Ask Brandy

Have questions? Here are several commonly asked questions that have been asked over the years!

 If you have questions, pop over to the Contact page and drop Brandy an email and she will get back to you with an answer as soon as she possibly can! Have a great day and thank you for spending a few moments looking at our page!

How can Events By Brandy help you?

I’m getting married soon and all my married friends are telling me I should hire a coordinator. I really want to plan my wedding with my mom. Why should I hire a coordinator?

This is my favorite question! I highly encourage you to plan your wedding with your mom! What a great experience it will be to have those special moments together. However, planning a wedding and coordinating a wedding are two separate jobs! As your coordinator, I handle all things “event” related that will allow you and your mother to enjoy the special moments that you have been planning for the last year. I will be the point of contact for the DJ, the caterer, the photographer, the videographer, the bartenders and venue manager. Now, imagine all those people coming to you during your magical day with questions that could have easily been answered by your coordinator! By hiring Events By Brandy, we allow you to enjoy your time with family and friends while we handle the behind the scenes work.

My aunt; mother’s best friend; stepmother; best friend; maid of honor has offered to act as my coordinator. Wouldn’t that be sufficient?

I will tell you what I have seen in my many years of coordinating weddings: It does not end well. I can guarantee that there will be hurt feelings somewhere along the way. What you are asking this family member or close friend to do is work during the biggest day of your life instead of enjoying it with you. When you are in the bridal suite putting your dress on for the final time, Aunt Mary is missing it because she is having to tell the cake baker where to put the cake. When your mother is toasting you and your bridesmaids with mimosas at brunch, but your MOH misses it because the rental company has questions about table set up, there will be tears. During dinner, there may be issues with the caterer that would cause your best friend to miss their dinner and the toast. Again, resentment would set in, tears would flow and it puts a huge black cloud over the whole day. It is always best to hire a third party to come in to handle the business stress of an event to allow your loved ones to enjoy your day with you!

I have heard that coordinators are expensive! Will I have to give up my wedding cake to afford you?

Absolutely not! I have three price points that work well with most bridal budgets. I have not increased my prices in the numerous years I have been in business. I believe in providing a quality service for an affordable price. I may not be the most expensive in town, but my service is worth it's weight in gold!

Do I have to pay all the money up front?

I work with each bride individually with deposits and payment schedules. Depending on the date of the event, the payments are generally split up into three payments. If the date is six months or less, the total amount is split in half. On two occasions, payment has been paid in full, but both of those weddings were 14 days and 10 days out. Yes, you read that correctly! I coordinated a wedding with only 10 days’ notice. And it turned out spectacular!

Will you be at my event or do you hand off to an associate coordinator?

I make a point to be at every event that I book. If I am already booked for your date, and I have an associate available, we would talk and make sure that all parties involved were aware and at ease with the arrangement. Even if I am not able to attend your event, I will still be on hand, the month before, to lead your wrap up meeting, design your timeline and floor plan. You will still get the same excellent standard of care just as if I were at your event with you!

Brandy, I ‘m having an outdoor wedding! What if it rains on my wedding day??

Have no fear! Anytime I meet with a client and I know that we are having an outdoor ceremony, I am already formulating a “rain” plan. I never approach an event haphazardly and am always thinking ahead. The week before the event, I am watching the weather religiously. If I see things are going south, you and I are going to calmly discuss the situation, make some tough decisions and be at ease that we have everything under control (except for what God has!) Remember, rain on your wedding day is considered good luck!

I have heard wedding day horror stories of photographers not showing up for the wedding! How do you prevent that from happening?

Great question! To start off, I have never had a vendor not show up on event day! I do my due diligence and call each and every vendor that has been contracted to serve in some capacity leading up to your wedding/event day. I confirm they have the correct event date, venue address and client names. Any vendor that needs a copy of the timeline will be emailed one or provided on the day of the event. Photographers will be double checked on contracted times of service, caterers are verified on what meal/appetizers/services they are providing, etc.  I do everything I can possibly think of to make sure that your day is as smooth as possible.  A happy bride is a happy client!

