The Four R's For Venue Referrals

A venue coordinator forms an opinion about us fast, sometimes before they’ve seen a single timeline or ceremony setup. That snap judgment becomes the difference between being tolerated for one wedding and being the planner they recommend every time a couple asks, “Who do you trust here?” We break down what actually earns venue referrals, and it’s not a bigger portfolio or more years in business. It’s a set of repeatable habits that make the venue team’s day easier. 

We walk through the Four R's for building strong venue relationships: read, respect, respond, and remember. Reading the venue packet and policies before the walkthrough sounds basic, but it instantly changes the quality of our questions and the confidence we project to clients. Respect shows up in who we address in the room and whether we treat the catering manager and venue coordinator like true partners. Respond is the moment-of-truth skill on wedding day: when the timeline shifts or a vendor is delayed, we communicate early, bring solutions, and keep the venue in the loop. Remember is the follow-up almost no one does, a specific note that names a person and a moment, and it’s one of the cheapest ways to land on a preferred vendor list. 

Then Nikki Rogers, owner and Master Certified Wedding Planner for The Serendipity Collective, joins us with 20 years of wedding planning experience from both sides of the ballroom doors. We talk about why venues protect their reputation, how “bossy” behavior hurts not just one planner but the entire industry, and what real leadership looks like when we’re bridging dozens of moving pieces. If you want better vendor relationships, smoother timelines, and a reputation that gets you booked again and again, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a planner friend, and leave a review so more pros can find the show.

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Transcript

First Impressions That Stick

SPEAKER_01 0:00

There's a version of you that a venue coordinator meets in the first 10 minutes before you have run a single wedding for them, before they've seen your work, before they know anything about your reputation. And whatever that venue coordinator decides about you in those 10 minutes, well, it tends to stick. It's often not about how experienced you are. It's not even about your portfolio, but it is about a handful of small specific things. Things most planners never think twice about. And a few planners have turned into the exact reason why their phone rings every single time a venue gets asked, Hey, do you know anyone who could coordinate or plan my wedding? Today I'm breaking down exactly what those things are: the habits that turn a one-time booking into a standing referral relationship. And then I'm bringing in the fabulous Nikki Rogers, who spent two decades watching this play out from both sides of the ballroom doors. If you've ever wondered why some planners seem to have every venue in their market rooting for them, this is that answer. Now I want you guys to picture this. Picture two different planners, the picture and walkthrough, let's say about eight weeks before the big day. We've got the couple, the venue coordinator, the catering manager, and then the planner and coordinator. One planner walks in with her notes already filled out. She knows the flip time, the loading dock, what time the sound has to be turned off. And the first thing she does is turn to the catering manager and ask, What has given your team the most trouble in this room? Now let's say that's another planner who not once does she address the venue's own coordinator directly, the person who, you know, runs hundreds of events in the exact room. It's not rude exactly. She just never once treated that venue coordinator like the expert that they are. Both of those planners will probably run a beautiful wedding. Both couples will probably be thrilled about how their wedding was executed. But only one of those planners gets a phone call from that venue six months later when a couple walks in asking, Do you have anyone you recommend? I want you to walk through what exactly separates those two planners. And it's not necessarily talent or even years in business, but it's for specific habits. And here's a mistake I've seen really talented planners and coordinators make. They think the relationship with the venue only gets built on the wedding day. It gets built or it doesn't in the small interactions leading up to it. The walkthrough, the email chains, the phone calls about the floor plan. Even on a smooth day, something can shift. A delivery can get rerouted. A timeline can compress by 10 minutes. The wind picks up, and now you're moving chairs indoors. It's that one small shifting moment, sometimes not some big dramatic disaster, that quietly decides whether a venue thinks of you as easy to work with or as someone they tolerate because the couple has already signed the contract with you. You know, this is actually a huge piece of what we spend time talking about inside the CWP Society certification and master certification training, because it's not instinct for most people. It has to be named and it has to be practiced. So today, let's name it. First

