Tight Spaces, Late VIPs & Guest Book Ideas | Wedding Q&A

Well, hello, lovely humans, and welcome to Engage, a wedding planning podcast for the modern-day couple. I'm your host, Jamie Wolfer, and I truly believe that wedding planning does not need to be complicated or time-consuming. I kind of picture these episodes like jumping on a quick phone call with your wedding planner. You get your answers and you go on your merry way, because sometimes not all of us have an hour to dedicate to listening to super long podcasts or super long intros. So without further ado, let's just jump right on into it. Today's episode is going to admittedly be a little bit all over the place. You see, every single month I sit down with all of the I was gonna say constituents. They're not constituents. The people over in the Master Plan course and answer your questions in live time. So if you find yourself struggling and really need to sit down and speak with a real-life wedding planner, I would love to be a part of your wedding planning journey. Join us over in the Master Plan today to get your questions answered. Until then, take a listen. Uh, Emily says, my fiancé and I are both introverts with small friend groups. We have booked our intimate wedding venue and are inviting 50 guests. Although our parents have requested we add 6 to 8 people to that list. Our venue is at the inn that has several event banquet rooms. We decided to book their smaller wine cellar room with a $3,000 food and beverage minimum, no room rental fee, but we are at max capacity, 50 guests— sorry, 50 max with dance floor. There's only one restroom stall, no room for photo booth, and we will definitely exceed the food and beverage minimum 2 times over, $8,000 with all fees and taxes. We do have the option to upgrade to a larger room, max capacity 100. Guest experience is one of our priorities. So we're considering upgrading the room and increasing the food and bev minimum to $9,000, which would be $12,000 post taxes and fees. It's a substantial jump, but we get 2 additional bathroom stalls, a cocktail hour space, a larger dining room, and we get to give our guests a more luxe experience and some flexibility for us to add a few more guests. Should we cut our guest list or upgrade the room? Oh, this is, this is a great place to be in. Also, you know, there's several thousand dollar difference. And this is honestly a question that I can't truly answer for you. There is not an incorrect choice here. I think anytime you decide or want to upgrade, if it's financially feasible, feels fun, feels like you're adding something bougie onto it. But also when you look at That extra $4,000 post-taxes and fees, is that something that you can feasibly swing? Those 6 to 8 people, um, from your parents, is that— are those people that you can picture your wedding without? Is that a situation where, uh, like for me, my parents, I had some of their dear friends come because it was important to me to have, um, some of those people that were important to me growing up, but really are more my parents' friends than anybody else. You know what I mean? It wasn't like we were schmoozing parents, coworkers, or anything like that, but a few close friends to attend with them and alongside them. I was okay with that. It didn't cause a $4,000 shift for me though. So all that being said, it is a choice that you need to make. Can you picture your wedding without them? Can you picture disappointing your parents by not adding that on? Do you have the financial wiggle room to make that adjustment to go into a bigger space? Because it sounds great if you're like, hey, we can swing it. Right, it's— we don't have an issue with it. The bathroom stall, I do love having more bathrooms, of course. Um, with 50, one bathroom should be fine, but you're pretty much at cap with that. But I wouldn't make the decision solely based on a bathroom stall. So what do you guys think? What should Emily do? Should she upgrade to add an additional 68 people to that list, have a little bit more of a grand experience, get the room to do a couple more things they might want to do? Or should you keep it small? If it sounds to me, Emily, like you do have room in your budget and you can make this allowance, right? So it's just a matter of do you want to? And I wish I could give you something a little bit more firm than that. And I'm so sorry that I can't. But this really does truly feel like an individual choice. Sitting here listening to a podcast is all fine and dandy, right? But sometimes you need an actual person to be asking some of these questions to. And you may be sitting there going, you know what, Jamie, actually, yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense. I would love to be able to ask you these questions. Guess what? You need to join the master plan. You've heard me talk about it, but do you know why I love it so much? You get over ten lessons that walk you through planning your wedding with videos and spreadsheets and other detailed resources along the way. Join me and my virtual clients over in the master plan and get all your wedding planning questions answered. Literally