My venue doesn’t provide a table and chair set up option. Does your company provide this service?

Good news! Starting in 2018, we will be offering table and chair set up as an add-on feature on request. The pricing will be a separate fee from the package prices. Pricing will be formulated on your final guest count number that you provide to EBB and your caterer. Please note that we do not offer a break down service.

Brandy, I’ve never planned a wedding before! How do I know what size linens to ask for?

Linen sizes are second nature to me!   I have solid working knowledge of what table sizes and how many of each the venues offer and which linens are needed for each. Just one of many advantages of being a preferred vendor at several area venues!

I am new to the area and I really don’t know many people to ask their opinion about local vendors. Is this something you offer to help with?

Our Less Stress and Wonderful Wedding package provides you with vendor referrals for easy wedding planning. I only suggest vendors that have a proven track record and provide quality services to my clients. In addition, I do not receive compensation from referring one vendor over another. In fact, for each vendor category, I refer 3 vendors in each genre for you to choose from. If you don’t like any of those, I will send you 3 more! It is all about finding the companies that mesh well with you and your fiancé!

Have you ever had an event just go wrong and become a disaster?

I can happily and honestly say NO! Have I had some glitches occur at weddings? Absolutely! After all, we are all merely humans. Will there be glitches at your event? There may be…but we will have planned for every outcome and if something happens, you will have Less Stress knowing that the Events By Brandy team is on your side! My staff and I are very creative in fixing a multitude of problems on the day of the event. Many times, they are minor adjustments behind the scenes that you may never know about. I do not bother you with minor distractions; only with situations that require your immediate attention. Don’t want to be bothered with those? Not a problem! We will designate a “go-to” person for any questions or situations that might come up. At your wrap up meeting, we will sit down at the venue and talk about the entire day from start to finish and by the end of the meeting, I will know 99.9% of what is happening throughout the event. We will all have a solid game plan for the timeline and floor plan and you will walk away feeling as though a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. I can not tell you how many brides (and moms!!) tell me how relieved they are that they hired me and how much easier I have made it for them. Music to my ears!

Brandy, why do you do event coordination?

This is the easiest answer of them all! I love a good party, happy people, a reason to celebrate and the satisfaction of knowing I had a huge part in making your day a smashing success!

Testimonials

How can we thank you enough for coordinating our wedding?! We had so much fun planning with you over the past year. You and your helpers were amazing! If y'all were stressed, you never let it show! I'm sure you shielded us (and our parents) from many questions and catastrophies on our big day so we could enjoy our dream wedding-and that's exactly what it was...a dream come true!! Despite the cold weather, it was the happiest, most perfect day of our lives. We are eternally grateful for your help!

Love,

Justin & Amber Oehlke

Just can not thank you you enought for the excellent service you provided for Divin and Parker's wedding. The "day of" package we selected suited our needs. Your expertise was beyond our expectations from our first meeting, to rehearsal, to the day of the wedding (and all the correspondence in between)! We were very impressed with your knowledge of all the aspects of coordinating the vendors that day. It was a pleasure to work with you on this special occasion. Thank you again!

Sincerely,

Denise Upchurch, mother of the bride

Want to give a huge shout of thanks to Brandy and her girls for Ashley and Nate's wedding last weekend! For anyone looking for a wedding planner, we could not have asked for anyone better! With our one little issue during the wedding, Brandy did such a great job of handling things and I didn't even need to concern myself with it at all. My only regret is that I only used her services for the rehearsal and day of wedding. If I had to do it over again--and I probably will with two more daughters to come!--I would hire her from the beginning for the full service wedding planning--that's how truly valuable she was! Thanks so much Brandy! I truly appreciate you!

Rochelle Farley, mother of the bride