Your Dream Day Wedding Planning Podcast with Kathy Piech-Lukas
Your Dream Day Wedding Planning Podcast with Kathy Piech-Lukas
Weddings on Tap: Rhinegeist Brewery's I Do's and Brews Wedding Expo
Rhinegeist Brewery, located in downtown Cincinnati, offers a unique wedding venue with flexible spaces for both intimate and large celebrations, featuring their signature open catering policy that allows couples to bring in any food vendor of their choice.
• Hosting the annual "I Do's and Brews" wedding show on Sunday, May 18th, 12-3pm featuring 75 vendors
• $15 tickets include a complimentary beer and goodie bag with vendor information
• Unique vendors including a tattoo artist creating wedding-themed flash tattoos
• Venue accommodates weddings from 80 to 250 guests across different event spaces
• Partners with Tri-State Valet for convenient parking solutions starting at $1,000 flat fee
• Located near Cincinnati Streetcar route with nearby hotels and accommodations
• Provides venue access from noon on wedding day until 11:30pm
• Offers day-of coordination services to help manage venue specifics
• Celebrating 10 years of hosting events in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine district
• Available for both weddings and related events like rehearsal dinners and welcome parties
Find information about tours and the I Do's and Brews event at rheingiest.com or by emailing events@rhinegeist.com.
To listen to more episodes visit www.yourdreamday.com
We are making our own story as we go, as we go, as we go.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello. This is Kathy Peach Lucas with your Dream Day podcast, and today I'm at Rheingeis Brewery in downtown Cincinnati and we are going to learn about their I Do's and Brews wedding show coming up in May. Good morning, ladies, hello, hello. So we've got Katie and Hannah and they're going to tell us a little bit more about I Do's and Brews Wedding Show coming up in May. Good morning, ladies, hello. So we've got Katie and Hannah and they're going to tell us a little bit more about I Do's and Brews. When is it? When is it? What time is it? What time is it? How do people find out?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's going to be on Sunday, May 18th. It's from 12 to 3, and then we're going to be utilizing our private event spaces and our tap room. You can find information about it on social media and Humanitix, the Rheingeis webpage all the good stuff.
Speaker 2:So what can couples expect when they come?
Speaker 1:We've got about 70 to 75 vendors this year, which is a pretty big jump from last year.
Speaker 2:That's huge. Actually that's as big as Wendy's and Bridal Roma. Yeah, all under one roof in Rheingeis, yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow, we had a lot of success last year, so we're kind of taking up a little bit more of our taproom space this year and kind of allowing more vendors to come in, which we're super excited about, and yeah, so what types of?
Speaker 2:vendors can couples expect?
Speaker 1:Really Anything. We've got a few wedding dress, vendors, food, flowers, all the different things. Um, we have a tattoo artist coming this year which we're super excited about um real tattoos or fake tattoos.
Speaker 2:Real tattoos, real tattoos wow, how does that work, like licensing and it is a little bit of insurance and licensing.
Speaker 1:But they kind of all handle it on her end and yeah, we're super excited to have her.
Speaker 2:This is the first I've ever heard of a tattoo artist. Is this like a new thing that couples should expect on the horizon?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean we're seeing it trending more often for event tattoos and they create specific like flash style tattoos. So these are all going to be geared, wedding inspired kind of tattoos.
Speaker 2:So basically so it's like they have a menu and you pick one of you. Okay, so it's not like they can come in with their own artwork in advance or anything like that, though that would be fun. That would be fun, you know, if you included some, Draw your own. I was going to say if you included that in the wedding invitation and be like hey, we're having a tattoo artist. Yeah, if you want custom ink, let us know. I'm sure the couple would probably get their monogram and wedding date on it too.
Speaker 3:That would be so fun.
Speaker 2:My gosh. So what other kind of interactive things can people expect at the wedding show, Because you tend to have photographers and so they would bring, I would assume, a lot of their albums and things that they can view to get an idea of their work yeah, we've definitely.
Speaker 1:We've got food samples, usually from all of our food vendors. A lot of our photographers bring books that they've done, especially like photos from events that they've had at ryan guys that they've shot. We also have a few different vendors doing fun setups that we're very excited to see play out dj's playing music.
