Good question! So how many people ARE attending your event? This question comes up before my facility tour. I often try to narrow the questions down over the phone or via email. That way I'm not really wasting a client's time. They're on a fact-finding mission and there's no need to come here if their party is too large or too small. So the conversation normally goes like this:How many people are you expecting for your event? 175-200 people
Let's stop there. Really. How many people do you truly know? 200? Seriously? I've been in the industry for quite a while. I can tell you that the average person (non-ethnic I should add) has 125 people come to their wedding. That's on average. When I sign a client and they tell me they have 200 people coming to the wedding/event I normally ask "have you drafted your invitation list yet?" the answer is always "not yet but we know a lot of people" How in the world are you to look at venues if you haven't put together your invitation list? What if your guest count gets inflated to 225 and your venue can only accommodate 200? What if your list is just 95 and your venue's minimum is 100 - and on top of that the per plate cost is $100 per person? In either of the situations you have just created yourself a little bit of a problem... Be an informed consumer. Go into the planning process with the notion that you are a savvy consumer that is armed with the proper information to make an informed decision. How would you know otherwise if the venue is a good fit for you? How do you know you are getting value for your money? I'm always amazed at how many people buy on emotion during the planning process and not buy for value. I often encourage people that call to look around before coming here. I want them really to know that signing at Perfect Settings is really a solid decision based on the fact gathering.