem silly but it is important to clarify (READ THE SMALL PRINT) before jumping into a venue that charges you per fork placed on the tables. (This happens I’m NOT kidding!)

2. How will the room be set up?-  This may seem unimportant but knowing how the reception room will be set will allow you to plan seating arrangements and activities throughout the night.  One venue we looked at had the dance floor on the right side of the room which made the table arrangements very tight and awkward for those that were seated on far side of the room to get up and dance.  Guests would have had to walk between 5 rows of table to get to the dance floor…how annoying?!  Flow and room set up are also extremely important when planning a buffet style dinner.  You don’t want to crowd the buffet area with guest tables and you don’t want the line to be too close to those sitting either.  That’s always appetizing to have someone’s hind-end over shoulder while trying to enjoy dinner…mmm delicious.

Knowing how your reception hall/room will be set up will also make things easier on your other vendors as well.  Your DJ, photo booth, cake baker, and possibly your photographer will want to know where they can set up and what the overall layout of the room is so that they can make deliveries and such.

3. How many hours are included in the room rental?-  This is a GREAT question that often gets overlooked.  The typical reception location rents their ballrooms for about 4-5 hours at a time, however this is not the case for all venues.  Our venue permits unlimited time in the ballroom but would prefer us to have things wrapped up by 2am to allow the staff to go home (2am!? There’s no way I’LL make it to 2am!..geez) Knowing how long you have to rent the room will make decisions like what time to serve dinner, cake, coffee, etc. easier for you. You can plan to space things out so that guest s are not starving by the end of the night.  You can also determine how long you will need to book your DJ and photographer for.  Knowing your time frame can also help you plan out the entire day’s schedule as well. If you have the room for 5 hours, you’ll have to determine which 5 hours those will be and from there determine ceremony, and cocktail hour times (on a side note, it may be good to ask where cocktail hour will be held, if it’s in the same room, is that hour deducted from the overall rental time?).

4. Is insurance required?- Some venues will require your third party vendors to have insurance to cover damage, loss, or injury in case of fire or other “natural disaster” or emergency. It is important o know what your venue needs in order to allow your other vendors to do their jobs effectively and without problems.  You don’t want to book a third part vendor and realize they don’t meet the requirements that your venue has established L.  In some cases, the venue you choose may have a list of vendors they have worked with in the past.  This is a great resource and may be a great place to start looking for a DJ, photographer, or even  wedding officiants.

5. Last but not least; Will there be a wedding coordinator present on the day of the event?  Some venues will provide you with wedding coordinators throughout the planning process and will typically have a representative on staff on the day of your wedding.  However, it is important to realize not all venues are the same.  If your venue does not offer a wedding coordinator, try to negotiate one into the venue price.  Having someone there on your day to handle the small and sometimes big problems, will alleviate a lot of stress on you and your guests.  You don’t want to have to worry about how your gifts/cards or seating arrangements will be handled. You’re there to get married not worry about the tiny details.  If you can’t get a wedding coordinator, try asking a friend or family member to help “put out any fires” on the day of so that you can enjoy yourself.

What do you think? Did I forget anything?

Be My Maid DIY

Ok here it is! The very first DIY project!  I took as many pictures as I could (sorry about the picutre quality!) Hopefully this will insipre you to do your own DIY!

First a little background;

I knew when I first got engaged who I wanted to be part of my half of the wedding party, but I wasn't sure what role each of the lovely ladies would play.  So, I let that part of the planning fall by the way side until I came to an offfical decision.  Since we've recently been really jumping into planning I thought this would a great time to recruit the team before we jumped into making save-the-dates, invitations, programs, etc. The more hands the better!

Fast forward, so just like any Pinterest addict would do I took to the internet to get some ideas on fun ways to ask my girls to be part of the big day.  I really liked Rinse and Repeat's take on her be my maid DIY (you can see the original post here) and thought that I could definitely put something similar together.  Upon further "research" :P I found weddingprepgals that had the BEAutiful robes that would be perfect for the day of to wear while getting ready.  BINGO!  What a perfect keepsake and they were well within my budget of $50 per bridesmaid.

And so it began, I ordered 6 robes in total 1 for me, 2 in champagne for the moms and 3 in purple for my girls.  The photos make them look really dark but they're actually really close to a plum purple:

I had each robe monogrammed in the front with everyone's first initial.

For myself and the maids/maid of honor I also had the backs embroidered with each title :)

I gathered all my supplies; I got the photograph boxes from A.C. Moore (5 in total).  Paint chips from Home Depot to correspond with our color scheme, AWESOME mason jar insulated mugs from Walmart( in the seasonal section! This turned out to be a great last minute idea!) Ribbon wands and 1 bracelet for each maid.

