BUILDING A WEDDING & EVENT VENUE - Episode 3

[@cjwise5552]

This is grade A content right here. My wife and I want to get into this and we’re excited but very scared and you’ve cleared up so many questions that we had. I come back to this video series almost daily for something. Thank you for your transparency about every step you took to get where you’re at! You’re a great person for spreading your knowledge!

[@rayvaldez1153]

This material is gold. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge with others around you. It is very much appreciated, and I wish your venue the best of success.

[@maryroberts2199]

Wow wow wow wow WOW, thank you SO much for this video. So much info, so much great advice, and so much encouragement! I feel so much better moving in the direction I am moving in. Love your videos!

[@mchronicle]

Blake, thank you for laying out the blueprint for this space. I appreciate the inspiration. 🙏🏾❤️

[@EdwardL10501]

This has been the most informational video I have ever seen!!!! Regarding my vision. Thank you!!

[@liubaalkonova7407]

Thank you for sharing your story and experience 🤗🙏🏻

[@valeriefrancis7877]

Wow! This video is amazing! You broke down everything that I have been looking for! It’s been a burning desire to have an event space and I am so happy that I came across your channel! Kudos to you and more success to come!

[@darcyreese9441]

What you’ve done here is a wonderful thing Blake. So very happy for you and your wife. I’ve been learning and you ride along in the tractor & grain cart with too for rewatches! We live up in Iowa and after harvest, I may drive down just to see your beautiful place and pick your brain a bit. What I do want to say is…what you’ve sold is yourself Blake. You do an amazing job of showing them the level of commitment you’re putting on yourself for that bride & grooms special day. Well done!

[@courtneyyawn1760]

Congratulations! Thank your for being so transparent we really appreciate it.

[@SIKF150]

This is very helpfull i am 3 years late to this video, but it's great information!!!! Great job on your journey 👏

[@lindahenderson8890]

Congratulations on getting so close to reaching your dream. Your enthusiasm is amazing.

[@amanda062290able]

I don’t normally comment on videos, but I want to thank you for posting this. I have been working on the industry as a makeup artist for years (7) and building a venue has been in my mind for a while now. Also as a bride to be myself, it makes me want to do it more. I myself have a business and HR background. But I feel like there is more for me. So thank you again.

[@LAAinsworth]

You are giving such valuable information

[@kaitlynbenavides7353]

Seriously thank you so much for deep diving into it as it has been so overwhelming!

[@zshell-thomas2358]

Awesome information and presentation! I am currently trying to do the exact same thing. Land is scare in my county, but there are still some options. Financing is the biggest hurdle. It is refreshing to get this straight forward information. Thank you!

[@rodolfoaguilar9195]

Thanks for the information, in the process of just planning and dreaming but this has helped me out a lot

[@dejavoll]

Yes please do a whole video on a business plan!!

[@hlyncollier]

Thank you so much for this video - I was hoping you would continue them! I recently had this epiphany about what I want to do with the rest of my life, and in my first attempts to research my idea, I found your first video. I'm starting my vision board and hoping to push through all the doubts to get to where you are now, so I appreciate the candid tidbits and motivation you are providing. Please keep it coming, and best of luck to you! I can't wait to see your dream manifest! Thanks again!

[@htfirefuze8653]

LOVE AND BEHOLD THIS IS THE BEST VIDEO OUT THERE EVER!! Thank you sir so much for helping us with this information!! Congrats on all of your hard work!

[@Aeditta]

I came from Pinterest to KZbin and found your page … you page is offering much more … I envision pine trees and a fountain for mine but now I saw your pond and I want it too 😆🙈

[@maricelavasley5691]

This is an amazing guide! You have answered so many questions that have taken me months to figure out and so much I had not realized yet! Love your content!!!

[@manduja75]

man i am really having in my mind to open a venue. I am a wedding and quinceañera photographer for 16 years and i am ready to open a venue and implement my experience. This ios so cool I can feel your enthusiasm and excitement. So cool for you to share this.