The Four R Habits

SPEAKER_01 3:41

is read. Every venue sends you information before you set foot in their building. It can be the packet that has the floor plan, the house rules, vendor policies, all of these things can also just live inside their contract. To me, reading this isn't optional homework. Preparation is invisible until it's missing. Nobody's going to compliment you for knowing that the loading dock is around that. But the second you ask a question that's answered on page one of your packet that you were sent six weeks ago, the coordinator will notice. And they will quietly follow you under hmm, this planner or coordinator may need some extra hand holding. Venues remember which planners and coordinators go in that file. The fix is simple here. Read everything the venue sends you. Twice. Three times if needed. Read it before any walkthrough or phone call and show up with two or three specific questions that prove that you did, in fact, read it. The next is respect. Who do you actually talk to in the room? When you turn to the catering manager and you ask what works best for you and your team in this space, you're handing them something most planners or coordinators never do. Acknowledgement that they know this room in this space probably better than you ever will. That five-minute exchange is where a working relationship actually starts, not at the reception, guys, right then and there. You have to remember, we're not managing the venue. You're partnering with the people who run it. The planners who get remembered are the ones who make the venue team feel like collaborators, not obstacles standing between them and their vision. Next is respond. This is the moment that separates planners and coordinators venue trust from the ones that just tolerate. And it happens in real time. Like I said earlier, something shifts on a wedding day. It always does. But here's the thing I want you to remember the venue doesn't remember that something went wrong, but they remember whether you told them or whether they had to find out. A planner who walks straight to the catering manager and says, here's what's happening, here's the adjustment, and here's what I need from you and your team. Just put the venue back in control of a small crisis. But the planner or coordinator who lets the venue team find out on their own just made her problem their problem. And not only did they make it their problem, they made it in front of everyone. The next is remember. And this is one that probably a lot of people don't do, but it works entirely well. The wedding ends, everyone is absolutely exhausted. And most planners never think about that venue team again until the next event happens when they get booked there. But the planners and coordinators who end up on those preferred vendor lists, they send something specific afterward: an email, a handwritten note, naming an actual person in an actual event, not just thanks for a great night. It can be something like the way your team handled the room flip within 20 minutes, it was absolutely seamless. Please tell Marcus I notice. This will cost you five minutes of your time. But a specific record condition is one of the cheapest relationship building tools in the entire industry, and almost no one uses it.

What Each R Looks Like

SPEAKER_01 6:53

So let's talk through what this looks like from start to finish on a wedding day or for the wedding planning process. Let's say that you're six weeks out and you get the venue's final packet. You read it fully twice, and you notice that the loading dot policy maybe has changed since your last event there. At the walkthrough, instead of asking where the vendors load in, you ask the catering manager, hey, I saw the loading doc policy updated. Has that changed how your team's handling vendor arrivals this season? To me, that's read and respect all in one sentence. Let's say on the wedding day, the florist hits a highway closure and texts that the centerpieces won't arrive until 40 minutes before the doors open. Instead of panicking, you walk straight to the venue coordinator or catering manager and say, Hey, centerpieces are running 40 minutes behind. If possible, can we hold the cocktail hour for five extra minutes so that way your team isn't rushing the room reveal? Does that work on your end? That's respond. You've handed her a plan, not a problem. Monday morning, you send one email. You send it specifically to the venue coordinator and you name them by name. And you say something like, The way your team adjusted the room reveal on such a short notice yesterday was seamless. Please pass this along to whoever was on floor duty. It did not go on notice. What is that, guys? That's remember. Four small moments, and none of them require decades upon decades of experience. And that venue now has a planner or coordinator in mind the next time a couple calls asking for a referral. So here's what I want you to remember: venues don't build preferred vendor lists around talent alone. They build them around planners and coordinators who make their day easier, who read what they send you, who respect the people running the room, who respond to the moment something shifts, and who remember them when it's over. Now

