Your Dream Day Wedding Planning Podcast with Kathy Piech-Lukas
Your Dream Day Wedding Planning Podcast with Kathy Piech-Lukas
The Art of Wedding Catering with Industry Expert Fausto Pfifferer
Join us as we navigate the intricate world of event planning with industry veteran, Fausto Pfifferer. From cost estimation to strategic diversification of income avenues, especially in the wake of the pandemic, listen in as we take a deep dive into the nitty-gritty of event catering.
Crisscrossing further into our dialogue, we tap into the potential hazards tangled in large event catering. From the looming threat of food poisoning to the quintessential legalities of serving liquor, Fausto's insights are an absolute treasure trove. Are you aware of the serv safe certification requirement in every state for serving food at a wedding reception, insurance, and a business license? Or the criticality of a professionally trained bartender adhering to safety protocols? This episode is sure to elevate your awareness.
Finally, our conversation takes a savvy turn as we discuss the various facets involved in wedding planning and catering. Striking a balance between timing, managing overlapping tasks, assigning a dedicated staff to the couple, and the subtle art of serving dinner during cocktail hour, we cover it all. Plus, we also examine the consequences of unchecked alcohol consumption at weddings and the need for a no-alcohol clause in vendor contracts. Tune in to this enlightening session for some exclusive industry insights from a seasoned professional.
To listen to more episodes visit www.yourdreamday.com
We are making our own story as we go, as we go, as we go, we are hoping that we'll go so either after, either after. Hi, welcome to your Dream Day podcast. I'm your host, kathy Peek-Lukas. We have a very, very, very special treat today the one and only Fausto Ferrer. Are you, fausto?
Speaker 1:I'm good. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Fausto is a huge, huge treat today because he is one of the leaders in the events industry. I've heard him speak at Wedding MBA and he speaks at conferences all over the country. We even had the opportunity to have him here at Greater Cincinnati earlier this year because he was speaking at a catering conference. We took you on a one-on-one tour of the Reading Bridal District.
Speaker 1:I was so happy about that. What was that duck place where we had the brunch. It was really good.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, taste of Belgium.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was really good. I bought the t-shirt, or I actually had him give it to me. I had a wonderful time.
Speaker 2:Wonderful, but we are so excited to have you here. I think today we're talking about a very, very, very important topic, which we talked a little bit before we started recording, but I think we're going to hit a little bit about catering, one-on-one and working as a team and things that you can and can't do as a planner when it comes to catering. Tell us a little bit about your background. Do you have a phenomenal resume?
Speaker 1:Well, I went into my 37th year this August. I tell people I am not old, I'm just experienced. But I am an experienced person who still every day learns something new about this industry and I still get butterflies. So my career started in Philadelphia and then I moved into New York a little bit and then, when our daughter was born, we moved to Maine and we've been here for 16 years and I watched Maine explode into the industry. Like when I moved here, you couldn't find Chevari chairs anywhere. You had to go to Boston. Nobody had them. You're kidding.
Speaker 1:ClearTop10 has just made their way up this way and everybody's like, oh, cleartop10. I'm like, oh my God, we used to use those in 1995. They're so hot inside, that's the last thing you want to do. So it was really interesting and we've seen the whole industry really explode. It was 2014, right after the recession, that everything just opened up.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:And you actually work for a catering company as well, correct, Well, when I first started out I had my own and anybody who first starts out in business you don't really know what you're doing and it's sort of when it's way. And I was young and I went to work for two women who gave me my start in my career and I did a lot in Philadelphia with them. There isn't any historic building or mansion or museum that I have not put my hands on and I'm very proud of that, because I love a historic mansion or museum for a wedding and the Philadelphia Zoo was one of my pride and joys because we created the picnic program for them until Lancer took it over. And then you know, on and on, you just go in, and then I went into just planning and then when we moved to Maine, we bought the catering company to just bring everything in to have more of a production kind of feel, and then, when everything else fails, you buy a magazine on top of everything else.
Speaker 2:Because you need something else to put on your plate.
Speaker 1:Well, you know it's pivoting. Pivoting was word we used in COVID, but I just think it's extra avenues of income to come in because we do have ten full-time employees. So I always think about their salaries and how it affects. So it has to come from multiple sources.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting you talk about pivoting, because I think, as a wedding professional in particular, there's a lot of us who do multiple things just so that we can, you know, make ends meet.
