Wedding Blog

Happy Tuesday everyone. Recently I have had several brides ask me about the service charge that their wedding location was charging them; specifically they wanted to know, how much to expect it to be, why are they were being charged that fee and whether or not it is taxable. These are all very good questions, especially when it comes to planning your budget.

Most hotels and restaurants charge service charges beyond the price for your food and beverage. The fees are used as a gratuity to the service staff. I have seen service charges that range anywhere from 18 percent to 24 percent. This service charge can add significantly to what you are spending overall. If your food and beverage charge is $75.00 per person, the service charge may be anywhere from $13.50 to $16.00 per person. If you are having 100 people at your reception this can add up to $1600.00 to your overall budget.

Furthermore, in most of the cities I have worked, that fee is taxable. Depending on what the sales tax rate is at your wedding location, that can add another $100.00 to $200.00 to your overall budget.

Do not forget to allow for this when you create your budget. Also, make sure that the service fee is mentioned in your contract. I have seen some contracts that state that the service charge is subject to change. It doesn’t happen often, but it may increase by a half of a percent or more.

Many catering companies that I work with have a flat service fee rather than paying a percentage. Once again, make sure that it is accounted for in your contract.

If you have questions on this or any other wedding related topic, please post for me here or send me an email to susan.southerland(at)pwg.com. Also become a fan on Facebook by clicking here and follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

Your partner in perfect planning,

Susan

The guest list is coming along nicely. I have to say again how much I love the guest list manager on PerfectWeddingGuide.com. It’s really nice to be able to login on the Internet so that my fiance can update it too. He came up with a few people that I missed. It would have been really embarrassing to forget them. I don’t want you to think that I am so efficient at this that I already have all of the addresses done. We have names, now the search for addresses begins!

In the meantime, we have decided to have the wedding in Colorado. We both have a special connection to the state, and as it turns out, many of our friends do too. Everyone is excited about making the trip.

Now we are spending time searching for the perfect site. We have gone from doing a casual, mountainside barbecue with a bonfire, s’mores, and a story teller, to a formal reception in a castle outside of Denver. (My fiance said he thinks his princess should be married in a castle…oy!) Decisions, decisions. I will let you know what we come up with!

If you have questions on this or any other wedding related topic, please post for me here or send me an email to susan.southerland@pwg.com. Also become a fan on Facebook by clicking here and follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

Your partner in perfect planning,

Susan

Happy Friday everyone! More budget buster information today.

Wedding receptions take power, lots of it. Reception facilities do have electricity in their ballrooms, but often it isn’t enough to accommodate all of your power needs. If you have one or more of the following “power-drainers” you may need to order extra power:

• Band with amplifier
• DJ with light show
• Pin spots and up lighting
• Chef attended stations with heat lamps

Keep in mind, paying for power isn’t a bad thing. Having these extras at your reception is wonderful, but you must account for the additional cost when you are planning your budget. Make sure your band, DJ or lighting contracts include information on what their power needs are and let your reception site know so that the catering manager can give you a cost estimate. Each circuit can cost as much as $200.00 and if your wedding is on the weekend, you may pay even more in overtime charges. That can really be a budget buster.

How can you save money in this area?

• Ask your reception site if you can have the power dropped on a weekday so you don’t have to pay the overtime fees.
• Reduce the number of items that need power, for example, the fewer instruments the band has, the less power it needs.

Keep in mind that most reception sites use an outside company to get their power, so the hourly rate is rarely negotiable.

If you haven’t already, check out the free budget planning tool on PerfectWeddingGuide.com. It’s fabulous!

If you have questions or comments about this post, leave a message for me here or email me at susan.southerland@pwg.com.

Your partner in perfect planning,

Susan

I spent some quality time with brides from all over the United States over the past couple of days during my free Wedding Budget Boosters webinar. They had some interesting questions that I would like to share with you.

After discussing the importance of guest lists and targeting and planning a good budget, we moved on to the topic of “Wedding Budget Busters.” A “budget buster” is an expense that you may not have thought about, but that can really take you off target when it comes to planning what you are going to spend. The brides were really interested in how to deal with the bar, so I’m going to do a follow up to that topic today.