Nikki Rogers Joins The Conversation

SPEAKER_01 8:46

I can tell you what this looks like from the planner seat, but I wanted someone who's watched it happen from both sides for a very long time. So joining me today is Nikki Rogers, and she is a master certified wedding planner and certified educator with two decades in this industry. And she has spent times on both sides of the doors as the planner walking in and standing where the venue team stands as well. Nikki, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you back. Hi, Chrissy. Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here today. You know, Nikki, I've talked about how much of this starts before as planners, before we even walk into the room, you know, just doing the something as simple as the reading. And you sat on the venue side of this now. So I know you've got to read on it from both directions. Definitely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

So I do completely agree with everything you had said in here. I think it's so important to hit those four R points that you went over. And truly, I do think that the respect portion that's really so important. And sometimes people do overlook that. They're reading through everything and just knowing your information that you were provided ahead of time when you walk in can take a load off of everybody. It lets your clients know that you feel very confident, you've done the research and the homework, like you said before. And it also does alert that venue coordinator that you are taking the wedding seriously, that you did do your homework and go over that. So the questions you're asking, they're not wasting anyone's time. They're not things that everyone has already gone over, whether it's before you were booked or not, you know.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

I think you're so spot on there, Nikki. And it's funny because what I see I think a lot of planners and coordinators miss is that they don't come in prepared, like you said. They don't come into these walkthroughs prepared because they haven't done the reading. I've I've seen where they don't even have the contract in hand and they're showing up to this venue walkthrough asking a lot of questions that are in this contract. And Nikki and I we're we're not telling you guys, don't ask these questions. You need to ask these questions. But if you need clarification, if you need some updates of things, we I think venue managers and coordinators they still want to know that you've at least read the documents. But when you show up clearly not have read anything, it's quite obvious. And it does kind of you have that feeling, I believe, as a venue manager, where you're like, okay, this person doesn't know what they're doing. It almost plants a seed of doubt in the venue coordinator's head about you as the planner or coordinator for that wedding.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

It can, and your couple. I mean, a simple, you know, that simple research goes so far.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

I know, Nikki, you mentioned respect and the fact that respect does does go so incredibly far when it comes to your relationship with planners and coordinators when you were on the venue side of things. And I'm sure that you've watched that play out within your 20 plus years of experience. Can

Venue Trust And Preferred Lists

SPEAKER_01 11:34

you talk through that with us?

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Yeah, Chrissy, definitely. So I really think the respect portion comes in so importantly because now the venue knows that you're reputable, that they can trust you. But really, that respect portion comes where you're forming that relationship with that venue because ultimately we do want to go back. We do want to be on the preferred vendor list. It makes our job a little bit easier to not have to sell ourselves every single time. If a venue's selling us for us, right definitely helps, doesn't it? I'm just kind of separating, like you had mentioned before, you know, those planners who can be trusted from the ones that are just tolerated. As you mentioned, it really does happen in real time. It's doing that bit of research, like we just said, it's remembering the key details. You know, if you're using systems like Timeline Genius and everything that we use, you can put all those guidelines in there. But it only goes so far if you're not updating those. What if you have old notes in there? And like you used as an example, the load-in procedure changes. Well, if you didn't change it on Timeline Genius, now we're potentially misinforming so many vendors. And that can really hurt that relationship with the venue, both on the respect portion as well as that, you know, just in general, just the whole relationship in general.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Because, like you said, it can sometimes be a domino effect to where if you're not informing the other vendors of the updates or changes and it's causing problems when they arrive on wedding day, and that is a reflection of the venue. And I think what a lot of planners and coordinators need to realize one reason why venues are so particular and so protective of who is on their preferred vendor list is because every every person who set foot on that property is a reflection of the venue. So they kind of have their guard up a bit when it comes to who they allow to represent them in their venue, because that's essentially what you're doing. So when you aren't being respectful, you're not reading things, you're not responding to them the way that you should, it is going to end up being a reflection of them if it ends up impacting other aspects of the day, such as the vendors, like you mentioned, and them messing things up during the loading dock, or how the couple feels because we didn't give them the right catering numbers and now they don't have enough food for their guests. You know, it can truly be a domino effect. And I do think having that really phenomenal relationship is so important when it comes to the wedding planner coordinator as well as the venue.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah, I couldn't agree more, Chrissy.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

