Choose Your Own Adventure: Hamkey Wedding Edition

Everyone (read: people over 25) has that one friend. 

You know, that person who BEFORE they have kids says they would never give their child plastic toys, feed them fast food, put them in gendered clothing, etc. 

Within a year of giving birth, their child is throwing back McNuggets while smacking on a Playskool Poppin’ Park Elefun, and your friend is collapsed on the couch taking back everything they ever said pre-child. 

Me? I’m that person when it comes to wedding venues. Remember when I said Peter and I weren’t really banquet hall kinda people? Well, turns out planning a wedding is reaaallly hard, and the convenience of banquet halls is not to be understated. Let me explain. 

We are 7 months into our engagement and still venue-less. My loving parents, VERY excited for our nuptials, decided to help out. And by help out, I mean they made an appointment at Fantasy Farm and asked Peter and I to come and check it out with them. 

So! Last Saturday Peter and I begrudgingly piled into their car and headed to the Farm to meet Gus, the sales manager. 

There are two rooms for rent at Fantasy Farm. The “cottage” looks like a Swiss chalet, and isn’t really our style. The larger and recently renovated ballroom definitely has potential. 

Before taking over as sales manager at Fantasy Farm, Gus worked as a wedding coordinator. Years of dealing with multiple vendors really have impacted Gus – the dude is a crusader against hidden fees. He said that if we book with Fantasy Farms the quote he’ll give us is the price we will pay. And what is that quote? About $2000 less than our ENTIRE budget (and that’s for a wedding of 115 people, not the 128 we initially budgeted for). But, everyone will get a full meal, and there’s an open bar. 

 But! That also means we’d have to cut down our guest list, and expand our budget by potentially $3000 to cover other expenses. Also, they only date left is Nov. 24 – a little late in the year. 

By now you’re thinking, “Larkey! Why is this post called ‘Choose Your Own Hamkey Adventure?’” 

Well, that’s because we have another venue in mind. 

The Enoch Turner Schoolhouse. 

We fell in love with the décor and charm of the building. If we go with the Schoolhouse we will not be able to afford a traditional sit down dinner, but we could have a cocktail reception with appetizers. Still waiting to hear back from some caterers on how much that would cost. Also, there are still dates left in October, which is a definite bonus.  

Ultimately we are going to go with the less expensive option, but what if they’re relatively similar? Gus’ warning of ‘beware of hidden fees’ is haunting me like the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future haunted dear ol’ Ebenezer Scrooge. So, dear reader, if they were relatively cost same, what would you choose? Should we be more worried about unexpected or hidden fees? Do you know anyone that got married in either or location? What was their experience like? Let me know, we are having a tough time deciding. 

Why Won't You Email Me Back?

My recent experience dealing with venue coordinators has led me to one conclusion: they’ve taken a page from Adele, and communicate using flip phones only. That has to be the reason for the delayed email responses, right? No immediate access to email?

“Professional Larkey” responds to emails within minutes, unless I’m away from my phone or desk. If that’s the case, it may take a few hours. But! Rest assured, dear colleagues, I will respond to your query as soon as I have a secure Internet connection.

 I’d say my email response time is pretty typical of a media person, but,  I’ve never worked in another industry, so I don’t really know if waiting three to five days for a response is normal. Is it? 

In the coordinating world it certainly is! I’ve started to get use to waiting days (if not a week) for a response. This is from multiple venues, by the way. 

 I get it, they might be busy dealing with other clients but, I have questions that need answers! I wanted to know if mine was a universal experience, so I reached out to a few friends who are either hitched, or have friends getting hitched, to hear about their experience.

*Names have been removed to protect the brides & bridesmaids

 ROYAL CANADIAN YACHT CLUB

Overall I think they might have got back to me within a day or two, based on the time stamps in my sent emails. But, I did have to follow up on the final bill at the end of July (I got married in June). They didn't send me the final bill until early August.  

ROSEWATER SUPPER CLUB

The rosewater was really good with getting back to us. I think it was the next day. Anytime we emailed them about questions/concerns, we got pretty quick responses compared to other places we contacted. I would totally recommend them, the wedding coordinator there was really helpful.
 

PALAIS ROYALE

I have had such a positive experience with my wedding coordinator at Palais Royale. The longest I think she has taken to get back to me is probably 3 days and she apologized profusely for the delay. 

THE FIFTH SOCIAL CLUB

My friend is getting married in June and wanted to do it at the Fifth, was all ready to book and give a deposit but no one got back to her even after she followed up a couple of times. It’s so shitty because that was the venue they wanted, but it was too stressful to rely on people who don’t get back to you when you’re spending that much money!