Personal Post: What to Know When Planning a Wedding (A Vendor's Perspective) | Isabelle Russell with Garden Rose Events & Design
Virginia Wedding Photographer | Wedding Venues in Virginia | Small Backyard Wedding | Virginia Wedding Planner
Wedding Vendor Advice
Back in 2017, we did a wedding advice series “What to Know When Planning a Wedding” from several vendors. Well, we’re back at it with a couple more vendors and who best to pick back up with than Isabelle Russell who runs Garden Rose Events & Design and owns Belle Garden Estate?! Isabelle has been a wedding planner for years in both Michigan and Virginia and we cannot express enough how much we trust her advice for brides! Her packages include all day coordination to full blown wedding planning - and in our opinion, she keeps things running smoothly for not only the couple but their guests and vendors too!
Scroll down to see her top 3 pieces of wedding advice!
Have a Rain Plan
Last year 90% of the weddings we worked, rained or threatened to. That is why it is important to LOVE your rain plan just as much or more than your outdoor ceremony! Keep this in mind when choosing a venue or if you have already chosen your venue, ask them what different rain plans they have seen executed in their space and what worked the best.
The worst thing you can do when the weather is unpredictable is also be an unpredictable bride. Your family, bridal party, and wedding planner all want to see you happy but when it is time to make the final call on indoor or outdoor, make the call and commit. It will make your whole day run so much smoother!
Also keep in mind that rain is not always a bad thing! Many of my favorite client wedding photos are romantic rain shots. Buy some clear umbrellas to have on hand and enjoy the rainy moments. Remember, all that matters, is at the end of the day, you get to marry your best friend!
2. Why you should assign seats, create assignments alphabetically and include a table for vendors
Every client we have always has the great debate on should we or should we not do assigned seating. We always vote yes for assigned seating (or at least assigned tables!).Assigned seating is a great way to make your guests feel like they’re being taken into consideration and recognized personally!
When we work weddings that don’t have assigned seating, it tends to cause issues because guests leave awkward spacing open at tables and people feel uncomfortable. And in most cases we end up either having to ask people to move or set up more tables and chairs that we weren’t planning on.
When you do create a seating chart, having names alphabetically helps eliminate chaos and stress for guests as they all enter the reception space all at once. It will help get them all to their seat quickly without everyone piling up frantically trying to find where they belong.
This also gives you another way to add a personal touch of “something pretty” to your reception space! Have the table numbers and names written out in calligraphy on a large vintage mirror for a statement, or on place cards for your guests to have as a keepsake.
3. Why you should hire professionals for your wedding
I know that weddings are crazy expensive and every bride wants to save money any way they can. And one of the ways that brides try to save money is by outsourcing a part of their wedding to a friend or family member instead of hiring a professional. Which can definitely work out in certain situations. If your aunt is a rock star baker and makes the most delicious dessert you’ve ever had and is willing to do it for practically free, then heck yes, hire your aunt! But if your cousin just dabbles in photography and has a few cool shots on instagram but has never shot a wedding, you may not want your wedding to be the first one that they do?
We tend to find, that if something goes wrong on a wedding day, 95% of the time, it is because of one of the following three things (and not necessarily in this order). 1. Mother Nature, 2. Difficult People, 3. Because a professional vendor was not hired.
I can promise you, that you can find vendors in all different price points, styles, and experience levels. And the success rate for your wedding will increase a thousand percent if you have professionals working your event. Including having at least a day-of coordinator to run the day for you and handle the issues that do come up.
And the reason this is always on our list of advice is because we love you guys so much and love love stories and weddings days. And we are just so passionate that you deserve to have the most successful and magical day possible. So that is why we just encourage you, if you can to always hire professional vendors for your event.
Want to see more? Click the button above to touch base with Garden Rose Events or visit Belle Garden Estate. Click the pictures below for more advice from other vendors in the Roanoke Wedding Network!