[@sugheycontreras1932]

Thank you so much! This was great information and direct to the point!!!

[@taneeshashamoan]

Amazing.... thank you and May God bless your business for years to come❤️❤️

[@kiarabuechler]

So much great information! Thank you so much for putting this out there!

[@LarryGipson96]

Great videos. I’m learning so much about the process. Building a venue in Washington state. Hope to talk to you at some point

[@jenniferluersen8625]

From the bottom of my heart thank you so much for taking the time to share all this information. You have no idea how much this helped me!!! Thank you thank you.

[@jenniferluersen8625]

Also, I have zero experience with weddings I’m not even married myself (just got engaged) to show that we have experience on our resume do you recommend we do anything?

[@michellelandvik4009]

Great video!!!! I've had a 20 year dream of opening a wedding/event venue. I live in Lee's Summit, but am moving to DFW next week, and I feel like I need to start taking steps to make that dream happen when I get to Texas. Thank you for the invaluable info.

[@thehaveneventspace]

We are only about 25min away from you! Let us know if you wanna stop by and tour before you go! I would LOVE to meet you!

[@michellelandvik4009]

@@thehaveneventspace well darn, I am just seeing this now. Thank you for the invite. Your space is GORGEOUS.

[@thehaveneventspace]

Next time you are in town 😘

[@peach81pjx]

Thank God for bring me to your channel 🙏🙌❤ What a beautiful spiritual being you are. Everything you shared are a blessing 🙌 Thank you 😊 I am in the same process.

[@sundaraaj]

I felt the same.. I don;t know Blake but already thinking he has a good soul.

[@amityjohnson6820]

Thank you thank you thank you! We are located in Columbia, MO and have been sitting at the thought of starting a venue. We had no idea on all the factors that come into play, so this video was super helpful. I haven’t watched the next video yet, but cheers to your grand opening month! God bless you and your family.

[@wardley6010]

Thank you so much for the video and the things that you’re doing and showing me your journey...

[@haleygalloway3696]

you are giving me so much hope for my dream and I truly appreciate you.

[@christalgayle4228]

Thank you so much for sharing your process and progress with us, this is such a great experience and I understand how difficult it may be to put everything together to make sure everything is ¨perfect¨; however your vision is so inspiring and I am here to support! I definitely would like to see a video of you explaining the business plan in depth, but Great Work!

[@raniarhaddaoui9910]

You are incredible for sharing this info! I’m so glad I found your channel!

[@valeriagarza9796]

So glad I found your channel.Thank you for sharing this great info!

[@chrisleyshuerta8429]

Thank you! for all this information. I have a dream and I didn't know how to start. With your steps I think I can start something,eventhough its scary but I really hope I can make it happen .

[@sundaraaj]

Blake! Congratulations on groundbreaking! for your good heart of sharing your experience, you will succeed with your effort. I am glad I found your video, especially about the SBDC. I am in the stage of 'Dreaming & Researching'. As you said I am with millions of questions at this stage about anything everything, already wanted to grab a coffee with you but I am in Virginia though...lol. I will probably split my questions via email from now till Oct 2021... ALL THE VERY BEST!

[@omololabalogun2934]

Thank you.

[@jakemcdonald97]

Solid content. I’ve been stewing on a plan of my own, and this content is great info.

[@shynnayang2820]

This is awesome! Thank you so much for making these videos for us!

[@elshadayaredo]

God bless you for this information! 🙌🏾

[@dejavoll]

Very interesting! Can you do a video on your initial business plan/projections vs where is it now?

[@ShelbyLynnPin]

Hey Blake! Could you possibly share the business plan you modeled yours after?

[@CatinaHallPhotography]

Thank you so much for sharing!!

[@BlueRoseSteakhouse]

SCORE is also another resource that budding entrepreneurs should look into.

[@TG-to3dv]

What’s your annual return gross and net if I can ask? Other thought, I have 54 acres in the north Georgia mountains. How do you know or what would you look for in the space of is this a good location to do this? The property is beautiful, we are in the middle of no where.