There are typically three options from which you can choose when paying for your reception bar:

• Hourly Hosted Bar: This option means that you are paying per guest over the age of 21 by the hour to drink as much as he wants. This is a great option if you want to know your bar bill upfront (this makes planning your bar budget very straight forward). There are some things you need to watch out for — If you have a lot of guests who don’t drink alcohol, you may pay less with a consumption bar option (see the next bullet point), Also, people tend to drink very heavily during the first couple of hours. Caterers typically account for this by reducing the hourly rate after the first one, so make sure that your hourly rate goes down with each passing hour.
• Consumption Bar: This is a great option if you don’t have many heavy drinkers. You will pay for what your guests drink. The downfall of this option is that your catering manager can only estimate what your guests are going to drink. You will not know your final bar bill until after the event is over. If you need to know your budget to the penny, this is not the option for you.
• Cash Bar: This is a less popular option for social events. Your guests will pay for their own drinks, however, you still have to account for this option in your budget because you will likely have bartender and/or cashier fees.

Your reception site may let you combine the bar options as well. For example, you could have an hourly, per person bar for the first two hours and switch to consumption or cash later on. Study your guest list before making your final bar decision and don’t forget to account for the service charge.

For more tips on serving alcohol at your wedding reception, check out this article on PerfectWeddingGuide.com

If you have comments or questions on this or any other wedding related topic, please post a message here or email me at susan.southerland@pwg.com.

Your Partner in Perfect Planning,

Susan

I had the privilege of working with an amazing couple this past weekend. We met for the first time on Thursday and managed to produce a gorgeous wedding this past Saturday.

Most of the credit has to go to the bride and groom and their families. Justin Lehman, a producer with RKL Productions, Inc. in New York City and Jenna Bayles, a cardiac sonographer planned to get married on May 2nd in Mexico. Just a few short days prior to the time when guests were due to hop on a plane for the wedding, the calls started coming in. “Ninety percent of our guests were nervous about going to Mexico thanks to the flu,” Justin said. “Some of them said they wouldn’t go.”

It was a tough decision, but Justin finally approached Jenna about changing the wedding location. “Jenna panicked at first,” Justin said. “But after a few minutes of worry, we dug in and started plan B.”

Justin and his father produce television commercials, and find themselves at Universal Studios Orlando very often. Justin started reaching out to contacts there. They pointed them to Loews Portofino Bay Hotel. He said that once that location was booked, everything else fell into place.

By the time I got involved, they had booked all of their vendors. I was there to organize, and make sure the day ran smoothly. Jenna and Justin were so happy to be in Orlando. So were their guests. Everyone was relaxed and excited.

The only snafu that came about was with the gift bags. The family purchased beach bags and personalize beach towels to give to the guests upon arrival in Mexico. The bags had been shipped to the resort in Mexico before the location changed. The resort shipped the bags to Orlando, but they arrived two days after the guests had arrived. The family just gave them out as favors at the wedding.

The wedding day was gorgeous. The weather could not have been better. The florist did an amazing job. Everything went perfectly.

I stood with Jenna and Justin while they were waiting to be introduced into the reception. I asked them if they had any regrets. The both replied, “Not one. The wedding day goes by so quickly, why should we waste anytime worrying about what might have been? Now is the time to relax and have fun with our family and friends.”

The doors opened and the couple was announced. They danced to “One Love” by Bob Marley. That song really captured the mood of the evening. It was lighthearted and upbeat. I will share the photos when they arrive. It truly was a beautiful evening.

I share this story with you because I cannot imagine a more stressful situation for a couple than having to relocate their wedding at the last minute; especially when it involves not only moving a wedding from one distant location to another, but having to change 65 airline tickets as well (by the way, bravo to American Airlines and Continental Airlines for treating the guests so well). The bride and groom let all the stress go and they had an amazing celebration — not as they originally planned, but just as special.

Try to keep Justin and Jenna in mind when the small mishaps on your wedding day come up. Let the mistakes go. Relax and have fun. Your wedding day only happens once. Don’t let anything spoil it for even a second.

If you would like to comment or ask questions about this topic or any other wedding related topic, please post them for me here or email me at susan.southerland@pwg.com.

Your partner in perfect planning,

Susan