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The cost of weddings and why?  Part Three

3/29/2018

6 Comments

 
Welcome back! Here is part three of the series on the cost of certain wedding services and products.  If you are just joining us, you can catch up by reading Part One with Joanna Moss Photography and Part Two with Mink Makeup and Hair.  I'm really hoping that these posts can shed some light on where your money is going as you plan your wedding.  


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Paying more...

So, there may be times that you do end up spending more than your budget for a certain vendor.  This doesn't need to be a negative.  As long as you are being cognizant of the big picture and the entire budget then going over on something can work.  I look at it this way... if there is a service or product that you have really fallen in love with and will help make your day the way you want it to then look to see if you can find the extra money somewhere else in your budget.  Even if you find something a few hundred dollars cheaper, if it's not what you actually want, I look at that as a waste of money rather than a savings.  Why spend any money on different flowers, or decor, or whatever it may be if you aren't truly happy with it? 


In today's blog, we hear from Jane, owner of Budget Blooms, a florist based in Delta.  Jane was one of the very first florists I worked with in my first year or weddings and we have continued to work together multiple times over the years.  


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What service do you provide? 
We are a full service florist.  We stick to flowers so that we can keep our costs as low as possible.  We supply vases for low arrangements only.  We do offer our buy back tall vases for ceremony only – maximum two per wedding to help out the smaller weddings who don’t need a decoration company. 
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How long have you been in business?
12 years

How many weddings do you book each year? 
Approx. 200 – about ¼ are larger sized weddings.  We do not have a minimum spend so we do a mix of wedding sizes.  It sounds like a lot but we manage each weekend separately to ensure we are not overbooked on tough items vs. easier items. 


What do you love about working on weddings?
I love being able to bring a dream to life for our budget minded Brides.  We can still do so many pretty looks and still stick to a budget. 

What is the average amount of hours that you put into each wedding? 
It’s tough to answer this one as sometimes we do 100 emails with a smaller wedding and 10 emails with a larger wedding. You can never tell but it’s a lot more hours behind the scenes than a customer ever guesses.  Re-reading emails and studying photos to ensure we have the look correct.  Chasing after flowers that have not shown up to ensure we have them etc.

What factors go into/went into determining your prices?  
Our pricing is an average markup as per any retail store, but with a little extra to ensure we are covered due to a product with a 5 day life cycle.  When we order your flowers we have to order extras as with any product there is damage when we get it.  That bunch of roses from South America will have 4 broken stems out of 25 so we have to order 50 as you need 27 for your order.  Some of the heads will be crushed.  The local product may have been bumped on our auction cart and we lose 10 stems.  If we could just order the 5 perfect stems needed then that would work to help lower costs but we can’t.  We have to order 10 and we typically can only use 5 to 7 of them as we know you would not appreciate bruised flowers. 

Any extra comments on pricing for weddings?
As with any purchase you make there is more work than actual product put in.  The time you spend with us ordering and detailing your order.  Then confirming it closer to your date and going through the details again.  Time is then spent on formulas for each product, a total is sent to our wholesaler or we wait to buy it at the local auction.  I am up at 5:45am to watch 3 hours of auction to get the perfect shades for the weddings this week.  Then we go to the auction to pick up the flowers, bring them back to the store and condition them.  That means that we spend time cleaning stems/putting in fresh water and sorting out stems for each event.  The week prior we have already spent time going through a supply check to ensure we have the right ribbon, packaging material to deliver it, we refresh ourselves on all details we have on your wedding.  This all happens prior to making anything.  Wednesdays we start to work on the wedding items that need to be made early.  



I'm learning so much from these chats I'm having with other vendors as well!  I've always known that there is a lot of extra work put in behind the scenes (which is what motivated me to write this series) but one thing I can say I had never taken into consideration is the fact that florists need to order that much extra product just to make sure that they have enough perfect looking flowers to make your bouquets, centerpieces and everything else.  

Next time, we will hear from Mat Bittroff, owner of Mathew Bittroff DJ Services.  

As always, if you have any questions, email me or leave a comment!  