Speaker 3:DJs playing music yes, Give them examples of their works.
Speaker 2:Well, and one thing that's so great about Rheingeis, which a lot of venues in Cincinnati don't do this. You allow any caterer.
Speaker 3:We do yeah.
Speaker 2:So what have you found has been the greatest asset of having that as an amenity here?
Speaker 3:I think it's important that we can be inclusive of people who have dietary restrictions, maybe religious things that they need to follow, or just like a taste of home that, if they're not, local they can find that here and bring that in for their wedding, that's huge, because I only know I could probably count on two hands the number of venues in greater Cincinnati that do allow that.
Speaker 2:So that's got to be a monster selling point for you, yeah, so now I have a question about parking.
Speaker 3:How does parking work at Rheingeis.
Speaker 2:Because I know for those of you that don't know, I just got a new car a couple of weeks ago and I got to parallel park my car for the first time today and I learned. I have a lot of practice to go. See, I had to learn the first place, so you're better than me. See, I had to learn how to do it because it was part of the New York State driving test, because I grew up in New York. So you didn't pass if you couldn't parallel park I wouldn't have passed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, parking here is definitely a little tricky, but we try to work around it. Free options are definitely a lot across the street and any street parking nearby. We also really utilize Finley Markets Parking Garage as well as their main lot and we do work with Tri-State Valet.
Speaker 2:I was wondering if you guys had a valet partner. They're a super nice asset.
Speaker 1:They park directly across the street from us and just guests can walk directly to their events. Anything under 100 guests is a flat $1,000 fee for the evening and anything over is $1,500.
Speaker 2:100 guests is a flat 1,000 fee for the evening than anything over is 1,500. Actually that's not bad because if you think about if you go to a concert and you pay $15 for parking and you have let's say you have 200 guests, you figure there's got to be 75 to 100 cars. That's actually very reasonable.
Speaker 1:They're here the whole evening. Take care of your car. It's all safe. Yeah, they're here the whole evening. Take care of your car it's all safe.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and it was funny. I had a podcast last week with an etiquette person. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was fascinating because we were talking about the differences between tradition and etiquette, and one of the things that came up with her was that you want to focus on the guest experience and making it as pleasant for them and as easy and enjoyable as possible, and valet was one of the things that you know had come up and, you know, just making your guests experience less frustrating, and that's where valet parking can certainly come into play, for sure. And, um, what? What are the current rates to rent the different spaces here at Rheingeis?
Speaker 1:It kind of depends. We have two different kind of wedding options that we usually go off of and we also host like rehearsal dinners, welcome parties, all the things in all four of them. But we have our signature room and lounge, which is 80 guests or less, and then we also have our clubhouse and annex upstairs which is like 250 guests.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, so you, you can accommodate a wide variety of parties here, which is nice. When did you open?
Speaker 1:We started hosting events in 2015.
Speaker 2:Wow, so it's your 10 year anniversary. Wow, so we're going to see that throughout the wedding show. Right, tell me about your favorite wedding that you've ever had here at Ranguise. What's? What's the first one that jumps to mind? Hannah's wedding.
Speaker 3:oh yeah, that's right, congratulations yeah, um, it was definitely special to be able to coordinate. I was her coordinator um to coordinate one of my team members weddings. Um, and it just was special to see a to coordinate. I was her coordinator to coordinate one of my team members' weddings and it just was special to see a Rheingeister get married at Rheingeist, because we all love it here.
Speaker 1:We're both Rheingeisters too.
Speaker 3:We are.
Speaker 1:Rheingeisters. My husband and I are both Rheingeisters and you work here.
Speaker 2:So this is like the work marriage made in heaven, and he's like the home marriage made in heaven. So here's the big question what beers did you have on?
Speaker 1:tap A range of the you know mainstays that we have. We pretty much were drinking Cincy Light all night because it's just nice and easy and something that you can keep drinking versus Truth is kind of like too and Too truthful. Yeah, a little too heavy, but Cincy Light is a great one to just drink throughout the whole night.
