Hola señoritas! welcome back to my wedding lessons,
I am "OOGO" Alejandro, your Colombian wedding coach
and this is not Elvis. I have not named him yet,
but I decided to kind of give into the industry
standard for podcasting and YouTube. I hope you enjoy the sound. And if you don't,
let me know in the comments, should I bring Elvis back or what
should he name this one? Some, anyway. Welcome to an episode that I think is going to be very crucial
in your wedding planning. This is one of the most important decisions that you can make,
and because of that, I have put behind me one of my favorite venues, and I want to
definitely give a shameless plug. first off to Spain Ranch, please
give them some love. Not yet. You can watch the rest of the video
bet when you get a chance @SpainRanch on Instagram. Amazing wedding venue and then also want
to give thanks to right here.
Taper Warren
with a table with Warren Photography, one of the most talented people
that we have here in town for photography. And thank you so much for letting me use
and abuse your photos as a backdrop. So the title of today is a wedding or venue shopping 101. The venue is going to be the cornerstone
of everything else that we're going to be planning, because if you don't have a venue,
you don't have a date and you've got to have a date to invite
the guests, to book everybody else. So venue shopping is absolutely crucial. And I'm going to tell you
in my humble advice what to look for, what to avoid and some of the pitfalls
that are going to really save you some grief because I'm here to help you relax, dream and enjoy. My New Year's Eve wedding
was my 900th wedding on the dot, so I'm well on my way to 1000 weddings.
I have seen quite a few things
and with much love. I hope that it can save you
some of those train wrecks that I have seen in the past. So anyways,
please take a moment to yourself. Find a nice, comfortable spot
and maybe the drink of your choice. And let's get started
with my wedding lessons All right, so venue shopping 101, what's the first thing
I've got to warn you about? Well, it is unfortunate,
but I have to throw at you a shark warning. OK. Marketing websites…
what am I talking about? I can't mention any by name,
but if you just look up "wedding venue near me" the first few listings are going to be by the same few websites
and those are websites that get a lot of money from a lot of venues
and vendors in order to place.
And it's all about the money. And if it's all about the money,
then you're going to be a number And I am, and I repeatedly try to steer
you away from any vendor or venue that are going to treat you
just like a number. If they do too many weddings
for their ability, you're going to be just getting a cookie cutter and cookie
cutters are not in your best interest. So why am I telling you
about the marketing websites? It's because the system basically means that the people who rank at the top
and these websites are paying the most money
in order to get noticed the most. And I think that's not necessarily
in your best interest. You're just seeing the people with
the most money and their marketing budget. You're not necessarily
seeing the best quality or the best hard behind the vendor or venue. So don't necessarily
look at those marketing websites and the placement
in order to make a decision. I want you to take some time to research.
But yes, just know that there are people out there
who are just trying to make a quick buck. And all that matters is the money that someone else pays them,
and that's how you get that referral. So don't be afraid to ask people
who are referring other people to you: "Now, do you get a kickback from this?"
"If you don't mind me asking" and see what happens,
see what the answer is. You will see it. And the venue tier of things
I know as a deejay. There have been venues
throughout the years who have requested or required a certain amount of kickback
for referrals.
And again, you don't get the best for your particular style. You just get
the people who pay the most money. So be careful when you're trusting
some of these websites for referrals. For reviews many,
many times is just basically a conglomerate of very large corporations that have
really great marketing strategies, but they're not necessarily
looking to serve you like a boutique or somebody
local would take care of you. So be careful with that, please. And with that,
let's move on to my next subject, which is think photos. Photography
and videography, arguably are going to be
the things that you keep ever after. So I do want to see your venue shopping experience
through the lens of a camera. Bring your phone, take a few shots,
look at what's on line and see what photographers
have done at a certain venue. But when it comes to the venue,
you want to make sure that the venue matches very close to the style
that you're going for. If you're going rustic
well, make sure it's a rustic venue, if you want something more modern
and you choose, say, a rustic venue, well, it's never going to look modern unless
you spend a significant amount of money and draping it or doing lighting or decor.