I can imagine too, Nikki, though, with your decades of experience, how knowing that you've been able to play both sides. I can't imagine how amazing it was that once you transition into being a full-time wedding planner, knowing how venues think, knowing what impresses a venue about a planner, and you being able to bring that to the table with every venue that you walk in. I just can't imagine how impressed venues are with you because of it.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Thank you. Yeah. It did help to have that experience, of course, right? But it isn't something that we can't all learn and work towards. There's so many little things, even that remember one that you had mentioned previously, that's so important. And I think so many people remember to follow up sometimes with some other vendors. They always follow up with the client. Thank you so much. You know, your wedding was lovely. Even those one year out thank you cards or happy anniversary cards or anything like that. But it is very, very often, I would agree with you, that the venue doesn't receive those things. And little things like that do go so far in having them remember you and having them remember the experience that they had with you and your team, if you have one.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

I will never forget I did that with one of my local venues because there was a specific staff member who was just top-notch, just on top of his game, was a joy to work with. Would just, if there was any updates or changes I needed to be make, hey, can you move this chair? This isn't where I want. It just was so kind and loving to me and my team that I made sure to let the venue manager know, but also the venue manager's boss. So the head guy, everyone's boss. I was just wanted to say, hey, heads up, I think his name was Marcus. Marcus was absolutely phenomenal and amazing. And since then, Marcus has retired. Like he doesn't work at the venue anymore. However, he told them if Chrissy is ever on property, I will come back and help. Like, I will come back and help because I'm absolutely working with her. And he's held up to that. I'll I'm at this venue maybe once or twice a year because I don't do as many weddings. But anytime I'm there, he's like, Oh, I'm coming. Chrissy's there, I'm coming. And it was just because I remembered him. I remembered how he treated me. And I remember remembered how hardworking he was. And I wanted to make sure the higher-ups knew that as well.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Right. Because when you think about how good it feels to receive a good review from one of our clients or one of our vendors, these people feel the same way about those reviews. So the more we can kind of single out in a good way something that happened, a positive, you know, not only does it put the venue in a really good light and it gives you that little bit of a story to tell your next couple, but it also brings that venue back to, you know, Chrissy or Nikki or whomever, you know, the next coordinator and planner, they were fantastic and we loved working with them and their team. And that's really how you start that collaboration.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Oh, and I love that you said that, Nikki. The collaboration, and I think that ties into all of the R's I mentioned the read, respect, respond, remember. It is all about that collaboration and why that is so incredibly important. Because to me, when it when it comes to reading, you're that's collaborative because you're coming to prepare, you're coming knowing what's going on within the space. When it comes to respect, working together as a team, I think a lot of venus don't get the respect that they deserve in people because people don't understand just how hard their jobs are and how many different balls they have that they're tossing in the air and trying to juggle when it comes to their jobs. And when they have a wedding planner or coordinator on site who respects what they do, who wants to be a team planner, that goes so far. And then when it comes to responding, how that that whole collaborative approach, because I I have heard horror stories from catering teams of the planner didn't let us know that they were running ahead of schedule and we weren't ready when guests got there for cocktail hour. Or on the flip side, the planner didn't let us know that they were running behind schedule and we the catering team put the food out too early and the food got cold. That has to do with responding and keeping people in the know. And it's funny, Nikki, I tell my potential couples during consultations when we talk about the timeline of the reception and what my role is there. I tell them my job is to make sure that everyone on your team is informed. And venue catering managers love it because I'm keeping them in the know. I'm keeping them in the loop. If anything updates or changes or modifies, I'm responding and reacting in a way that I should to keep them up to date because it's going to affect the venue just as much as it's going to affect everyone else. I think that is so important. And I feel like Nikki, you've shared stories before of like running into a situation where the planner didn't keep you updated and your team was like scrambling at the venue trying to modify things.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Definitely. Yeah. I certainly have, and I've got so many stories just like that. But you know, part of the route is just like you said, we have to keep them informed. It helps all of our vendors and it only gives our couple a better experience and our vendors and our venues a better experience with us and our teams. You know, it just all goes hand in hand. Like you said, everyone's got so many balls in the air at any given moment. You know, the venue does take on a lot of it. And at the end of the day, you know, you might have an outside cater. You might be an outside coordinator or planner, but the guests don't know who works for the venue and who doesn't. Yes, exactly. Because at the end of the day, they look at that venue and go, wow, that food was cold. They don't know that it's because something ran late. And maybe the planner or coordinator didn't tell the catering staff that it was running late. So the venue and the caterer couldn't get together and make that seamless transition into that timing switch or whatever the case was.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