Speaker 2:So so which beers are available for people to have on tap? Do you have, like, any restrictions as to what beers they can have?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so each space has a different number of beers available. We try to keep it pretty standard and drinkable and have a nice variety for everybody. But we're kind of at the mercy, through our brew team, of what's available for us to put on tap. So we do ask couples favorites, but we'll do our best to get it on.
Speaker 2:We typically always have the standards of like scentsy, light, truth, cheetah. Um, bubbles, thank you. Can you tell I'm a bubble girl? I'm bubbly even without the beer. Yep, so well, cool. Um, how many uh cake vendors would you say that you have? Because cake is a big thing to try at wedding shows?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah. I'm not sure, off the top of my head, how many we have this year.
Speaker 2:I know we had at least like two or three last year and all three of them had samples out, which was really nice to try and kind of test out what kind of cake you would want for your wedding well, it's not even just cake, it's the caterers that come too, because they bring samples, and that's one of the huge benefits of going to a wedding show is that you get to actually try the cake and try the hors d'oeuvres and talk to the photographers different from you, from your work, from yep, or you might be getting a referral for somebody who maybe targets a lower budget bride and you may be wanting something a little more elegant and higher presentation and whatnot, and so I think it's really important to go to these wedding shows because you'll know right away when you start looking at a caterer's pictures, you know are they going to be in a budget range?
Speaker 2:Are they going to be in a budget range, are they going to be in a medium range, are they going to be in a high range? Because your budget 50% of it is the catering.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a big bill. I don't think people think about as much.
Speaker 2:What did you? What was some of your experiences? You know, now that you're on the other side, now you're on the married side. What were some of the things that you found during your planning process surprised you the most?
Speaker 1:um, just, I guess all the questions coming at you from all different angles. Um, I actually got to experience I'm like having an outside caterer because I'm from the Hamilton area, so we brought in someone that we locally love called CW Barbecue. Yeah, they were great to work with and it was nice to have a bunch of local touches from Hamilton, even though we had the Cincinnati wedding.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's cool. What were some unexpected surprises that came up while you were planning?
Speaker 1:I feel like we really didn't have a ton which I know is not a good answer.
Speaker 2:No, it's a great answer. It probably is going to give a lot of people hope who are listening to this.
Speaker 1:I feel like I was set up for success from working on this team and working in the wedding industry and having a lot of people around me that were already married. So, plus a lot of our friends just got married, we went to like seven or eight weddings in a row. So we got to really see all the different vendors all the things.
Speaker 2:So if you got nine dresses, that means you have how many to go until you get to 27?
Speaker 1:I know we were nearing it. We were definitely nearing it.
Speaker 2:What were some of your wedding colors?
Speaker 1:We had like blues and greens, which were really pretty.
Speaker 2:What did you do for centerpieces?
Speaker 1:We had beer growlers. It's like a. It's a 64 ounce like jug, essentially that people. It was more popular a few years ago but people would take beer to go in them, essentially. So I had a beer growler at each table from a different brewery and then Costco flowers in them, which was a very budget friendly way to put flowers on the table and then just candles and table numbers Very cool. Who did your cake? Luke's Custom Cakes and Hamilton. I'm obsessed, I am.
Speaker 2:Luke, if you're watching, I'm obsessed with you. I'm obsessed with your cakes. Like his cakes are like. They're one of the best cakes I've ever had.
Speaker 1:We got one of their cake sampler boxes, which was great, and then, um, we ended up getting a cookie cake for our actual wedding, because we're big cookie people. Um, and they did a great job, very cool yeah, very cool.
Speaker 2:Now do you have anything that you were there that day? What did you see behind the seats did? Did she did anything happen that she just didn't know about? That you made magically disappear?
Speaker 3:Honestly, I don't think so. Oh, I know, I know, but we had a really great team that day. She had great vendors, everybody was very easy to work with, so it was easy to make it a nice seamless, stress-free, hopefully day.