Speaker 2:Because, like when you're in a large city like New York, or like Dallas or Miami or Los Angeles, you know there's more needs for an event planner, like in Cincinnati, you've got to be working a lot to make a livable wage as an event planner and you also can get a little bit of burnout, and so that was one of the reasons why I started this podcast was because I needed another little spark, and everybody is always like you're so good on camera, you're so good in interviews and I'm like you know what.
Speaker 2:Start a podcast After the pandemic was over and, you know, life started getting back to normal, where you weren't talking about COVID all the time. You know, I launched the podcast and it's been fascinating because you can learn so much just by talking to different wedding professionals about what it is that they do and what makes them great, and one of the things that we're going to talk about today is just some of the things when it comes to catering, like, what are some of these charges on the bill. What do they mean and you know what is. What is the different types of ways that you can distribute food at a wedding and why does catering cost what it costs and, in particular, why is it so important to have a licensed caterer?
Speaker 1:Oh, my God license.
Speaker 1:Let's just start with that one, Please make sure that you are licensed and you are registered and you have the proper insurance that will cover you for anything that might happen. Let's just say somebody gets sick with oyster poison. You know they're eating an oyster and now they've gotten really, really sick. You got to save those tags. When you get your oysters, no matter where you get them from, make sure those are there and that they're in the file so that you have them. So if anything does happen, you can track where they were sold and where they were sold to.
Speaker 1:For me, I am very transparent on my proposals because I have always found it interesting when somebody says I think the biggest thing that people talk about in the industry is my caterer overcharged me. Well, I don't understand that. If you have paid your holding fee, which is non refundable, your 50%, which is non refundable, then your balance is 50% of that. So let's say it was, let's say it was $10,000 and you've given the caterer 10,000, 5000, you owe them five. Where did you get? Unless you have signed a contract stating whatever new thing you've added, there shouldn't be anything extra on there. So that means you're not doing your due diligence as the client reading your contract, or maybe your planner is not helping you read through the fine print, and that's the big thing.
Speaker 2:And reading a contract is so important and you need to read the fine print and see exactly what that means. When you put down a retainer for services, essentially what you're doing is you are reserving that date. That's what you're paying for. You're paying access to that vendor for that particular date, for that particular service, and because you are booking them for that, they can't book somebody else in your plate, correct? So that is what you're paying for and you know. Planners, caterers, we tend to be one of the first things that books and we book anywhere from 12 to 18 months in advance, like I had a call this week for somebody looking for March of 2025. And if I book a date two years in advance and you cancel four months before the wedding, odds are I'm probably not gonna be able to rebook that.
Speaker 1:Yep, and there's where making sure that your contracts no longer say deposit and I know we switched gears a little bit, but it actually goes into the whole contract thing of why catering stuff is so expensive, because none of that is ever returnable anymore, and so that's why it's either retainer and always make sure that non-refundable is followed, or before it so that it's there. And then we take it a step further. You have to sign every line item on our contract. So that tells me you read it, that you have looked at it and you have initialed and signed off on it. So everything, just like an attorney.
Speaker 1:And when we do our contracts, for instance, the whole menu is spelled out for you from the cocktail hour.
Speaker 1:So we walk you through the whole thing.
Speaker 1:We let you pick from a huge list of hors d'oeuvres that are in there, then your dinner, from your salad to dinner, everything's on there.
Speaker 1:We put the cake on there, even though we're not bakers, and it always says in parentheses, provided by client or baker, because we are not a baking company and we don't wanna take that on. And so from there you have the per person price for food, your staff fee, which is the staff that is working your party, we do add 20% and then our state tax is 8% and it is all spelled out for you there. If there is anything like rentals or the bar service, that is a separate contract with those separate vendors and those get sent out separately but ours is there and then we break it down so that you can pay your holding fee, which reserves the date because we do not pencil anybody in, that $2,500 buys you my calendar space, that your 50% is the next payment that's due and that's again non-refundable, and it tells you the date that it's due. And then your final is one month before, and sometimes we let them go two weeks before the event, depending on how they are.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk a little bit about the different types of ways that you can, I guess, distribute the food to guests on the wedding day. What are the three things that you see the most?
Speaker 1:Sit down family style buffets or stations. They're just calling them station now, but let's be honest, they're buffets.
Speaker 2:They're buffets. You still have people Like buffets that are broken up into four tables instead of one big one.