And again,
it's going to be just much more expensive. So you want to make sure that your venue choice
matches the style that you're going for. Otherwise, it's going to mean a lot more decor dollars that you could use elsewhere
a little bit more wisely. So keep that in mind, please. Photography matters a lot, and that's why I'm also using this chance
to start recommending to you guys a featured venue, a featured photographer,
because I want you to know that that's a top priority
in the planning process. So with that, let's move on to shop local. You heard me say this in my
previous video in regards to wedding shows, so please say check that out
if you haven't already.
But yes, the local people are going to be the most effective at taking care of you. And when you shop local versus
big corporations, then you're getting a little bit
less of a cookie cutter and you're getting a lot more attention
for the money that you're investing in to your wedding experience. Now, when it comes to venues, I'm
going to tell you that it is always in your best interest to find a venue near the place where you live
if you start planning too far away and you only can go there
every once in a while.
Or not at all. Then you're relying a lot on
basically a blind date. They're going to put
the best images on the website and you might get there and be like,
Oh man, this doesn't look anything like the photos
or I didn't see this coming. So no blind dates, please. When it comes to venues,
there's got to be somebody local, whether it is you or somebody who's going
to help you a lot in the planning. But I would recommend
at least one visit to the venue. Even if it is a destination wedding. You may want to go to a resort
or somewhere where you have already stayed, rather than a complete blind date,
and you're just relying on marketing materials
to make the decision of your venue. I can tell you from personal experience,
we attempted to plan a wedding in Colorado and we don't live in Colorado. That's where my wife's family's from. So anyways, the amount of stress
that we were facing just from shopping from afar
made us in the end realize, Okay, now we're going to do it locally and somewhere
we we can actually dictate a little bit more of the experience
that we're going to have.
And I'm so glad that we did that. So I think you will also benefit
from that kind of decision. So again, remember to shop local
along the same lines. I am going to tell you
that location matters. What do I mean by this? Well, I wanted to get familiar
with the map of your city and start
singling out where these venues are. And here are basically three things
that you want to keep in mind. The first one is drive time. If you want a really big party,
and I'll be a deejay for a second. You want to make sure that people
are not driving a long distance to the venue because everybody
who drives a long distance to any event and the back of their mind are going to keep this realization
that , OK, I got to leave early or I'm going to be late to relieve
the babysitter or I've got to work tomorrow.
So the closer you are
to where people live, the longer
people are going to be likely to stay unless and these are some of the hacks
that I can tell you, unless you make everybody carpool
or you provide a shuttle or a trolley service where you control
when people are coming or going. And sometimes if there's going to be a lot of drinking
involved, it is actually wiser to make sure that people get there
with a shuttle service and that the uber home,
if they're going to party, again.
But yes, the longer you make people drive,
the more likely you are to have a reception
that is going to bottom out. And a lot of people are going to leave
after they eat and have cake and say hi to you. So just know that that a the closer
you can be to your venue, the better or make sure that you make people carpool
or provide a shuttle service. Safety is the next thing that I'm going
to tell you in regards to location. I have actually been to receptions where things were stolen or unwelcome guests just walked in out of nowhere,
having drinks and food on the bride and groom.
So safety and where in the map we are located in your city
really matters to make sure that those things don't happen to you. I mean, I've seen complete gift tables
disappear and nobody knew where they went. And it was because the venue, though
it was gorgeous. It was just a few blocks
away from a shelter. And I'm not down in shelters here. I'm just telling you, realistically,
you got to know where your venue is to make sure that safety is not a concern. Will your vendors be exposed to any danger if they are loading out late at night,
you know, one, two, three in the morning.
So things of that sort,
let's be thoughtful in regards to safety. And if weather is also a concern
and you're doing a wedding where weather might be a factor,
then what can a driveway driving and or driving out?
Are we dealing with? And are we gambling with people being
stuck or having some sort of an accident? So anyways, things to think about. The last thing I wanted to talk to you
about in regards to location matters is accommodations.
You want to make sure
that there are plenty of hotels or lodges or places to stay nearby. For people who are driving
in a good amount of distance or flying in that way, you have a great dedicated
audience that is there just to see you. You know, the whole weekend,
they might choose to stay the day before the day off and the day after,
and they can go back home. Then you can pretty much
send them anywhere at any venue and they're going to party with you
all night long.
