Start Me Up! - Part 22

I spent this last week reviewing my notes from my meeting with the couple and putting information together. While you will of course have many opportunities to get additional information from any client you work with, it is nice to have as much of this information with you from the beginning as possible. Therefore it is so important that you be ready at this first big meeting, armed with the right questions to get the answers you need and off to the right start.

So what do you need to know?

As your goal will be to coordinate details as well as to get all of their vendors on the same page, it is vital that you know the event basics. You will want to know where and when their ceremony and reception are,  and the basic timing of all of these events. Have they secured their caterer? If so, how long do you have them for? Will they be responsible for the set up and clean up of the entire event? Have they signed a contract? What is the pricing agreed upon as well as the food & service details? Once you have some of this information, you can begin to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

Let's consider how this might play out.

You know the caterer needs to start set up by 3pm in order to get everything checked in and organized to have the event start of time. It is tight, but this is what they need. The couple has a signed copy of the venue contract but the drop off and pick up times are not listed. Now you must contact the venue to confirm the earliest time that the caterer will be able to have access to the space; additionally, there are rentals to be delivered. The rentals must be there before the caterer is so the caterer can spend time making sure all his necessary tools are there to take care of their responsibilities and contracted duties. Time is proving to be the most vital information needed to confirm. So, you know you must get in touch with the venue asap. You are going to get in touch with all of their vendors to introduce yourself to them anyway so start at the top of the food chain.

You may find that the caterer cannot have access until 4pm. But you may also find out that the rentals can be delivered the day before by 5pm. This is great as you can now have someone from your team arrive to accept the delivery and check in the items upon arrival. By confirming everything is present and accounted for, you can now confidently tell the caterer that they not have to spend the extra time for rental check in which can be a lengthy process. This event is taking place in a fairly raw space so everything must be brought in – the rental order is enormous. The caterer’s timing situation is solved. If by chance they still were concerned, find out if it would be helpful for them to have another staff member on duty and if so, what the additional cost would be. If it sounds reasonable, see if the couple is willing to absorb the extra cost. There is a lighting vendor, how long will he need for set-up? Are there regulations with regards to what may or may not be installed in the space, or how? Thankfully the lighting contract is much more detailed than the caterer and has many of these answers. They are very thorough and the couple loves them, which is wonderful since you recommended them from your preferred vendor list!

Stay tuned. More next week!

xx,
Belle