Speaker 1:Exactly exactly, and so I am a fan of a sit down, and here's why you can offer your client a little better deal I'm not saying discount a little better deal without having to affect cost or quality, because everything, down to the last potato, is counted for. Where you have a buffet or a station or a family style, you are making. Well, let's just be honest, a family style is just a plated buffet. You're bringing food and putting it there and, to be honest, when you do a family style, it only works on long tables. It does not work on rounds. It's a clutter of platters everywhere and then everybody's passing dishes and serving pieces.
Speaker 1:To me. That's ugh. I don't like that. So you have your three price ranges. I in my market tend to make the sit downs affordable in the $85 range. Then the family style comes into probably about 125, and then buffet is about 150, because it's not just the buffet. Remember, there are people behind the buffet that you now have to hire extra staff for because the other staff are too busy. Clearing plates, moving plates, watering glasses, cleaning and everything else that happens throughout a wedding. Broken glasses Do you know how many times we have to clean up broken glasses Cause somebody's?
Speaker 2:supposed to Ugh. I hate it when they take them on the dance floor.
Speaker 1:Exactly. So that's why. And then realistically think about the buffet as well, or the station, because now you need tables, rent them If your venue doesn't have them. You need tablecloths for them If the venue doesn't have them, and most caterers do not carry their own shaffers. So now you're renting all of that equipment. So you have now added to your rental bill, let's say, another $500, and onto your staff team probably another $700. See how I just saved you money. So if you do come in and say, oh I really need this to come down, but I'm really fixated on having a buffet or a station, well then you're not really there to save money.
Speaker 2:Right, well, and the other thing that's interesting too is, you know, a couple will see a wide, wide price range in catering cause, like around here. Probably the high end is going to be more in the 125 to 150 range per person and then the lower end tends to be more like probably 25 to 40 per person, depending on the food type. What separates the wide range?
Speaker 1:The probably the caterer who's doing the $25 to $30 is still working out of a licensed home kitchen and then the person who's a hundred and to $150 is working from a commissary that they own. So there is a little bit more of a cost factor, from electric to insurance, to the employees that work their full time and everything that comes into that. And there's also vehicles involved. So if you have the 20 to 25 person caterer, they're probably most likely renting and there's no shade renting a U-Haul vehicle. We own all of our trucks and so there's maintenance and gas and everything that comes into play. That when you look at that bill, I think a lot of people get sticker shock. But what they don't percent catering is only 11%. I mean, when you factor in everything you have to pay, you're left with 11% to like really take home and go. Well, there's my. That's why most of us have to take more than one job a weekend, because you can't physically live on one catering job. No one can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, and the other thing that is, you know, interesting and I had this come up last year is I had some people who Wanted to try and do their own catering, which it it, it scares me. You want to talk a little bit? What about why that can be a very, very Scary and very potentially liable situation for any couple planning a wedding food poisoning number one.
Speaker 1:Number two how are you going to be in two places at the same time? How are you going to be let's say it's the parents or the Parents of the groom or parents of the bride, and they're doing well how are you going to walk down the aisle and make sure the food is hot? And then are you going to invite guests to the wedding, but they're not part of the wedding, they're part of the serving team. And then, on top of everything else, who's going to clean it? There's all of these variables that come into just going. Oh, I want to cook the food because I enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Take this as the one day where you shouldn't cook your food because of liability, and especially, I don't think that insurance companies will also just ensure you for, like the event that somebody might get sick because you bought I Don't know. You went to Sam's and the chicken was on sale for 399 as opposed to regular, because it's four days old and they're trying to get rid of it and and, and you know that happens that they're discounted it for rapid sale. But now you bought all the chicken for your party, not realizing that it should be cooked that day, but you bought it on Tuesday for Saturday. Now it's sitting another four days in Refrigeration. That's not up to temperature because your house refrigerator is just your house refrigeration, you don't have a walk-in things like that. So that is scary. I I would never touch that with a 10-foot pole.
Speaker 1:And once I was um, I Got put in that predicament. They called me and they said well, we have the chickens. I said what do you mean? You have the chickens? And she said well, you're gonna cut them and defether them. I said no, I'm not. I said that's not what we agreed. Yeah, so they had a farm and they thought we would just kill them and you know, take all the feathers off. And I said we're not butchers and we're not even prepared for that.
Speaker 2:Well, you have to be licensed to do that job alone.
Speaker 1:And so and a lot of it too most of us have. You know, most of all of us have to be serve safe. You have to have your certificate of health from the state that you are issued your business license from, and you have to have insurance. And those three things are required at our venues in the state of Maine. So we cannot walk into the venue without giving them those three things.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to expand a little bit on what serve safe is because I have been seeing this a lot, especially in Facebook groups, where you have people who maybe are just getting started as a planner who say I will take care of serving your food for you. That is illegal Unless you are served safe certified. And it's actually not that difficult to become served safe certified. If you go on serve safe comm, you can become a what is it called like the supervisor or supervising.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and it's five years and I think it's like three something, three forty nine, and it's five years, every five years.