But other than that, again,
if people don't have that plan, if you're not promoting
that on the website, your wedding website, then everybody in the back of their mind
is going to be thinking, I need to go home early. So anyways, let's try to prevent
the things that are going to lead to that effect. And from that, let's. Go into the amenities, what are the
must have amenities that your venue should have in order to provide
a great experience for everybody? Well, funny enough,
the first one I'm going to mention is electricity.
A DJ or a band is going to need a fair
amount of electricity to make sure that we can put on the audio
for a good show. And if we're running from a generator,
that's less than ideal. I have had equipment that got fried
because a generator malfunctioned. And then you don't want the DJ or band
or lighting people to start sending you bills after the fact
because certain things were not up to par. So having a venue that is legit, that it has all the utilities,
you know, electricity and water, and maybe even a backup plan in case power
goes out, you may want to ask that. But anyways, having a little bit
more of the knowledge of the utilities that are available,
it's going to be huge by.
Try to avoid generators, please. I can tell you stories. From there: parking. You want to make sure
that there's plenty of parking. If you have a very large wedding,
this is going to be crucial to make sure that everybody can get to you
and also park at a comfortable spot. If parking is a little bit of a challenge,
you can always try to look into solutions like valet parking, where they're going to deal
with all of that, and it's still going to be a nice experience for everybody
that's coming in. Or again, we can shuttle people in if parking is a problem, but it's definitely
something you want to keep in mind. Most of the time you want to plan on at least one parking spot for every two guests
that you're inviting. And if you promote carpooling
or shuttling, then that becomes less and less relevant from their bathrooms. Man, I can tell you stories
of so many times when there were no bathrooms that were really available
for 100, 200 people, or there was maybe one bathroom
for that many people.
And then the lines were long. We created a bottleneck and people
start to get irritated because man, I can't even go to the bathroom
and this place and Porta-Potties, I don't care who you are, but for a
wedding, it's not the classiest touch. So I'm going to tell you,
make sure that there are enough bathrooms for your guests. Count the rule of thumb when it comes
to bathrooms is one bathroom for give or take every 50 guests,
so keep that in mind. But yes, bathrooms are not always a given. You may want to check that
as part of your tour or put it on your checklist
as you tour different facilities and then air conditioning in the middle of August. If August as summer for you. You will be tested
almost no matter what the venue is. But once we reach 100 Fahrenheit then you have, you know, the indoor air
conditioning really to the limit. Because air conditioning, in case
you don't know, is only made to lower the indoor temperature
for about 20 to 30 degrees. So if outdoors you have 110 degrees, that may only be 80 degrees inside, it's
going to start to feel a little toasty.
So word to the cautious, word to the wise. Make sure that you know
if this place is legit when it comes to air conditioning
and this is a challenge, I am going to tell you,
I have been to many barn style or rustic style venues where
in the middle of summer we found out, man, this is not a good idea
or it's not going to hold up and people are uncomfortable
and they leave early because everybody is sweating even indoors. So anyways, a little bit of caution
when it comes to amenities. And with that, let's move on
to a little bit more of the venue touring technique.
OK. I wanted to treat this
just like you would shopping for a house. If you've ever been shopping for a house
or an apartment. You know that once you start touring
too many places, they're all going to kind of blur together
in your mind and you're going to start
forgetting like, man, which one was that? So I want you
to definitely grab your phone and you started recording, OK? You know, here
we go. We're on such and such venue. And man, I really like A, B, C or D,
but I don't like this so much, you know, like just do things like that
where you're narrating over the venue of the video
that you're taking. And I mean, you can do it
in front of the person that's giving you the tour,
if you don't mind, or you can just ask them
at the end of the tour, hey, do you mind if we walk around
one more time and just on our own? And most venue people
are going to tell you, Oh, sure, no.
Problem, and that's a polite way
to have a chance to take photos and video, but I want you to record
how you felt being there, because that's probably how you're going
to feel the day of the wedding and it's the most important thing
that we need to replicate. You want to make sure that you book
a venue that makes you feel good, that makes you feel comfortable,
that makes you feel fun. So it's not necessarily if they make you feel like you know you are welcome or it's very warm and welcoming because of the person
that's giving you the tour. And I'm going to talk about that
here in a second. But you want the raw feelings
that just the building give you. So try to filter a little bit of
your emotions when it comes to the venue and just picture yourself there
with all your guests.