You're so spot on with that. And again, that kind of ties back to what I mentioned earlier. That's why venues are so particular about what planners and coordinators they recommend because you are a reflection of the venue. Like you said, guests don't know that you sometimes often they don't realize you're you're sometimes just in all black, you got a clipboard like, oh, this person must be working for the venue. Guests, you sometimes just don't understand that.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

So many times they thought I was part of the venue when I'm there, you know, or my teammates will come up to us and ask us the venue question. And if we can't answer it, you know, we'll try. But sometimes we'll be like, let me let me check with the venue and we can get back to you, or whatever the case is, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

You know, Nikki, I love kind of go back to you and what you mentioned earlier about collaborating together and why that's so incredibly important. And

Leadership Without Being Bossy

SPEAKER_01 20:28

I want to touch on this more because I feel like some planners and coordinators, especially those who are getting misinformation from different avenues of education, they are hearing things of like that kind of mean that as a planner, you have to be bossy. As a planner or coordinator, you have to get things done and do so in an aggressive type of fashion or way. And I want to speak to that because that's just not the case. And I venues don't like what working with bossy people, they like working with people who can lead. Yes, right. They don't like working with people who are bossy, who are dismissive, and who don't treat them with respect once we once it what it boils down to is they don't treat them with respect. And I've I've seen this play out, and I'm sure I'm sure you have too.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah, I mean, when you think about it, right? Anywhere you've worked in the past or now or whatever, do you get along with the bossy person? Do you want to go to that person for anything? Probably not. To some degree, you're probably somewhat avoiding them, trying to get the answer somewhere else potentially, and that's just the cause of you know destruction. But not only that, it can impact planners and coordinators around that area, around the world, truly. You know, because when we're not collaborating and we're not being a team player and we're just being bossy, we're not leading appropriately, it's gonna impact us as a whole. You know, that when you could steer away and be like, we don't want planners here anymore. They could have Family member, being a planner, we all know that that affects us, right? But being a negative, um negative meaning, yes, exactly, or just being too bossy, like I said, you know, they're not gonna want to go to you, and you're not gonna be the first one they call or refer after that. Because why do that when you have maybe someone who's delightful and happy and can lead authoratively but appropriately too?