Speaker 2:But basically, it's a it's a self-paced online course and it teaches you how to do food protection when serving the food. And if you do not have that license, you are not allowed to serve food in the state of Ohio or anywhere. And so If you have a planner that's saying, oh, I'll take care of serving your chipotle for you, or oh, your mom's making the food, oh, we'll take care of putting it out, because, as your one, your planner is opening herself, him or herself, up to huge liabilities that their liability insurance is not going to cover, because Planners liability is going to cover irrational missions and physical liability which is damaged to the property. But, yes, just major, major, major red flag of things that you just can't, it's, it's not safe.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you said that, because when you said like, let's say they brought in chipolies and again we're not shaming chipotle or anything like, that no.
Speaker 2:no, I've had chipotle at weddings before, so they bring it in.
Speaker 1:You have now released any liability. If that food was bad and I'm not saying it was like you put it in Like that you put it in and now you've served it. But here's also the problem. If you are grabbing that food with utensils that haven't been cleaned, your hands haven't been washed, hepatitis really flows very different. And now you got a proof that that hepatitis did not come from you. That's why you never grab glasses from the top where people drink and put their mouths on. You grab them from the base or you pick up the glasses with black gloves.
Speaker 1:So we do our team for cleanup. They put on black gloves To clean up. That way they're not touching silverware and stuff like that, and during covid it was really. But black gloves have just skyrocketed price wise. But for cleanup we let them do it, and you know everything else is fine to serve it per the cdc. But be careful with that because you put yourself in the line of fire and you should always number one protect your business above all else yep, and the other thing too is just, bartending is another thing that comes into play.
Speaker 2:And, um, you know, as a, as a planner, I am not a licensed bartender and I am not going to grab a bottle of champagne and help the caterer serve the champagne for a champagne toast. I'm not going to get behind the bar because I'm not licensed to do that. Um, how does your catering company work with bartending? Do you license? Do you outsource that? Do you have license?
Speaker 1:We outsource it. In our state there's no such thing as a licensed bartender, so I don't know how. I don't know how your state works, but for instance, there's the blue law, and I don't know if you have the blue law too, where you cross we have the.
Speaker 2:our bartenders have to be tip certified Um, which is A fancy way of saying you know how to cut somebody off properly if they've had too much to drink exactly, but but that is basically what tip certified is, and then you have to be insured.
Speaker 2:And, um, if you hire somebody who is a bartender at a restaurant for your wedding, that bartender is not covered insurance wise, because when they're serving at a restaurant they are covered under the restaurants insurance. Independently, they are not insured. So you're also, um, if you have a family friend who's serving um the alcohol, you are putting them in at so much risk and liability that if somebody gets into a car accident on their way home, guess who's liable? It's going to be your friend the bartender, and you, the couple, because you didn't have a license and insured bartender.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad you bring up this topic because we do. In our state we allow a lot of venues allow people to bring in their own alcohol and then they scream luxury. And I put my hand up and I go wait a minute, um, I'm not seeing luxury, because if I was the dad and I was rich, the last thing I would do is unload my car with alcohol that I brought, that I have to at the end of the night, load back in. That doesn't scream luxury to me. What screams no is an open bar that the bar service brings in everything and then takes it with them. That's luxury. That's number one. But number two it's always protect yourself. Because if you do um a bar where you bring in the alcohol, and again in our state, if you say you go to new hampshire and bring it into Maine, you broke the thing that's called the blue lot and it all boils down to taxes.
Speaker 2:You cross state lines with liquor that was cheaper in another state, you brought it in here, the state of Maine, right now we have that too, and that's actually an issue where we live, because Cincinnati is right on the border of Kentucky and our airport is actually in Kentucky and so there's a couple of Uh wholesalers in Kentucky. People will go there a lot and they'll buy it and then they'll carry it over state line. So that's actually an issue here too.
Speaker 1:And that's that's really big because it puts you in a really awkward position. And so now we is it we're so my catering side of the company. Under our insurance. We can't touch any alcohol, so we can't help you unload it, we can't touch it, we can't put it away, we can't even clear the glasses. So you have to have a bar service that has a bar back to clear glasses that are liquor poor, or my insurance will drop me or hold me part of the liability, so we're very careful with that.