The day of the wedding
and see what sticks from there. And with that,
I am going to tell you that. And this is kind of a funny one. The ever question: does size matter? Well, when it comes to weddings, it
absolutely does. The venue size matters,
and the bottom line here is I'm going to advise you
that all your guests fit in one room. If entertainment and party is important
to you, as I'm going to tell you, the best parties we ever have
is when everybody that should be partying
is all in the same room. Can you have another room
with an audio feed or something like that? Sure. But don't count on those people being
the most engaged because they just aren't. Or if you put the DJ by himself
in a separate room, don't expect
a great party is just how it goes. I have had to do those things and it takes a lot of skill
and a lot of time and energy. And at the end, we're exhausted because getting the attention of a group of people
without being present in the room.
It's a very challenging thing. So size matters
when it comes to the venue. I am again going to advise you
that all your guests fit in one room or close to it. Now, that's not the only reason
why size matters when it comes to venues. Size matters because if you book a venue
that is too big for your crowd, the party
or the vibe is going to feel very empty. Unless somehow with draping
and the layout of your tables, you crowd the layout, the dance floor
and the area where your guests are going to be to make sure
that it still feels fun and intimate. You don't want it to feel like they're,
you know, shopping at the Big Box Mart while they're at your wedding
with huge aisles.
Unless,
of course, pandemic and restrictions. But that's beside the point. But if if the venue too big
for your crowd, you're also paying too much money for your venue
for what you actually need. Now let's flip it, and if the venue
is too small for your crowd, you're going to be suffering in several aspects
where people feel uncomfortable. They might not even have a seat
and they're not going to stay as long. And if you don't want people to stay long,
then that's a great strategy book of any that's too small
for the size of the guest list. But yes, you have to make sure
that the guest list size and the venue size
are a good fit for each other. Give or take, say, 20 to 30 people. For example,
if you have 100 people that are invited more than likely 70,
you're actually going to show up. So 70% is saying about the industry
standard. So if we book a venue for 100 people
and only 70 come great, if all 100 come.
No problem. Even if the venue fits only 70
but 100 come, you can probably overcome
that a little bit. But if you are inviting 200 people,
but do you only have space for, say, 100 And it just happens to be a week where everybody got off work
and you get 100% participation. Where are you going to put
an extra hundred or an extra 50 people? That's going to be a very complex task. So just be mindful
of what you're doing to your guests. And if you're splitting them
in different rooms that you book an entertainment
or audio system for each of those rooms so that everybody
is getting the same amount of attention and entertainment, or maybe consider having kids in a separate room
or something to that effect to where even if you divide the crowd, it's
not necessarily a vibe killer. So with that,
let's talk about the next subject, which is whether contingencies
you want to make sure that there's a good Plan
B Plan C in case of whether if you're planning on an outdoor ceremony
and then the rain sneaks in last minute on, we have to do it
inside, is the venue a good fit? Will they, in good faith, be able to fit that many people in an indoor capacity and then have a room flip
or something to that effect? Well, have a good Plan B.
I would tell you in general as a practicalist, which I've become
after almost 1000 weddings. Well, I don't even plan on outdoors,
have really big windows so that it feels like outdoors, but you're not really gambling with the weather. However, if the outdoor element
is a huge priority for you, then sure, let's have that plan A
but have a reasonable plan B and make sure that the venue
can accommodate that. many times, what I've seen is that the ballroom
becomes the ceremony side. There's a flip. So you're going to make sure you can fit
everybody somewhere for cocktail hour, standing room only even
and then have them come back in.
And that's going to cost you a little bit
more on the staffing or the catering bill because
they have to flip the room for you. And that's not free. It's actually a ton of work. I have helped people
who didn't prepare for it before, and I can tell you
it's not the kind of thing that most people
are going to just do at the same rate. So rim flips are hard, but again,
if it is raining outside and your outdoor ceremony
is not going to happen, then sometimes
we have to just roll with the punches. And that's exactly what we can do
if the venue can help you with weather contingencies. And with that, I'm going to go ahead
and tell you that at all costs, you should avoid tents. This might get me in trouble
with some of our rental company friends, but I'm going to tell you
that tents are one of the single most dangerous venue types that I have ever experienced.