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Yeah, I love too, Nikki, that you just mentioned how this impacts the entire industry because it does, and that's something that I feel like we need to talk on because I feel like what planners and coordinators, especially if you're coming into this, not educated, not having a certification, not knowing how to talk to people in a way is so important, not knowing how to have conversations with the with people, not knowing how to say, hey, can you move that table over there versus move that table? There's just certain, you know, there's certain ways that you can talk to someone and ask them to do things for you. But when you if you keep doing that, A, you won't be in this industry for very long because no one's gonna recommend you, they'll want to work with you, but you're also messing it up for the entire industry, like you said earlier, Nikki. Because after a while, venues get over it. Venues get tired of working with difficult people. Venues start to have a bad taste in their mouth about all planners and coordinators that eventually they stop letting coordinators and planners come on property at all. They create their own program where it's like we have in-house coordinators, we don't let outside planners inside. And it all stems from them working with really bad planners over and over and over again. And I've seen it happen numerous times. I've had so many coaching calls with our CWPs who are like, gosh, I'm dealing with this difficult venue. They have all these different things that I have to basically jump through all these hoops. And what it boils down to is they were burned by definitely wedding planners and coordinators, and now they've got their guard up and their wall is so high that it takes a really great certified or mass-certified wedding planner to kind of get that wall to come down, but it it can be a really, really negative impact impact on our industry.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Exactly. And you know, I think it's also important to note that a difficult venue is not always trying to be difficult. Sometimes they just they need the help, they want the help. We all know that I would probably say, you know, 90% or more venues are probably not attending the same meetings that we are, reviewing every contract that the client does has, like we do. So those venue coordinators are immensely helpful the day of, but leading up to they can leave the couple sometimes not feeling as supported as we can. So the easier we can bridge those gaps for the couple, for the venue, for all of the vendors, it just does, you know, go back to that collaboration. It puts everybody in a good light, it puts the venue in a good light, it puts us in a good light. It shows the planners are helpful and they're not just bossy there to kind of run everything and run the show.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Exactly. Yeah, we're not, we're not there to run or manage the venue. We're there to collaborate, we're there to be team players. And I love the way that you worded that, Nikki. Bridge the gap. Because ultimately, as the planner or coordinator, that is our job. We're bridging that gap between the venue and our couple, between the vendors, the venue and our couple. So making sure that we are working well with these venues is so incredibly important because, like you said, we are the person who is bridging that gap. You have to be a team player. You just have to be a team player. You have to be able to do all those things I mentioned earlier. Read the documents, respect them, the people who are on property, respect, you know, not just the carrying manager, everyone who's on property water.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

I was gonna say, it's not just that banquet manager or that cap that captain that evening. It's everyone down to the person mopping the floor, you know, and everybody in between. Everybody's there to make it the best possible event, the best possible experience for the vendors, the planner, the venue, the couple, every guest who's there. But it is about the respect portion with every single person on site every time.

Sharing Info That Prevents Chaos

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Every time, every single time. It's also again about how you're responding to them and keeping them in the look, the loop and in the know of updates or changes, making sure that that catering manager, the venue manager, whatever that role may be, they are up to date. And it's little things like what I'll do with my venue managers, making sure they have obviously the floor plan, but also making sure they have the full rental list. So that way they know what's coming on site, what's coming on property, what we're using from them versus what we're renting out. Those little things I will never forget, I had a venue who was like blown away that I've never worked there before. They didn't require coordinators on property, like that was a requirement. But I had sent them everything they needed. Obviously, I had the timeline, but I also made sure that they had the rental proposal, the floor plan, floor plan B for if it can like I provided them all this, all the documents that I that they needed in order to execute their job as a venue, and they were blown away. And I remember thinking, you don't get this on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

This isn't standard, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

This is just what you need, really, to be able to execute the day for you and your team. And they was like, No, we don't get all this stuff. Sometimes we get it the day of or the day before, but not this early in advance. And I was just like, Oh, I'm sorry.

unknown 27:21

Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

But it's so important to give that venue coordinator that information because someone else might be checking that linen order in. And the truth of it is sometimes things get forgotten, even by the best of companies out there. There might be a linen or two missing, there might be several other things missing from different rentals, you know, some plates or some silverware or something. And the time to find that out is not during your setup.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Yeah, exactly. And even little things like I I have a wedding coming up next spring where the typically the way this venue works, we get access the day before. Typically. But with this, they have an event the day before. It's a small event, it's a it's a corporate thing, but it's it's not a wedding. But because of the fact that they have an event the day before, we have draping going up in this space. And the for my local, for where I am in Jackson, my our draping priorities cannot handle same-day draping. Whereas my national Memphis, you know, that's something they do on a regular basis. I was like, there is no way that this Jackson team is going to be able to drape the same day of the event. What can we do here? And that venue manager is allowing them to come after the event that Friday night to start draping. Wow. So that's a matter of me communicating that with them, me also communicating that with not just the venue, but the the our our draping provider of like, hey, can your team even handle this Friday, late Friday night draping? Right. The venue is allowing us to do so, but this is what the timing looks like. Is this okay with you? Just again, like you said earlier, Nikki, the bridge. We are the bridge for all of the 5,000 puzzle pieces that make up a wedding day. But a lot of that also has to do with my relationship with the venue and how they love a horse.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