Speaker 1:So I have a licensed bar service that brings in their own alcohol and he has been working me for me for 16 years. He does it all, I don't have to worry. He brings the ice, the tonics and, like I tell all my clients, do your math. If you, if you put a spreadsheet for everything else, here's what it'll cost you for you to go buy it and here's what it'll cost if you hire a service that brings everything in. Now, remember it might look cheaper on paper, but time is money. Make sure you add your time for getting all that, plus your gas and whatever it costs for your insurance to drive back and forth. Those need to be added because everybody forgets that.
Speaker 1:So, with that said, the problem I sometimes have with somebody buying their own alcohol and we've done weddings but we're very detached from it you, literally everyone that's in there, has now become responsible for that one person who overdrank, because one lawyer will find everybody and who has the best insurance and go after that. And that's what happens and trust me, it does. And so you have to be very careful to watch everything that's happening, because once that bar leaves in our state they have 30 minutes. Once they release the alcohol back to you, 30 minutes of holding their breath that nothing will happen, and once that 30 minutes passes, that's back on them, back on the family. So alcohol scares me sometimes but it's a huge moneymaker for some people and we've toyed with. Do we bring it in? Do we not bring it in? And I'm choosing not to bring it in because it does people get beer muscles and I don't have patience nor the time for that, you know.
Speaker 2:No Out here in Ohio I would say probably this is a Cathy estimate probably about 80% of them do use mobile bartending services for that exact reason. There are still some that do sell the alcohol, but like one in particular that we do work with quite a bit, he owns a retail storefront that sells alcohol, so he has the liquor license to sell the alcohol and so for him it already makes sense because it's already part of his business plan. But there's a couple others that we work with that they always say here's our list of preferred bartenders and just reach out to them and they'll take care of it.
Speaker 1:Do they allow them to come in and say, like some places I know have allowed people who have no bartending experience. And then what the vent? Which is really interesting because this goes back to all the catering stuff we were talking about. As the catering company, we have to provide so much documentation before we set foot on property, but everybody else, you just watch, roll in and you're like, sorry, my head's going like this because, as they're walking in and nobody provides anything the bar doesn't provide anything, the photographer doesn't provide anything and the makeup artist doesn't provide anything. And you're looking, but aren't? These venues are requiring you to have insurance? And half of them are like, oh, they don't want to give it to me. I'm like, well, then, stop asking me for it, because you know I'm legitimate, so why do you keep asking me? But you don't ask anybody else.
Speaker 1:And then we fall because we show up and we have 15 people in our team working that we get lumped into everything. That becomes disastrous because all they see is a catering team, because 99% of the time people don't see everybody else. They only see the people that are clearing dishes and moving here and cleaning that and sweeping the dance floor and getting this. They don't see the DJ ever moved. They don't see the photographer doing any of that. So we become lumped in that if there's a mistake it happens to us. And the same thing with the bar. Why aren't you doing it? And the planner.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:I always joke that, like, your wedding planner gets credit for everything and we get blamed for everything.
Speaker 1:There, you go.
Speaker 2:I mean, there have been times where the timeline, for example, I'd say the one thing that could impact the timeline the most is Karen Bacoff that either didn't send enough makeup artists for the number of bridesmaids that required hair and makeup to be done, or just it just took longer for whatever reason. That can set the schedule way behind. And then a photographer who doesn't know how to manage large groups and knock out the pictures can also set the timeline behind. And that is the number one thing that can impact catering.
Speaker 1:You want to talk a?
Speaker 2:little bit about that.
Speaker 1:I do so. For instance, if your wedding guest arrive at four for the ceremony and your wedding is for 30, you're really walking down the aisle at four. Five, four, 10, you'll be done by five. If you're getting married somewhere with an officiant, you are not doing an hour Catholic service, so that let's just be no, that's gonna be 15 minutes. That's it, wham bam. Thank you, ma'am. And so let's say it's five o'clock and five to six is your cocktail hour. I'm assuming you're going to do some more photos with your photographer of anything that was missed if you didn't do a first look, or if now you're doing all of your photos that's happening there. What we do is we assign somebody to the couple that that job and their only job is to feed them, give them drinks and make sure they have everything they need. Nobody else, just them. Everybody else has two feet and can walk and get their stuff for them. It's their day. We take care of them.
Speaker 2:I love it when caterers do that, because usually that falls on me, and I love it when they appoint a specific staff person. That's all their job, because you don't want that bride to have to go through the buffet line with her, with her big dress, which may or may not be buckled at that point, depending on whether she wants the effect for her first dance.
