Clients often tell us that the idea of having a wedding on a private property, such as a family members house, or an Airbnb or VRBO feels overwhelming and unattainable, and I understand the concerns. It can be scary to be in control of everything from rentals, to vendors, to catering. There are many amenities and services offered at all inclusive wedding venues that can be easily forgotten without the oversight of a wedding planner, so let’s talk about some gaps we often see in services when planning a wedding on a private property, or what we call “blank slate venue”, which means — it comes with nothing except the space.
Rental setup:
When you have a wedding at an all-inclusive wedding venue they often do quite a bit of set up for you. They will often have your tables in place with the correct chair counts, linens on and your ceremony chairs set and ready to go.
When having a wedding on private property or a blank slate venue you don’t get those perks. Although rental companies can be paid to set things to floorplan, without someone there to supervise and make sure it all goes to plan there’s almost always an error and corrections that need to be made day of.
Caterers, even full service ones often despise this task, and it’s not something they’ll often do unless compensated accordingly. Not to mention, most catering companies arrive 2-3 hours prior to your event, which means that when your florist arrives mid day and wants to begin presetting centerpieces, they’ll be out of luck!
By hiring a wedding planner who comes with the necessary staffing you’re ensuring that your floorplan will be set either the night before, or in the morning — making your wedding day stress free and seamless for all vendors onboard!
Event coordinator:
Wedding venues sometimes come with an event coordinator, or at a minimum a venue coordinator. This person is responsible for ensuring the venue is preset accordingly, vendors are assisted as they arrive, and that everything runs in according to the designated timeline.
When there is no venue or event coordinator on site, no one is there to manage vendors and make sure they have everything they need, or ensure everything is running on schedule. Without a person at the helm, the day can definitely go array.
Not to mention, the event coordinator is also responsible for assisting in lining you all up for ceremony, advising the wedding party of all formalities, and ensuring break down at the end of the night is completed to satisfaction.
Vendor selection:
Having a wedding on a blank slate space is really it’s own breed and not every vendor is well suited for the challenge. Being on a large scale farm, private estate or bed and breakfast can come with many moving pieces and a need for vendors with a clear understanding of the expectations of a venue such as this.
You truly need vendors who work in this arena often, and can maneuver large scale properties.
Breakdown:
Who does this generally? Well, it’s often the venue team! Some venues come with their own catering, which means that they’ll generally break down all tables, chairs, linens, glassware, flatware and china.
However, when dealing with independent catering teams they do not generally break down tables and chairs, take linens off of the tables etc., The most that you can generally expect from these caterers is to leave all glassware, flatware china rentals stacked in their prep area, and to leave clean linened tables to be broken down by someone else at the end of the night.
Without a planner with staffing, this would often be executed by your hungover and family and friends the next day — sounds fun, right?
All of this leads to how Something Pretty Events got started — which was with an understanding that there was a gap in the market for full service event planning and execution for private properties and blank slate venues. Just because you want your wedding in a place that may be a bit non-traditional doesn’t mean you want your wedding to become a DIY extravaganza, forcing all of your family & friends to set up, break down, and supervise the wedding weekend.
We understand that there is an added layer of time and energy that must go into planning, executing and breaking down these events so that clients are able to enjoy their weekend without pushing tasks off on those they love most.
Filling the gaps is our expertise, and we take great pride in that!