I am really into personalized gifts and homemade stuff so I decided to put my own touches on the gifts with a personalized poem and a little decoration.

Here's one of the boxes with the finished name...My handwriting is not the greatest so I found a font I liked and printed it on regular printer paper.  I then took a thumb tack and made tiny holes all the way around each name: 

Then cut down the paper to get an accurate idea of where the center should be and taped it to the top of the photo box.  From there I took a purple sharpie and went over each hole (sorry for the inconsistancy with the names...you get the idea!):

Remove paper:

Then just connect the dots and color in!! Easy peasy...it would also be alot easier if I had a vinyl cutter or one of those fancy dancy machines but hey..we're saving for a wedding! Hmm.. I wonder if I can register for one of those....anyway.. On to packing each box:

None of the girls (or the moms) knew that they were getting these gifts (util I spoiled it with the last post :P), nor do they know what roles I would like them to play (the bridesmaids/maid of honor...I'm pretty sure the moms know how to be moms :) ) So I decided to write little poems to "ask" them to be part of my party and when they opened the box it would reveal what role they would play. 

I started by folding the robes so the back embroidery with "bridesmaid" or "maid of honor" faced up. I then put the bottom half of the robe in the box first along with the other goodies: 

To keep the "info cards" organized I made little pockets out of scrap-booking paper I had lying around. I also liked the idea of matching the color of the paper with the color mug they would be getting...type A or what?! :P

To make the pockets:

Start with a sheet of paper (mine was 12 x 12 but you could easily use pretty colored standard size paper) and measure it to be 7 and 3/8 inches wide by 8 and 1/2 inches long:

Draw out your lines to determine where to cut.  Then cut to size.  From there I used what was left of the paper to create "pockets" for each card to sit in:

I didn't have precise measurements for this part, I just laid each card down and determined where each strip should go.  From there I glued the bottom and side of each strip leaving the top open to create a pocket for the card to sit in.

Once all three cards were in place I folded the bottom of the paper up to give it a finished look and glued down the two sides to keep everything from falling out :)

After I arranged everything in the box I folded the rest of the robe over to reveal the back embroidery:

This is how my table looked during this process:

I take my crafting seriously...you're obviously not doing a good job if you not making a mess...just like cooking..ask my fiance! <3

For the moms robes I decided not to get the backs embroidered because I wanted them to enjoy them after the wedding,  they won't always be "Mother of the Groom" or "Mother of the Bride" so I kept it simple with just the front monogram.  I used the exact same process to package their boxes as I did for the others except I folded them so that the front monogram was showing rather than the back of the robe:

From there to keep the element of surprise I covered each robe with some fun confetti tissue paper and placed the ribbon wands and poem on top (the stinkin wands wouldn't fit length wise in the box, then when I got them in there the lids wouldn't close...so I had to go with putting them on top..lol)

Poem for the maids/maid of honor

For my Mom:

For my soon to be Mother-in law:



These might be a little hard to read so I've attached the word documents for you.  This is my original work but please feel free to use it for you own creation or tweak it to fit your DIY :)

And finally the finishing touches; I added some pretty ribbon to each box (after I put the lids on...hopefully that was self explanatory) :

TADA! All finished! :) I'm really happy with how they came out!

Some specs:

The whole project took me about 5 hours between writing each poem (that was the hardest part!) creating each "info card",(everyone got 3 cards; "Your Role", "Meet the Maids", and "Our Day") mounting the paper, creating each pocket for the info cards and packaging/wrapping each box.  I spread this out over 2 days so it really wasn't so bad.

My total budget for each gift was $50/box.

I was able to get the photoboxes on sale 4 for $10 and I also got the bracelets 3 for $10 at A.C. Moore I also get rockin discounts because I'm a teacher so the total came to $18.36 with tax.  I had a gift card so these were FREE!

The paint chips (which I wound up not using) were free from Home Depot.

The mugs were $4.98 each at WalMart I also bought myself one (how perfect are they for mimosas?!!) for a total of $32.27 with tax for 6. I had a gift card for this purchase as well so, again these were FREE!

The tissue paper I got from the Dollar Store...therefore it only cost a $1 (technically $1.08 with tax)

The wands I purchased from another bride in a package deal that had 41 wands, 64 bubble containers, extra ribbon spools, a Lenox cake set and a basket to keep it all in for $20.  So these came to less than $1 each.

And finally the robes came to $38 a piece for the robes with front and back embroidery and $31 for the ones with just the front monograms.  For a total of $216 (including my robe that was $41)

All in all for I spent approximately: $40 per bridesmaid and $33 per mom.  :)


What do you think?
If you have questions feel free to post in the comments!