Speaker 1:Well, it's nice and that's it. And it's funny because I said to somebody once I said I assigned somebody to you, so I know you ate, because if you ever come up to me and tell me you didn't need that's on you, boo, because I have somebody there that is just your person all night. You have to tell that person no, no, I'm good, leave me alone because they're you know it has.
Speaker 2:Do you know? It has been a new thing that several of my clients have started doing and as a planner, I love it. What they've been doing is they've been sitting down and eating dinner during cocktail hour privately, almost like at the end of the night a couple they're having like a private last dance where they basically kick everybody out of the venue and then they just have the room for themselves.
Speaker 2:They're doing the same thing with their meal, and what's what's great is that they they get to actually sit down and eat a meal, so I don't have to worry about them passing out on my watch to their full. So then they're happy and three. During dinner they can go around and visit with people, because they've already eaten.
Speaker 1:And it's actually really good. And so the way we do it is five to six, cocktail hour at six o'clock, and this just works for me and I sell it like this. So at six o'clock you're doing your intros. First dance father, daughter, mother, son, toast or whatever you know your toast. Get them all out of the way. And here's why All the groomsmen's boutonniers are still on, their jackets are still on. There's no sweat. Stains, bouquets, look good, I can find everybody. I can find the moms, I can find the dads, I can find the photographer. You have every let's say it's 200 people. You have 200 people's attention at you. So at 630, because your salad's already down and you're eating that, that's being cleared.
Speaker 1:630 to 730 is dinner. Now, sometimes we'll have somebody like oh well, we gotta take a sunset photo. Or oh my God, there's this massive rainbow and the sun bursts are coming through it. And I always tell my couples the same thing I said unless there's a unicorn with a pot of gold that you are specifically going to get, you can leave. But I'm serving dinner and if you come back and it's cold, that is on you and your photographer, because there is a timeline. If you put it back into the warming box it gets dried out. All I'm asking is give us the one hour for dinner. You have the rest of the night to do whatever you wanna do.
Speaker 2:You can I actually I had a wedding a couple of weeks ago and one of the very, very important people who was like a surrogate mom to the bride she got lost on the way and we had to delay the ceremony start by half an hour because we waited for her to get there. And who do you think the second person I told what was going on was? The first person was obviously the client. Number two was the caterer.
Speaker 1:And we just need that because we need to either lower the temperatures on the warming boxes I don't know how everybody works in your area, but one oven isn't gonna cut it for 200 people, so you need boxes to kind of move the food around, lower the temperature from 180, bring it down a little bit to get it to 160.
Speaker 2:So it stays no reasonable there and then Cause the food continues to cook when you keep it at those higher temperatures.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely and that's why you do that. Because, like what like, when a caterer has their food, they start the cooking process before they even leave their office and it cooks while it's in transport, it cooks when they unload it, it cooks when it's being stored in those hot boxes and it's being cooked through time according to the schedule that you've approved. So if your reception, if your dinner is scheduled to start at 7.30, that food is being timed from like five o'clock to be ready to be served at 7.30. So if there's any hiccup in that schedule, you need to tell your caterer immediately as soon as you know that they're behind schedule.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and that's really good for everybody because it really helps. It puts the team back into this and what I've been noticing, especially this year and I don't know if you noticed it in your neck of the woods we got away from being team players with each other, that we're right back to where we were pre-pandemic. And, to be honest with you, I miss the pandemic because it brought us all together for the first time and I hate saying that because I don't want the pandemic again, but we were nicer. You want COVID, we were nicer, we were nicer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I agree. And my planning style and I know I believe I'm in the minority with this, which I hope there are planners listening to this who maybe have more of an authoritative style Mine is more quarterback style, and I will tell a vendor when they need to do their job. I will tell them. If there is an overlap of some sort, like, let's say, there's an overlap between what the DJ was told and what the photographer was told, I bring those two vendors together and I say, well, hey, you told you guys discussed this with the bride, you guys discussed this with the bride. We need to decide which is it gonna be, is it gonna be A or is it gonna be B? But I'm not a DJ. I am not going to get behind the sound equipment and I'm not gonna get on the microphone.