With that, I'll tell you, I've had plenty
of great tent weddings that were awesome. But when it comes to extreme
weather, tents are not a viable solution because even just the wind
in my part of the world can play games with a tent
that you don't want to be inside of it When that happens, I have seen dangerous
situations where the wind enough, to make
the tent very uncomfortable.
So just be careful. You don't want to plan
for thousands of dollars worth of decor and entertainment
and dance floors and audio systems and lighting systems to be in a tent where
last minute everything could be ruined and you're liable for it
because of a weather related situation. And now wind is enough
to put a sour note under a tent. But then let's talk about rain. If it's raining, of course you want
to, you know, have the cover for the rain. But if the terrain around
the tent is not treated to make sure it handles water well,
then the water that's coming down from the tent
could also sweep underneath the tent so that it's actually been a very bad
blind spot at several weddings that I have DJ'ed
before where last minute We're dealing with torrential rain
and kind of a flash flood underneath where we weren't getting wet from above, but we were not prepared to handle rain or water sweeping through the floor
or the ground level where
most of the electrical connections are.
So anyways, I'll spare you the stories,
but you know you have to have gutters,
you have to treat the surrounding area. You want to make sure that the tent
is on a high spot where water that comes, even from just
the top of the tent is not going to be sweeping underneath
and you're going to have a pool of mud even leading up to the set up. I have seen tents that were set up
early enough that it should have been OK, but it was in a valley
and a low point where the tent was OK.
But everything under
the tent was a mud pit and no matter what you do at that point. Dance floors are not going to look good. Everybody is going to be walking on mud. So again, tents in general
at the risk of getting in trouble, I'm going to tell you, do not plan
a large part of your wedding experience to be in there a tent and expect
that it's just going to be fine. It's a gamble, and I'm going to steer you
towards more of the safer choices because at least on my part of the world,
the weather is not something that you want to gamble with.
But when it comes to thousands of dollars
anyways, and with that, the last point
that I want to leave you with tonight is the venue staff turnover. This is also kind of a secret
of the wedding industry. I have lived it
even before being a venue owner myself, I have seen the turnover
be crazy at certain venues, and it is rare that the person
that is giving you the tour today is going to be there
when your wedding happens. I'm sorry to say it,
but it's a fact that most people don't stay at a wedding venue
but just months. In average, I would tell you that is somewhere around
six months that employees stay at a venue because sometimes
it's just a stepping stone. Sometimes it's a low pay and high hours
kind of job. Or it's just so many other factors,
but don't fall in love with a venue because of the person
that's giving you the tour. Please do me a favor.
And when they're very charming and you're laughing and you feel like,
Oh man, this is, this is my BFF, this is my homie, and I'm going to book
this venue because of that person. Stop, stop yourself. And at that point,
you need to back up a little bit and try to make a non emotional decision. Most people selling you something
are going to try to charm you into the decision, and to make you make a
an emotional approach and an emotional decision
when it comes to the bottom line. But I am going to tell you
when it comes to the venue, book the venue
because of the venue don't book it because of the people
or the person that is giving you the tour.
Again, the odds of that person being there for your wedding are not very high. So anyways, I might get some hate
from that, but it is the truth. If you were one of my daughters
planning their wedding, I would want you to know
that that's not a good set of choices. So anyways, with that, some of this has been fun, some of it
not so fun. But I hope you see again in my videos
that this is from the bottom of my heart, from somebody who has lived through
hundreds of weddings, almost 1000 of them, and that you become a little bit
more of a practicalist and I want you to have
the wedding of your dreams. That is the first thing in my in my tag: relaxed
dream and enjoy.
I want you to dream big and I want you
to have what you were dreaming for. But it's not going to happen
if we turn a blind eye to some of these things
that I'm trying to warn you about. So if you found this video helpful, please
consider liking, subbing and also sharing this
with people who might benefit from it. And with that again,
links in the description to the people that I'm featuring. The venue featured today,
the photographer featured today and then some of the other videos
that it might be helpful for you to watch. And then let me know in the comments
what you want to see.
What are some of the other subjects that
maybe you want me to cover in more detail or some of the things
that I haven't covered yet and videos that we should put out there. So anyway, so and with that, I'll leave
with this, but I don't always teach people how to have amazing weddings,
but when I do , I do it right here and my wedding lessons. Are you ready to party?.
