What if I want something different?
Customizing a package for your wedding
What if I want something more or less than what is in a wedding package?
Sometimes clients need a slightly different twist, and we are always happy to alter a wedding package to fit the needs of the client. However, our experience shows that, in order to protect both our interests, it is more effective to bid the wedding that has an "alternative" concept from the ground up, straight from our menu of ala carte wedding pieces. When a stated package is altered, unfortunately, the client often invests in magical thinking: while getting a price reduction by removing services, they still imagine themselves able to hold us responsible for every moment of their experience, even after removing our involvement!
Families who have used our services within the packages have reliably been over the moon about how well things turned out. Those who strike out on their own may do well, but those who are overextending themselves end up thinking ill of us, seeking a source for their discomfort. If the client is "building" the wedding from an ala carte menu of services, I feel they are more inclined to be realistic about their role in the execution.
We all want the same thing; we want the wedding family and guests to be thrilled. Events that don't go well when clients take on too much, reflect poorly on our venue as well as the client, and nobody is getting value.
How can I spend as little as possible and still take advantage of Camp Colton's attributes?
So, I think we are all on the same page about the need, in these difficult times, to spend judiciously! It is much on clients minds to cut costs, and we are with them on that. Unfortunately, it seems that, as a culture, it is taking us a while to adjust to what that really means.
Sometimes clients start out the "saving" process by choosing one of our packages designed to give value to those who plan very small and/or short wedding events. Then this same client requests an adjustment upward to include a standard number of people who would attend one of our standard packaged weddings and adds additional time. When the changes are made, the price is moving closer to the cost of an ordinary all-day, full-sized wedding. Not too shocking, just logical. But, again, there comes the old magical thinking syndrome, and the client is feeling somehow tricked!
Here is the reality. When we can't afford steak, we eat chicken. If finances are tight in the year of your wedding, it is only reasonable that you consider a smaller wedding with fewer guests, possibly shorter hours. Serve beautiful food, but don't feel that it has to be a dinner! A wonderful buffet of warm or room temperature savory hors d'oeuvre that are all finger food will trim the catering bill and cut out the cost of all flatware. Or cut in half the number of dishes your caterer prepares. No one will feel cheated or feel that your are cheap, if you plan the menu cleverly. After all, it is not a numbers game. You aren't trying to impress your guests with your largess; it is your job to make your guests feel cared for, and thanked for being caring enough to attend, in order to witness an important rite of passage in your life.
At present, the rented linens represent one of the biggest costs to us in preparing for each wedding, but allow us to give the clients a choice of literally dozens of colors and even to mix it up and, for instance, have three different napkin colors and a fourth color for tablecloths. By foregoing that luxury, and electing to use our house linens in colors we like for how well they complement the lodge and patio, a client can ask us to pass on to them the savings we experience from not renting linens.
(See other cost cutters in "Economics of Wedding Planning" post)
Why don't you allow disposable dinnerware for wedding reception dinners?
Well, we say Camp Colton's mission is environmental leadership. Quite aside from the obvious concerns about environmental consequences of feeding 200 people a banquet dinner and serving them wine and beer over a five hour period, all out of throw-away dishes and glasses, I just think that the only thing worse than bad food is great food served on unmanageable paper plates. Indeed, many disposables available are plastic (petroleum based), but at that point the cost is more than the rental of good china.
My main concern is that, again with the magical thinking, my clients are often telling themselves that disposables avoid cost, when in fact they can be quite expensive. i have thought for years that folks might be kidding themselves about the potential for savings, but when I researched the products recently, at all levels from Costco to party suppliers, I found that our clients would invariably have to spend more to bring in disposables than they would to use our tableware that is already here. (Email us if you would like to receive a pdf of my findings). In most cases when this has come up, the client had the disposables scenario firmly in mind, and never got around to asking what our price for china would be!
Our tableware and barware is the same $.35 for every piece, and undercuts the cost of, and out-performs, disposables in every category. Our cost is well behind us; our charge pays the people who wash the dishes. We include all table and barware in our main wedding package, and offer everything we have (12 pieces each guest) for $350 for up to 200 guests, when they are rented separately, or by the piece, as needed. And here is another benefit: there is nothing to bring in, nothing to take out.
And in case you do hold your affair in a public park, don't overlook the fact that guests tend to automatically take two plates when the plates aren't sturdy, and will invariably abandon a disposable plate in favor of a fresh one (or two) when going back for a second helping. It is not an overstatement to say you should plan on having four plates for every guest, if you use disposables.
On the other hand, and on behalf of enduring tableware, to furnish your wedding in the park or at home with an array of non-matching plates is not a bad thing at all. Letting your guest know that the feel of a plate seemed more important than the color of it is a good thing, I think.
I read a client review that said you add $1000 if we have more than 100 guests. That doesn't sound like your advertising.
That is correct; it does not say that in our advertising, and it is not true. The client in question requested a small wedding package, presumably to save money, but did not want to limit the event to a small wedding. (See item above about adjusting existing packages).
Since the product she requested is priced at 1/5 of the price of our full-day packages, I don't think she was actually surprised that having a longer event, with as many guests as a full-sized package would allow, incurred a sizable upgrade charge; perhaps she just had difficulty with owning the results of decisions she had made. She later changed her approach completely, and requested a redo, which started at the top end and deleted most services. It required two additional custom rewrites, each with a signing appointment, to establish an agreement that required exacting lists and spreadsheets to retain the pennywise efforts. It seems counter-intuitive to deem this level of customization inflexible. We worked very hard to give her family exactly what they requested, and performed our part in complete harmony with our published prices.
Our all-day packages, Simple Elegance and Classic Elegance are priced for up to 200 persons, and allow for additional guests at $15 per person (as stated), since, at levels above 200 we will be taking delivery on rented furniture, in order to accommodate the higher number. This is covered in our web site and in the wedding brochure.
We generously offer a few specialty wedding packages for families who desire a gorgeous setting and a professional look, but don't need to afford an unnecessarily extravagant array of time, services, and/or equipment. We presently do not make adjustments to these special ways of paying, in order to avoid a repeat of such a serious misunderstanding.
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