Speaker 2:You hired that DJ to do a job and let him do it because that's what he does best. And same thing with the caterer and with the photographer. You've been hired to do a job. I expect you to do that job. I'm not gonna do it for you. My job is to direct you. My job is to be the glue that keeps things flowing.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that whole the way you sort of kind of just laid that out, because it makes a lot of sense and there are a lot of planners in our neck of the woods sometimes that not necessarily like to work with us, and because I am very like hey, I follow things legally as well, because my contracts are I you know, during COVID gave no money back so because they're pretty airtight And-.
Speaker 2:Yes, there was a new word that every wedding professional learned. Yes and force. The sure was another one. And so you'll see those in contracts now. Basically, the big difference is that the God would be a hurricane or an earthquake. The pandemic was technically an act of God. How the government reacted to it, it's worse major.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's different and quantum route, which takes it a step further. You just have to check with your state if you're allowed to use it. In Maine we are Quantum route. For instance, if somebody gives you $10,000 and you can prove $9,500 of billable hours, you return 500 bucks Pretty easy. I don't know, I just in my head. Contracts are scary and they're scary for the client, they're scary for everybody, but at the end of the day you protect your business Exactly. Also I'm gonna say it again because it's the most important thing that you have to do- Well, and it also protects the client.
Speaker 2:I hate to keep a looty to Facebook, but I've been seeing this more and more, where you get people who might be what the industry refers to as weekend warriors, where they do it on the side and they're like oh, I'll shoot your wedding, hey, blah, blah, blah. And I saw a girl who posted today that it took her a year to get her photos from this photographer and she had a contract and that contract protected her because she was able to call her lawyers and she threatened the photographer that, look, if I don't have my photos within a week, I'm filing legal action because, according to your contract that I signed with you and guaranteed this. So it protects the business, but it also does protect the client as well.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny because I say this to planners here sometimes and I'm working for somebody I said please, we will help you with whatever you wanna do, and maybe this is your area too, and maybe this is why caters and planners sometimes butt heads. What they don't understand is that everybody who's working for me is on my books, because we're not allowed to have subcontractors in the state of Maine, so they are all legal employees, so that's 10 full-time people that I hired and a hundred or so in the summer. Everyone is a W-9. And so I find it really interesting when they choose to Tell my staff to move tables and I said you gotta ask the captain, it's not, you gotta go by a chain of command, because if that person hurts themselves, it is my workman's comp, not yours, so there's no sweat off your back.
Speaker 1:But if you want all of this stuff moved, then you should have brought your own team and charged the client. But you can't use a catering team to do your bidding or your job. That's not fair, but it's more of the legal ramifications that come after it. They can get hurt, they can pull their back, which a back issue can't find it, and now you're out of work and now you're paying them because they've now sued you. They didn't sue the planner, they didn't sue the venue owner who told them to move a table, that they weren't. That's not their boss.
Speaker 2:Yep, and see, like in our contract, we don't move tables for that very reason because our employees are contractors and so we don't move tables, we don't dispose of trash, we don't serve food, we don't serve alcohol, and that's because one I'm not licensed to do so. And two, it's too much of a liability Good for you, and there is somebody there that can do that, and that's a person who should be doing it.
Speaker 1:And I wish more people understood that, because sometimes they feel like, oh, you're not a team player and like we are, we'll do whatever you want to do, but you have to do it within the legality of the contract, and so because if I changed something that the client wanted and she told me this and you decided this, then it's me, she comes after, not you. So, yeah, it's just really a good balance. So we do work with a handful, but we are primarily a planning company, so 98% of the jobs that we have are we're planning them from start to finish.
Speaker 2:And the thing is is we get that weddings are celebration, they're a happy day, they're a happy time and we want to be there celebrating with you. But you also have to understand this is our livelihood and this is our business and that is why we do what we do and it's I mean I do. I do wedding planning because I get joy out of helping couples transition from one chapter to another and I have so many clients like I have one client right now. She's a sweetheart and she'll be like Kathy, are we gonna be friends after, like, the wedding? I'm gonna miss you so much.
Speaker 2:And you know a lot of them I'm still faithful friends with. I see, you know, when they have their first children and I see their milestones and all of that. And you know my door is always open but, like, we have that special bond during that particular period of time and I want to bring that joy to their life. But I also want them, you know, to understand that. You know this is this is my livelihood and I am a person outside of this too, but this is this is my job. This is my job is to bring you joy on your day.