Happy planning, 
Sara




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The cost of weddings and why- Part Two

3/21/2018

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Welcome to part two of the blog series where I explore the costs behind different services in the wedding industry. Today will be about hair and make up. If you haven't already, check out Part One where I spoke with photographer, Joanna Moss.  


What is most important to you? 


​After deciding on the overall budget for the wedding, the next thing I suggest is for couples to choose the top three items or services that are most important to them (ex- photography, food and decor or entertainment, dress and open bar).  Doing this can really help you get the wedding that you envision without overspending.  The online spreadsheets for budgets are a great start but it's also important to remember that they are generic... not a "one size fits all".  Don't feel that you need to stick to it completely- feel free to move things around and add money to what is important to you and take it away from items you don't place as much value on or maybe don't need.  

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So, what is behind the costs of all of these wedding services?  The thing to remember is that you aren't just paying for the final product or the day of service.  This is one of the questions I wanted to ask the vendors who are taking part in this series along with how long they have been in the industry, the amount of time they spend on each wedding, etc.  What I really hope is that reading these answers will assist with all the couples who are planning their weddings and feeling the pressure of staying within their budget.  

Next up is Jenny from Mink Makeup and Hair.  Clients of mine have used Mink's services multiple times and I always get great feedback about them. 


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​What service do you provide? 
Mobile Hair Styling, Makeup Applications and Lash Extensions
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How long have you been in business?
11 years

How many weddings do you book each year? 
170-200 wedding bookings alone 

What do you love about working on weddings?
We love how everything comes together! The dress, jewelry, makeup, hair, shoes, flowers.... so much to coordinate! It really is a great moment when see our Brides all done up and ready to meet their soul mate at the alter!

What is the average amount of hours that you put into each wedding? 
The amount of time that goes into each wedding booking varies. This is due to the fact that each wedding is unique, the amount of added services (such as Bridesmaids and Mothers), multiple dates (2 day wedding events, engagement shoots, multiple trials), scheduling staff and so on. Time spent is somewhere between 10 hours (bride only booking with one trial) and 40 hours.

What factors go into/went into determining your prices?  
Current going rate in the industry along with continued education, makeup and hair supplies, computer programs and other (website, advertising,studio/office space in Vancouver), merchant fees (Visa/Mastercard), touch-up kits and lashes (strip lashes included in packages $8-$40/pair) and of course Bridal Experience!!!

All of our stylists are professionally trained make up artists and hairstylists.  
On average schooling can range from $8000 to $18,000.  An experienced artist will have a fully stocked kit and could be valued anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000!!!

Any extra comments on pricing for weddings?
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Weddings can be pricey but if you book early you may be able to take advantage of special offers from the artists you choose. We do offer early booking bonuses and can work with small or limited budgets! Mink also has 3 different packages to offer brides and we will work with the Bride to find a Mink stylist who is a PERFECT FIT for her personality, vision, budget, and for the kind of experience she wants created for her.



The thing that Jenny said that really jumped out at me is the cost of the kits that each artist has.  That is a lot of money that they have to put up beforehand in order to be effective.  I think about how much money I can spend at Sephora or MAC and I'm only trying to buy makeup for my one type of skin, coloring and style.  Imagine having to have everything on hand for all skin colors and types?!  Having an artist that has all these in their kits is sooooo important!  You don't want to be walking down the aisle looking orange or a weird color because your makeup artist wasn't prepared for you and couldn't match your skin color.  Not what you want any day let alone your wedding day! 

Coming up next in a few days, I talk to Jane, owner of Budget Blooms.  Watch for it on the blog soon!  

As always, if you have any questions, email me or leave a comment!  

Happy planning, 
Sara
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The cost of weddings and why?  Part One

3/15/2018

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If you have begun the process of planning your wedding then you may have also incurred some "sticker shock" while researching vendors.  The business of weddings is admittedly a big business, with estimates of it being worth $5 billion per year in Canada alone.  Since for most of you couples, your wedding is the first event of this size that you are planning and when you start getting quotes it can typically be a bit overwhelming.  