Speaker 2:Now, how much time do couples have to set up when they get here? How does the contract work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so typically on the day of your wedding you can come in as early as noon, so we typically recommend having a planner or a family member that is dying to help you to come in and set up those things, and they can take as long as they need.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, that's good. What if you've got somebody that has an elaborate setup? Do they have to pay a little bit extra to come in earlier? How do you work?
Speaker 3:that Is that just on a case by case basis yeah yeah, it's not too often that we have something like that, but it would definitely be a case by case basis.
Speaker 2:Got it Got it, and then, how late can they stay?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so bar close time and event end time is always 1130. Um, and then we typically try to help consolidate decor. Um, and then you're welcome to take it the night of, or you can come back usually the next morning, depending on what's going on. Oh, that's great, get up yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2:well, because, especially like like this wouldn't have been the case in yours, but with florists, they want to get their hardware back. Yeah, and some people don't realize, like, when we say hardware, that means all the vases, all the glass, everything that all these flowers are in, and they're big and they're heavy and they're fragile and they're bulky, and it really is a big deal to be able to, you know, come back the next morning and pick that up, versus having to come back at one in the morning when you're tired. It's a huge, it's a huge plus. I know, like, as a planner, there've been times where the florist has said can you take care of putting all the hardware away? And then I'll get it in the morning. And of course, I'm like sure, I'll do it for you.
Speaker 1:I think it's such a nice thing that we offer that brides can just kind of like leave everything at the door and enjoy their wedding night, and then they can come back the next day to get everything, and did you have a rehearsal? Dinner here as well? I did not, but we do host them very, very frequently. We actually have someone from our offices that's getting married at Mojave East, but she's having her rehearsal dinner with us. Very cool.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to talk about hotels. Did you have a hotel block, or are there hotels around the area that you tend to work with a lot with regard to guests? Hotel sleeping rooms.
Speaker 1:We don't quite work with any hotels. Specifically, we did the Hilton Netherland Plaza, which we had a good experience with, but I know there's plenty of close-by ones that either. Offer streetcar stop is a really nice feature and just as far as like Ubering all the different things.
Speaker 2:You're right with the streetcar, because the streetcar has gone ding ding just a few times since we've been doing this podcast and I mean, I'm not familiar with the streetcar. I know it exists but I'm not sure exactly what stops it goes on I know it goes through Findlay Market because I've had to pull over several times when I've been shopping at Findlay, but what streets does it hit downtown?
Speaker 1:It's pretty much everywhere. Honestly. We also have a really nice Airbnb that's directly next to us like less than a block from us called the Suslofts. It's S-U-S-S. A lot of their rooms are actually labeled after Rheingeis beers, but we work with them sometimes. But they have a bunch of different rooms where you can either rent out the whole building and like whole wedding party can stay there, or certain rooms, but it's very nice for weddings here because you can just just walk here that's a huge perk.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's a beautiful relationship, especially because couples, when they're getting ready, they want to do their hair and makeup in a place that they're not all cramped up. And you know, either hotels are your only option or an Airbnb, and sometimes, like what I've been finding with Airbnbs is they're starting to get more and more restrictive on how many people you can have inside the Airbnb at any given time, or you have to pay extra if you're going to have your rehearsal dinner there or whatnot.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I had a had a, I had a.
Speaker 2:I had a wedding in Michigan last year and their original plan was they were going to have the rehearsal dinner at this Airbnb that they had rented. That was huge. And then, like two weeks before the wedding, they're like, oh well, you're going to have to pay $75 a person for them to actually come. And they're like we have 28 people. Like you know, you guys are where. Where did this come from you?
Speaker 2:know, and, um, it was, I guess they had a bad experience where somebody trashed the Airbnb and now all these other people are paying the price for that. And so I mean I know what they did. I had to look a blind eye because I said I have to, I have to play, you know, like middleman, sure, I have to play, need to know, basis. I didn't know because I did know, um, but they basically said we're, we're just going to roll the dice and take our chances and you know, if we have to pay, we'll, if they call us out on it, we're going to pay. But but I mean, we're not. I'm not encouraging that at all, just for the record, but it's something to be aware of that. If you plan to have, you know, a get together of a large group at an Airbnb, definitely check that red fine print, because there's more and more starting to do that now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, so that's because you, you had the best wedding ever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so much fun best wedding ever. So much fun. So what was what did your dress look like? Um, it was pretty fitted for the most part, Um, and had straps up on the top, but it was very pretty. What did the men wear. Uh, they all wore gray. It's like hard to remember. Now. I'm like what did they wear?