Speaker 1:And it's funny because when I look at vendors, sometimes too, and I don't know how your contracts work in your area, but we I don't allow drinking at all- oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely no booze on the job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've seen vendors do it and I I've pulled them aside. I said, hey, can I just offer you some advice? You do you, but can I offer you some advice? I said you posted a picture a couple of weekends ago and you're with the couple and you have a drink in your hand and she says, oh, they wanted me to have it. I said, okay, I'm going to play devil's advocate here and I'm going to do a scenario for you. You were drunk. No, I wasn't. Prove you weren't, because all 200 guests are going to side with me because they came to my wedding. Now I want my photos for free. See how easy it was for me to get something from you for free, even though you weren't drunk, you were photographed with a drink in your hand and now it's up to you to prove it wasn't. But there are 200 people that are going to say that photographer was drunk at my wedding. And here's proof.
Speaker 2:Do you want to hear a true story? Some day I will write a book of all the true wedding stories that are just so unbelievable that they're actually true. I tell all my clients, if you have hired a band, to add in a no alcohol clause into their agreement, because I've had this happen twice where they were both like month of day of coordination, so they had already booked this band before they booked me. And the one that was most memorable, I mean amazing band. I mean this was a 15 piece band and the MC was so drunk and he kept visiting the bar. And when you're a DJ or an MC, if you look at their paper, they don't have the actual spelling of the person's last name, they have it phonetically and so wait till you hear this. So I had typed everything out for him phonetically, so he had everything right and I said flower girls da, da, da, da, da, da, da da. Groomsman number one, da, da, da da. Bridesmaid number one, da, da, da da.
Speaker 2:So he gets on the microphone and he goes oh no, groomsman number one, groomsman number one. And I do a double take on like what are you? Oh my God. And then he said hello, bridesmaid number two. And I go up running and he's like, oh, the flower girl, what are you doing? And he's like, oh my God, the thing is, it's because he had the microphone. I'm gonna get on the microphone and do that.
Speaker 2:So at that point I'm like you just gotta let this roll. And my heart went out to the bride and the father of the bride, because the father of the bride had the bride's mom had passed away like six months before she got engaged, and so they had the father of the bride and the mother of the bride had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and that was the band that they had there. So dad's only request for the wedding was that this band be at his daughter's wedding. And the father pulled me aside and he's like, pull their tip, because he I mean, what are you gonna do? But I mean he was frequenting the bar the entire night.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is terrible.
Speaker 2:It's terrible. Well, and that was I mean. And again, these are extreme situations, and one thing you'll find with bands is that you get some that are bar bands and some that are event bands, and event bands know, you just avoid the bar, bar bands. That's how the culture is. When you play at a bar, you go to the bar.
Speaker 1:You get your shift, drink. You do all of that and that's not acceptable at a wedding and I think it has to be with read the room. If the room is decorated beautifully to the nines, do not come in and throw your shit everywhere you can find it, because that's visually what you're going to see. And the same thing with a DJ. You know you got a beautiful table, it's set up for you, and then you come in, put all your equipment and all the table cloth is like crooked and that's all you stare at all night because everything is perfect but that table. And so that's one of the reasons why we angle the DJ off to the side, because, number one, I don't want them in the back of every photo. And it's so funny because we're so fixated with the efficient not being in the kiss. But it's okay for the DJ to be standing there behind the dad and the daughter dancing.
Speaker 2:I never thought about that, but that actually makes perfect sense.
Speaker 1:But the number one thing that I just go you blast the person who is religiously marrying these two people, because nobody else in the room can physically do that but this one person. You blast them for not moving. But you're okay with the DJ and you know how sometimes those photos are. They're just standing there looking into the air. Sometimes they're got their finger right here. You're like what are you doing? So that's my one advice for everybody.
Speaker 2:Wonderful, we'll stop. So we're gonna wrap up here for the wedding vendors that are listening to this podcast. Where are your next speaking engagements, so that we can come and watch you?
Speaker 1:listen to you. I'm very excited because I'm going to be at wedding MBA on the 6th of November. So 6th, 7th, 8th is when I speak on Monday, the 6th. I will be in Vermont on the 15th and 16th of November and I will be at Cater Source in February.
Speaker 2:You really truly are a leader in our industry. It was such a treat having you on today, Falstow. How can people find you online?
Speaker 1:You can check for me. You can actually email me. I'm good with Falstow at falstowbluecom. That's my email address. I'm also on Instagram. My personal page is my personal page. So what you see is what you see, don't get offended. And then I do post. You just do you right, exactly, and then we're Falstow, then Blue Elephant events in catering, and then Instagram and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Falstow. Thank you so much for being a guest today. This is Kathy Peach Lucas with your dream day. Happy planning and thank you for tuning in. Take care.
Speaker 1:Thanks everybody.
