I just worked on a very nice wedding a couple of weeks ago, and I want to share some of my photos with you. The wedding was at the Kenilworth Club (one of my all-time favorite venues); Catered By Design provided the food and service; flowers were by Four Finches (another favorite of mine); Martini Lunch provided the dance music; and the cake was from Bittersweet Bakery. I hope to have the professional photos from Studio Finch to share with you in the future.
A professional at work. Photo courtesy of christytylerphotography.com.
There are plenty of elements of weddings that are suitable for Do-It-Yourself projects, and some that are totally unsuitable. When it comes to officiants, you can’t really do it yourself: Another person is required to sign your marriage license, at least in Illinois. The real question at hand is whether you should hire a professional or ask your cousin to get ordained at the Church of the Latter-Day Dude. I have to say that I have been at weddings with both kinds of officiants, and there are advantages both ways.
Professional wedding officiants, clergy, and wedding celebrants all have some training in the art of ritual, which is one of the keys to a good wedding ceremony. They can also elicit from you what you want in a wedding ceremony, and then follow through. They are generally very polished public speakers, who won’t mumble and “um” their way through your ceremony. Many of them are also trained counselors who can do pre-marital counseling, if you wish.
The advantage to having a friend or family member officiate at your wedding is that that person already knows you, will instinctively know what kind of ceremony you want, and will be able to add all sorts of personal touches because of your relationship. If you want a more relaxed feel to your ceremony, having a non-professional officiate might be the way to go.
And, of course, some people are lucky enough to have clergy in the family so that you can get the best of both worlds. If you do, be sure to ask them to officiate at your wedding. They will likely be more than happy to do so.
I just looked at the calendar and realized that it has been ten years since I booked my very first wedding. It has been a long and interesting road since those days. I can say with some confidence that ten years of planning and managing weddings has given me insight into the process that I didn’t have in the beginning. So, here’s a journey in pictures through the last ten years of weddings. Some of my favorites:
Photo courtesy of Artisan Events, Inc.
Photo by Magical Moments Photography.
Photo by Happy Buddy PhotoArt.
Photo courtesy of christytylerphotography.com.
Photo by hannahelaine photography (hannahelaine.com).
Photo by Peter Coombs.
Courtesy of sprungphoto.com.
Photo by Allison Williams Photography.
Photo by Agnes Malory Photography.
Too bad you can’t see the Van Galder bus fighting through traffic in this skyline view! Courtesy of sprungphoto.com.
One of the types of vendors I help clients with the most is transportation vendors. I’ve spent a lot of time researching various options for buses, limos, trolleys, and other ways to travel. One of my favorites is the otherwise unexciting bus company called Van Galder.
This is the company I recommend and hire when clients need to move a lot of people and need reliable transportation. While the company is based in Janesville, WI, they do a lot of business in Chicago.
One of my favorite things about Van Galder is that they don’t mark up their prices for weddings. It’s the same price whether it’s a convention or a wedding. (See my recent post about which vendors are more likely to mark up their services.) You get clean, reliable buses either way.
They also tend to have nice, friendly bus drivers, which is a bonus!
Rental dishes and linens are part of most big parties. Photo by Carasco Photography.
You are planning a big party or wedding reception, so you plan to hire a caterer to make things easier. Your caterer is handling rentals of dishes, furniture, and other necessities, because that makes it even easier for you. But maybe you’d like to know how much you are paying for this convenience.
There are three different ways that caterers generally handle pricing of rentals: pass-through, mark-up, and (for lack of a better word) kick-backs.
Pass-through is exactly what it sounds like: The caterer passes the exact price from the rental company on to their client. Some caterers do this as a courtesy to their customers, and because they make their profits in other areas.
Marking up rentals is a fairly common practice. The caterer adds a percentage or small amount on to the rental bill to compensate them for the time they spend managing your rental order. This is generally not itemized on your invoice.
A few caterers have arrangements with one or more rental houses whereby the caterer receives an amount equal to a percentage of the total rental bill from the rental company. Unfortunately for you, this means that the caterer has a financial incentive to steer you to the more expensive parts of the rental catalogue. You can be sure that no caterer who does this will tell you up front that this is their practice. (I’ve written about this subject in greater detail before.)
So, how do you know what your caterer does with regard to rentals? You’ll have to ask. Good interview questions to ask might be: “Do you mark up rentals? If so, how much is your mark-up?” and “Does your rental company give you any incentives to work with them?” If you don’t like the answer, you can negotiate with them or move on to a company whose answers you like better.
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