New to Weddings?

Can You Answer Brides’ 7 Questions?
By Event Planner & Sand Rock Farm Innkeeper, Jen Hagglof, Aptos, Calif

If inns plan to do weddings or already do them, they need to be prepared to answer the following questions when potential clients inquire:

What is the cost to rent the venue?
What is the capacity?
What are the time limitations?
What restrictions are there?
Can we bring our own vendors?
Is there on-site parking?
Is renting rooms optional or required? What is the cost for lodging?

It helps to have all of this information stated as simply and clearly online on a FAQ wedding page directly on the side or as a downloadable PDF. If you are new to hosting weddings at your inn, it would be a good idea to pay an experienced, reputable wedding designer and planner to make recommendations on your wedding policies. Better yet, you could team up with a local planner to coordinate your weddings. That way, the planner does the work and ensures clients adhere to your rules and you collect the venue fee.

TOP SECRET FOR GETTING BETTER WEDDINGS – Make It Easy for the Bride
Brides are busy these days and wedding planning takes time. It can also be overwhelming and exhausting. By packaging your wedding venue with reputable wedding vendors and services, you will save yourself, your clients and your preferred vendors time and money.

The first step to packaging is to determine which vendors are the right fit for your venue. You will need a point person to pull everything together and that person should be an experienced, enthusiastic, friendly and professional wedding planner or event planning company who will be thrilled with the opportunity to have your venue exclusively. Forming this partnership first is ideal because together you can sort out which other vendors to team up with.

At our venue, we package the planning, the catering, the rentals and the flowers. Clients can choose from a list of preferred vendors providing other services such as photography, music, officiating, videography, hair and make-up and more. These are hand-picked vendors who we can confidently recommend, knowing they will provide excellent service and value.

When you receive inquires for weddings and have put together the packages, it is very easy to paint the picture of a streamlined wedding day for your clients. We use a sample timeline starting from the check-in and wedding rehearsal through the end of event, check-out and pick-up of personal items. This shows your potential clients how it works at your venue and will give them peace of mind.

Finally, brides want to know the bottom line and, with packages, you can give it to them. While there may be variables depending upon guest count, menu type and time of year, essentially you will be able to sum up the costs. Hidden costs make potential clients uneasy and brides truly appreciate seeing all potential fees up front.

loveandlavender.com at Sand Rock Farm photo credit