What, specifically, takes the fun out of wedding receptions?
Being formulaic. It’s like, “Okay, this is a wedding. We’ll have the ceremony and then cocktails, then we’ll call dinner and have the first dance, followed by the cake-cutting.” It becomes all about performing six hours of rituals. As far as I’m concerned, the rituals occur during the service. If you don’t like wedding cake, don’t have a wedding cake. Know what I mean? You make meticulous time lines for the day of. Do you stick to them? The time line is a guiding document. Every single thing will happen differently. If you have a good person working, he’ll know how to deviate from the plan. How many weddings do you do a year? We really limit ourselves. If we’ve done ten in a year, that’s a lot. It’s a huge commitment, and we take it very seriously. You’re getting involved with the most important day of somebody’s life—to date, anyway—and you have to respect that commitment all the way through the process. How should a bride determine her budget? There’s no formula. The most important t