Speaker 2:When do you get your pictures back so you can remember?
Speaker 1:Very soon, hopefully, hopefully, like first week of June, that would be great great.
Speaker 2:Well, I can't wait to see pictures of it. That'll be amazing. Um so how do people schedule a tour here at Rheingeist?
Speaker 1:so typically through our website we have a little area to inquire on and then we always send a response. With different tour weekends that we have, we usually host one tour date a weekend and have times ranging from like 8 am to 4, depending on our event schedule that we have going on, but usually just email is the best way through our website the inquiry.
Speaker 2:Okay, and you are fantastic with email because while we were scheduling the podcast, I would get, like I would get these instantaneous responses, which, which actually is, is just a shout out to you, because there are venues that take days to get back to you and you know, couples get impatient. They want, they want to know are you available? I've got work to do. I need to book my venue. You're stressing me out by making me wait.
Speaker 1:We really, really do try to be 24 hours or less. We even like sometimes take days on our weekends just to do inquiries all day, just to make sure everyone has an answer, because we do understand that people are very eager to start the planning process and we want to be here to help them.
Speaker 2:Wow, and like what's interesting I mean you guys are not guilty of it all as far as ghosting but like one thing that you know in the industry we've been talking a lot about is couples ghosting vendors, and so, like you know, if, if you reach out to us, we're going to get back to you, like I have a 48 hour rule, like that is my max, and if I don't get back to you in 48 hours, it means that I'm either on vacation and can't pick up the phone because I'm in Mexico somewhere or you know there's something major. But usually I get back to them much, much faster than that. Um, but you get couples who will ask you your availability. Then you send this really nice, you know, reach out to them and then crickets. And then you send another one crickets, and then you send another one crickets and then you're like, if you're going in another direction's totally fine, just tell me. You know, yeah, and then it's still crickets.
Speaker 2:So you know one thing for couples who are listening just make sure that you get back to us. This is just our business and our livelihood. We just want to make you happy. If you don't want to use our services or if you found somebody else that's a better fit. We are not going to take it personally, we just would like to know. So we'll stop bothering you, because we don't want to be pests, we want.
Speaker 1:We want to be happy people right, yeah, and have a great wedding day well, sometimes that's when those wedding expos are helpful, because you can kind of get a face-to-face interview with a lot of your vendors and you can kind of follow up from there after you're really, really interested and maybe versus being less interested to start off with.
Speaker 2:It goes back to what we were talking about earlier, how wedding shows are so great because you actually get to talk to the vendor. Yeah, and it's not that you can't book a wedding directly from a website, but I think especially your photographer you need to have a very good, comfortable relationship with them because out of any vendor on your wedding day, you're going to spend the most time with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're going to be there sunrise, sundown.
Speaker 2:And the one vendor that you won't see the entire wedding day, except for maybe here and there, is going to be your planner. You know that's a common thing, that's a common misconception, because planners work so behind the scenes and we're trying to just make everything get magically set up and magically go perfect and help you divert any bad things from happening. And you know, if you really want to know, we'll tell you the week after your wedding. But we're not going to tell you that night Funny stories afterwards.
Speaker 2:What would you say is the funniest story from your wedding day.
Speaker 1:My, oh, my gosh. I don't even know. I feel like the day went so perfectly. It's hard to like remember things that like went funny or bad or anything. It's really hard to say I don't know.
Speaker 2:We'll have the same conversation next year and we'll see what she says.
Speaker 1:I mean I think speaking on like having a planner and all the things we do have some planners in our space, but we do offer a day of coordination, which is what Katie does here, and I think it's a super nice thing to have on your wedding day to kind of help put out fires behind the scenes. So really anything that could happen. Hopefully doesn't, because that coordinator will kind of take that place.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely Well, and and you know, we work with venue coordinators a lot, you know, and I think that's actually that could be a whole, not nother podcast the difference between what a venue coordinator does and what a wedding planner does. I mean, in a lot of cases. You know I don't expect you to be under the bride's dress doing her bustle and I will happily do that right but like.