And that's exactly what I was gonna say is you've established that relationship with that venue where they're gonna allow people to come in after hours or what have you to do that because they know that, you know, there is a certain expectation with your vendors and you as a person and you as a company as well, with Southern Sparkle and that, you know, they know you guys, you have that reputation established with so many of them already in such a positive way that they will kind of go out of their way sometimes to accommodate, you know, those of us who are communicating and collaborating and bridging the gaps and just trying to make it a good event for everybody, but also smooth, right? Like we don't want to be scrambling in the morning. And I guarantee you, your vendors in your venue also don't want to be coming in super early or scrambling in the morning. If they can get something done ahead of time, I'm sure they'd love to.

Rethinking Difficult Venues

SPEAKER_01 29:50

And I think too, Nikki, that kind of ties back into when you what you mentioned earlier about quote, difficult venues and how some planners complain about those difficult venues. And I think oftentimes it's not difficult, sometimes it's our expectations. Like us not realizing each venue has their own set of rules and policies, and usually it's for a reason. And I think sometimes as planners, we have to do a little digging and figure out okay, what is the reason why this venue is, quote, so difficult. And sometimes once you do a little bit of soul searching, sometimes you realize it's just you and your expectations of expecting the venue to allow you in two days early for the venue to allow all of this extra time that's not contracted, and you're like, Well, this venue is difficult to work with. It may not be that, but it it and the on the flip side, there may be some venues that are quite difficult to work with. There's a couple that I refuse to work at because they are difficult to work with, but I I tried, I tried my hardest. But I do think, you know, sometimes it's inevitable in the industry, though. Yeah, I think when it sometimes comes to these quote, difficult venues, maybe as planners and coroners, we need to do some soul searching and kind of figure out okay, why are they difficult? And sometimes it boils to down to, like we mentioned earlier, they've just been burned by bad wedding planners, or they've set these rules and policies in place. So sometimes I feel like it's almost a challenge for you as the planner or coroner to show them, especially when you're certified or master certified. Yeah, I'm I'm different. And here's why.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Let me show you how it can be. Here's the positive side of how this should be, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Yep, exactly. Well, Nikki, you know, thank you for bringing your 20 years of experience into this. You know, that's not something that anyone can obviously shortcut. And I think planners just got a real look at what these relationships cost and pay off as well over time.

Final Takeaways And Certification

SPEAKER_01 31:31

So here's what I want you guys to sit with. It's not often just about the talent. Read what they send you, respect the people running the room, respond the moment things start to shift and remember them when it's over. If you do that consistently, and you stop being a planner or coordinator who walked at a wedding there once, but you end up becoming the planner or coordinator that they asked for time and time again and want them to be at their space all the time. Is this industry rewards planners who treat this like a profession that it is? That's exactly what certification through the CWP Society is built for. It's not just for a piece of paper, it's the framework that turns instinct into consistency. So every venue, every vendor, and every couple gets that same trustworthy version of you. If you've been telling yourself that you'll get certified eventually, stop waiting. Head over to CEWPsociety.com to learn more about our certifications and our memberships. Nikki, thank you again for being a part of this podcast. Again, it's always a pleasure being able to chat it up with you about venues and all the things in between.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Right. Thank you so much, Chrissy. It's always so fun to chat with you too on the on the podcast. I just love it. So thank you so much. Absolutely. Thanks, guys.