Have you ever wondered what happens after you set up your appointment for a tour of a small locally owned wedding venue? Let's be honest, you probably haven't. Most people think we just unlock the doors, turn on the lights, and welcome you in. While that might be true for big commercially owned venues who have hundreds of employees, that is not the case with small locally owned venues. Locally owned venues are owned by families. Venues like Evergreen Ranch Wedding Venue (www.evergreenranchweddingvenue.) might have to coordinate tours around their kids’ sports schedules and other full or part-time jobs. Sometimes small locally owned venue owners must miss time with family to accommodate the couple, but we do it because this is our livelihood. A lot of work goes into preparing for a tour. In this blog, we'll walk you through our step-by-step process for preparing for a tour, along with insights from other venues with similar preparation routines.
Today, we are going behind the scenes at Riverbend Estate to prepare for a tour. After we receive confirmation of an appointment, we immediately get to work. Our first step is to get some information from the couple or client. We send out a questionnaire for them to complete before they visit with us. This helps us collect information about their event, their needs, and helps us get to know them personally before we even meet them. If the event is not a wedding and is a different type of event, we do research on that type of event to learn more about it to better understand how we can support that client. The next thing we do is get them set up as a project in our client management system. This is an online system that holds all their information in one spot. Then, in the spring through fall months, we get our grounds prepared for the tour. We generally spend around 20 hours a week mowing and 10 hours a week weed whacking our grounds. In the winter, if we have heavy snowfalls, we must send out a plow and salt crew to make sure our driveway and parking area are safe and clear. Just like us, Cold Spring Farm (www.coldspringfarm.com) does whatever needs to be done to ensure the property looks good and is accessible - this may mean cleaning, mowing, leaf blowing, plowing/shoveling, etc. depending on the time of year. They are located on 300 acres and have a self-maintained road so that can equate to a lot of work in the winter.
Now, it’s tour day. On a typical tour day, our day starts 4 hours before the tour begins by getting ourselves ready for the tour. Our tour generally has me, Karri, the owner, and Karen, the assistant manager. We hold ourselves to a high standard when it comes to the way we dress for a tour. We like to present ourselves in this way because we take pride in our venue, and we like to wear clothes that also represent our venue. While we do not have uniforms, we do wear outfits that are generally black and white, like the style of our venue. After we get ready, one of us stops at a local bakery to pick up some fresh baked goods to have for our guests.
Two hours before the tour starts, we do a drive around the property. Because we are on 60 acres, there is around a mile worth of paved driveway that is mostly covered by trees. In the winter, if we don't have to send out a plow crew, we drive around and pick up any branches that may have fallen overnight. During the spring, summer, and fall months, we have ground maintenance staff on hand to help but during the winter months, we do not so it is up to us to take care of any fallen sticks or limbs. Once we complete the drive around, we go and unlock the venue and make sure the heat or air is doing their job and do a quick walk around while turning on lights. While doing the walk around, we make lists of what needs to be done to make the venue “tour ready” because it is not always left that way with projects always happening.
After we do our walk around, we head to the mansion and open the house up. One of our getting ready spaces is in the downstairs area of the mansion, so we take our couples there to show them that area. The mansion is over 10,600 sq. ft. so it takes time to walk around, turn on lights, make sure the house is clean, and open curtains and blinds. We have a system where we start at the back door and do all the main floor, then we head upstairs, and then we head to the lower level going to the right first and then to the left.
After we finish opening the house, we return to the venue to work on the list that we made during the walk around and other normal to-do chores. We start at the main entrance, sweep up any dirt or debris, vacuum rugs, wipe fingerprints off the doors. We then head into the bathrooms and make sure they are clean and stocked. We continue through the cocktail hour space making sure the floors are clean and swept, cocktail tables are in their place, and stools are lined up just right. We also make sure our bar tops are clean as well as the back of the bar. We continue our cleaning into the reception space, kitchen, and second getting ready space. We generally leave our reception space relatively empty so the couple can try to envision the space filled with their décor. We do set one of our round tables and one of our rectangle tables so they can see what tables, chairs, and linens we do have. The Ballroom at Windsor (www.farmweddingde.com) also takes a lot of time to stage their venue before tours by setting up tables and chairs along with regular maintenance of their venue. Once everything is up to our standards in the reception space, we close the sliding doors between the cocktail house space and the reception space to prepare for the tour. When we are about 15 minutes from the tour appointment, we spread our baked goods out on our serving trays, place our cold beverages on our bar top, get cups and napkins laid out, and light our signature scent candle. After all the work is said and done, we anxiously await the couples arrival. We always look forward to greeting the next chapter of love that could potentially begin here at Riverbend Estate. There's something truly special about seeing the look on the faces of a couple as they start to envision their dream day unfold at our venue.
As we reflect on the incredible tours and the wonderful couples we’ve had the privilege of meeting, we can’t help feeling deeply grateful. Each one, whether they have booked or not, has been so sweet and kind. They give us such wonderful compliments and can tell we really have put our heart and soul into this venue. We truly thank every one of you for being respectful of our time and efforts in taking you on a beautiful tour of Riverbend Estate.
Lastly, did you know…when you choose a locally owned wedding venue you are helping to develop and improve the local economy? It’s true, your locally owned wedding venues are small business owners who not only create hundreds of jobs for the local wedding industry every year, we actively support our local economy. Please consider a locally owned venue, you can find locally owned wedding venues featured on this wedding venue map.
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