How should we budget?
Where do we start?
Why hire a planner?
Budgets and Where to Start:
There is no fool proof plan, but there are steps that people can take to avoid costly mistakes and losing valuable time when trying to secure a location or venue.
Estimating budgets can be a slippery slope. I always tell potential clients to have one in place before they make any decisions or sign any contracts.
One of the biggest mistakes we see is when a client relies on one of the standard budgets that are found on popular wedding web sites.
These budget estimates can be very misleading if someone is planning a wedding in Southern California. Recently, we had a lovely couple want to fit a $70,000 plus wedding (all in including the rehearsal dinner and band, plus hotel rooms for their parents) into a $60,000 budget. They told me that they were using a formula from a popular wedding site.
Venues in Los Angeles start at $175 per person and go up. High end venues, can start at $230 per person for food, beverage, service charge and tax. Most hotels and popular venues have a food and beverage minimum for a Saturday night ranging anywhere from $30,000 and up.
Renting an estate or venue where everything must be brought in from the food, wait staff, rentals, kitchen, heaters, linens, flatware, plates, glassware, alcohol, lighting and sometimes bathrooms can be 30-40% more.
Once your budget and guest count are established, please consider having your numbers run by a professional event planning company. We offer this service for a flat fee. Having this done, will give you peace of mind that you are on the right trajectory to planning your event.
Reasons to Hire a Planner:
He or she can help find the location.
Plan the entire event or part of it.
A reputable planner has access to service professionals that will fit your style and budget.
Save you time - you will not be planning your event from scratch. Your planner will know when, how and what needs to be done.
Help you plan a long distant event - say you are in NY and your wedding is in
Los Angeles.
Wedding etiquette recommendations.
Having someone on the event day to handle all the details and service professionals.
Some planners work from a percentage. We estimate our fee based on the services needed and when work commences.
Estate Picks of the Week:
Beautiful estate in Los Feliz, California. Great for private events. Stunning Los Angeles views.
Beautiful modern home with ocean views.
Photo Picks of the Week:
Keeping the bridesmaid dresses simple, but elegant.
Arriving and departing in a vintage car.
Cute.
Lanterns and twinkle lights - twinkle doesn't mean they twinkle:)
Sweet.
Grey with the pale pink. Check out the clear table numbers.
Kate Spade.
Love this design for a larger decor budget.
Have a great weekend! XO
Gianna
Hey, simply looking round some blogs, seems a pretty good platform you might be using. I’m at the moment using WordPress for a couple of of my websites however looking to change certainly one of them over to a platform much like yours as a trial run. Anything specifically you’ll advocate about it?
ReplyDelete