In my seven years of planning weddings, I've worked with budgets from $5000 to $50,000+ and I've come across all levels of prices for every service.  Like I mentioned above, since most couples are planning an event of this size for the first time I wanted to help provide some insight as to what goes behind the pricing from a few very successful vendors in the Vancouver wedding industry.  It's easy to look at the product or service and think that it's just a one day thing and automatically jump to the conclusion that it's priced too high.  The vendors who will be featured over the next while have given some pretty transparent answers which I think will help immensely!  I'll also throw in a few of my own tips.  
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Take "affordable" out of your vocabulary

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I know what you are thinking... "Sara, are you crazy?  You talk about budget all the time and now you want me to forget about affordable??".  You are partly correct about that... I do talk about budget a lot and I really believe that to help reduce stress in planning that sticking to your budget is key (you can read what I say about deciding on a budget being your first wedding planning task in this previous blog post). 

​But as for the word affordable it can actually be less helpful than you think. Very often, I see couples post on wedding Facebook pages or other sites asking for "affordable (insert service here)".  Then they get multiple replies and have to search through them and they might still not fit the budget.  The biggest thing to remember is that the term affordable is different for each couple.  Not only is it going to depend on overall budget but also the importance you place on that particular service.   My advice is that if you are going to post asking for recommendations to also include your max budget for what you are looking for and then that should help direct the responses to be more helpful to you and save you time in the long run.  Remember the saying that time is money!  It's also a lot less stressful when you aren't falling in love with vendors and then realizing that you might not be able to afford them.  

So, what is behind the costs of all of these services?  The thing to remember is that you aren't just paying for the final product or the day of service.  This is one of the questions I wanted to ask the vendors who are taking part in this series along with how long they have been in the industry, the amount of time they spend on each wedding, etc.  What I really hope is that reading these answers will assist with all the couples who are planning their weddings and feeling the pressure of staying within their budget.  

First up is Joanna Moss of Joanna Moss Photography.  I've had the pleasure of working with her at a wedding last year for our clients Linda and Alex as well as a styled shoot that was featured on the Wedluxe blog in December.  Joanna has an amazing eye for details and really captures your entire wedding day in a beautiful, timeless way.  



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Photo by Joanna Moss Photography
What service do you provide? 
Photography
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How long have you been in business?
9 years

How many weddings do you book each year? 
15-20

What do you love about working on weddings?
I love the joy of the day, everyone is happy.

What is the average amount of hours that you put into each wedding? 
On average I put in about 50-60 hours over the course of a year. That includes, consultations, emails, phone calls, research, engagement session (editing, backing up, uploading), preparing for wedding day, timelines, wedding day (editing, backing up uploading), social media posts, blog posts, book designs, book revisions, and delivery.

What factors go into/went into determining your prices?  
My rate is based on the amount of hours I put into each wedding. Products are priced separately.

Any extra comments on pricing for weddings?
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There is a lot going on in the background that couples purchasing services aren't aware of. It's easy to purchase products because you see exactly what you're paying for. If we structured ourselves the same way some other non-wedding industry service providers like lawyers and billed/invoiced for every phone call and every meeting etc, you'd see how much time goes into your wedding and you wouldn't be as sticker shocked by the price


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Joanna has a great point about what would happen if wedding vendors billed like lawyers do.  There really is so much time away from the camera that photographers put into each couple which of course has to be taken into consideration when setting prices for their services.  When you are interviewing photographers (or any vendor for that matter) feel free to ask questions like this.  Of all the vendors I've chatted to about this, they have all said they are happy to answer these questions... they want you to feel how confident they are in what they provide.  And if you happen to come across someone who can't really answer them then they may not be the right fit for you.  

Coming up next in a few days, I talk to Jenny, owner of Mink Makeup and Hair.  Watch for it on the blog soon!  

As always, if you have any questions, email me or leave a comment!  

Happy planning, 
Sara


Find the following parts of this series by clicking on each below...
Part Two with Mink Makeup and Hair
Part Three with Budget Blooms
Part Four with Mathew Bittroff DJ Services 
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    Creating more that just a party. Planning celebrations for a lifetime.  Wedding and event planner in Vancouver, BC .

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