thousands of couples have gone on this journey with me, and I'd love for you to be next. Check it out at wolferandco.com/ tmp. That's wolferandco.com/ tmp. Listen, wedding budgets suck. They're just like the actual worst. And the hardest part for me is that weddings are not cookie cutter. They're not one size fits all. And I think it's important to make sure that you're budgeting according to your priorities. Build a budget that works with your vision and you'll be on the path to planning a wedding that you really want. So if you want my recommendations for making your perfect budget for you and your partner, head on over to weddingpriorities.com. What are your thoughts on instead of having a typical guest sign-in book, To have it on a customized jersey with our last name on the back of it. My other half is a football fanatic, and I would rather hang it in like a shadow box or frame than to collect dust in a book we won't look at after the wedding. That's actually pretty cute. That's quite cute. Usually when, um, we have something displayed on the wall, it's like a matted frame around an engagement photo of the two of you or whatnot. And in my experience, most of the time couples really don't want that on display 6 months plus after their wedding. They're like, ah, it's cute. It was fun to have. We love having everyone's signatures, but we don't really love the artwork of it, right? So then it ends up kind of sitting in a closet for the next several years because you can't throw it away because it's your guest book, right? And so that feels a little bit wrong. Then it just collects dust in a closet. I like that you're making this personal though, and I like that you're turning this into a jersey, which is something that you can throw in a shadow box, which could be a whole collage of things. on a wall. Um, and you can do a gallery wall of sports-themed memorabilia. I like this. I like this shift. I like the little subtle touch of making sure that you too have your mark on something like this. So I think it's great. I think it's brilliant. If you stare at it and go, yes, I could have this in my main living space and not be irritated by the way it looks, cool. If it's, I need this in a man cave space because I am irritated by the way it looks, but it's cute and sentimental, Also cool. If you look at that and go, I can't, I don't think I can look at this, then maybe that'll answer your question. I do love that you're making this about you guys. I do love the sentimentality of it, and I like it better than just a photo. Also, if you're doing a photo with a matted frame and having people sign it, it's still going to be great. You're still going to love the experience, don't worry about it. But I do love the customization of this, just like that little added touch of really making it yours. So if you like the way it looks on your wall, Go for it. Alyssa said, how do I keep the wedding party and family in time on wedding day? My sister and mom in particular always run late. So Alyssa, well, we got, we got some options for you. You can, one, tell them the wrong time. Tell them an earlier time on purpose. 2, have a firm conversation with them and just be like, hey, y'all are not known for being timely. So, uh, please be on time because we will have to start without you. Um, or 3, you can opt for— Perfect Wedding Timeline has the option of inputting people's, um, cell phone numbers to send them text updates. And you get it set up ahead of time where it will text them reminders with links of where they're supposed to be and when they're supposed to be there. So it's kind of like they don't really have an excuse. You know how late They are, right? So it could be like, if it's serious, they'll take it more seriously, or if they have a reminder or they're not confused. There's like sliding scale of like late people, you know what I'm talking about? With people who are like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. With people who are, you know, 5 minutes late or whatever because they couldn't find the address. Or there's the people who have no concept of time and are 45 minutes late to everything. Depends on where they land on that scale. I think one of those options should be a good one for you. Um, and then have someone external outside of you, ideally another family member, track them, keep track of their time, manage them. So it's not you on your wedding day. There's another sibling, or if you have a dad involved or someone else who can contact them to be like, hey, don't be late. Just so it's outside of you, I would recommend passing that off. If you are struggling with wedding planning and you have questions and you just need someone to listen and to chat with, come join us in the Master Plan Community over at themasterplanwed.com/community. I would love to have you in there. Thanks so much for listening. If you haven't done so already, subscribe, jump on over to wherever you're listening to this podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can let the podcast people know that Jamie knows what she's talking about sometimes. And until next time, bye guys. Bye.