Speaker 2:but there are certain things I would never expect you to do or like. If there's family, you know politics that start getting into play, or you know taking care of the, getting the wedding party situated where they need to go, as far as photos go, you know there's just there is some overlap on things that we do. There's also no overlap on things that we do and there are things that I would never in a million years ask a venue coordinator to do.
Speaker 1:A lot of times I feel like people don't really think about everything that goes into a wedding versus like this is our world, so we know all the questions to ask, all the little details. So sometimes when it gets to the wedding day and no one knows how to bustle the dress, sometimes we are the best people to do it because no one knows how to.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you there are two dress bustles in 21 years that I was not able to figure out, mine did break.
Speaker 1:I guess that's a funny thing that happened.
Speaker 2:That's actually pretty normal. Was it a French bustle or was it an over bustle? You know, I don't know what it was called, but it definitely.
Speaker 1:I think someone stepped on it so it ripped out That'll do it, that's okay.
Speaker 2:No, one time we had this was years ago, it was at the Hilton Netherlands. Yeah, this girl had her dress altered out of state and at one point, you know, she said you know, are you going to be able to figure this out? And I said, well, hopefully. And I said most of the time, we can figure it out. And she's like well, my seamstress said that she always goes to the wedding reception to bustle the dress. Well, I learned why nobody could figure this out. We had five different people. Like we had all the venue coordinators, we had my whole staff. We had all the venue coordinators, we had my whole staff. We had the florist underneath this dress. None of us could figure this thing out. And like it was just the most bizarre I can't even describe how bizarre it was. I mean it literally had a curtain hook like that and somehow all of these layers were supposed to gather into this big hook and we couldn't figure out how exactly. And nobody went with her to her fitting.
Speaker 3:So nobody videotaped how the bustle was supposed to look. Um, so we just poor thing.
Speaker 2:I mean, we, we were doing surgery on that dress all night, um. And then the other one was um, it was a beautiful, uh, beautiful gown, um, but we had to have the bride on her knees in a squat because we had to go all the way around her. It was a 360. Oh, wow, it was a 360. I don't think I've ever seen one of those. I haven't seen one like it since. But literally she had 32 ties that went the entire circumference of her dress. It was a huge dress.
Speaker 2:It was a huge dress and on the wedding day, the dress is a person in itself. You have to squeeze it through doors, you have to sit on it, you have to turn it Breathing. How did you breathe on your wedding day?
Speaker 1:It was pretty in there, but I was able to breathe.
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that's so funny I was talking to one of my brides about this the other day is that on your wedding day, you and your wedding party will bond in a whole new way when it comes to the bathroom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just, you do need assistance using you do usually need assistance, especially the large poofy dresses. Those are definitely hard to go to the bathroom in, I would imagine.
Speaker 2:Well, wonderful. So how do you, how can people get in touch with you on the website? What's the website address?
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, you can just email directly events at reingeistcom and one of us will get back to you there, or you can go on to Reingeist's like regular webpage, reingeistcom, and then there is a private events link that you can click and there's an inquiry form on there as well, and there's got to be information about that I Do's and Brews event too.
Speaker 2:What's the date and how can people get tickets that I Do's?
Speaker 1:and Brews event too. What's the date and how can people get tickets? It is May 18th, from 12 to 3. And we do have a Humanitix link that is also on our website. It's very large right there. Tickets are $15 each and you get like a little goodie bag with all the different vendor info in it and entry to the event Do you get a beer.
Speaker 2:Yes, can't go to Rheingau's without a beer right. Well, wonderful Ladies, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for tuning in. Please remember to hit the subscribe button so that you can listen to all of our different podcasts. We try to post one every week with a different vendor who is in the greater Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio area, Northern Kentucky and the surrounding areas. So thank you so much for joining us. This is your Dream Day Podcast signing off, Happy planning.