[@thehaveneventspace]

Hey there!! We should setup a zoom call and chat. Email us at [e-mail] and we can get something scheduled!

[@gigo21X]

Thank you so so much!

[@dejavoll]

Can you do a video on the best webinars/books etc? I can’t ever tell if it’s going to be worth the money.

[@Danielily1]

What about if there is water on the land? If there are restrictions? What if there are fire, flood, etc hasards? Cyclone...

[@dcole879]

I'm curious what the insurance requirements are for the venue and the guests, and how much the insurance policy is for the venue

[@thehaveneventspace]

Great question! We require all weddings to provide us a COI through Event Helper for $1MM to cover and accidental damage by the client or their guests, this also covers liquor liability for the client. This costs them around $150 for a 24 policy, and we set expectations of this requirement during the tour. As far as business insurance, we carry GL, Property, Work Comp, & Liquor Liability. This costs us about $40-50K a year, but some of this is dependent on liquor sales, payroll hours, etc. Event Venues have been getting SLAMMED by insurance spikes over the last few years, but there isn't much we can do about it, it's just the cost of being in this business!

[@meshamorton239]

Thank you!!

[@luvualwayz18]

Thank you soooooo much for making this video!!!! This was the encouragement I needed! I was just telling my mom a couple days ago about how it was my dream to have/own an event venue but how I was so scared to do it and so scared of the success. But you have removed so much of my fear. Now I believe i was fearful because there were so many unknowns. I hope to be able to start this process within 3-5 years. I have a question, did you purchase the land/property in your own name? Or under the business? If under the business, how does that process work? Thanks again!

[@thehaveneventspace]

We purchased under our LLC! This will be necessary if you want to use land as equity towards your loan. After you setup your LLC, the title company can use that to close on the land no issues!

[@HickoryRootsHomestead]

Thank you so much for sharing! This is great info! My dream is to own a wedding venue in Maryland, and I'm putting things in place to make that a reality in 5 years. What company did you use to build your website? It looks great!

[@thehaveneventspace]

Thank you so much!! I actually did it myself on Wix! It was my first time doing it, and it’s been a constant work in progress!!! -Blake

[@HickoryRootsHomestead]

@@thehaveneventspace You did a fantastic job! It looks so professional!! 😊 Keep up the videos, I’m excited to see your progress! - Greta

[@shivajyothi1]

Hey, I seek some information from you, could you please share the Architect and builder details of event hall.

[@angelawilliams430]

In my area architects are very expensive, how were you able to secure one before funding?

[@thehaveneventspace]

That might be tricky unless you can find one willing to go on faith with you. Funding will require 10-20% down on commercial projects and things like land purchase and architectural fees can be used towards that equity injection!

[@joannabingman8079]

How many people are able to be in your venue? Like are you able to hold 50 people 100 people, what? Thank you for sharing your adventure with us!!!!!

[@thehaveneventspace]

Hi Joanna - our venue will hold 250-300!

[@joannabingman8079]

@@thehaveneventspace You rock!!! Thank you so much for getting back with me. I'm thinking/praying about starting up one of my own someday and was wondering what others have theirs set to hold. ^_^ is there a reason you picked 250-300? ^_^ or is that just what sounded like the best idea for you guys?

[@thehaveneventspace]

We picked the size that worked best based on the average wedding size in our area but also still wanted to attract Corperate clients for meeting and dinners etc!

[@joannabingman8079]

@@thehaveneventspace I hadn't thought about that. Thank you so much! I really appreciate you sharing the things you've learned! I'm really enjoying it!

[@karlingrae]

Do you know what you'd need at minimum on on your resume for them to consider you having experience in the industry?

[@thehaveneventspace]

In my opinion every banker is going to gauge this differently, but overall I thinking highlighting and accentuating any experience in running a business, hospitality, events, or wedding experience will be enough.

[@wagil90]

I'm not sure if I can handle a bridezilla. Any Idea what your weekend price point will be when the booking starts? Lets say the month of October is your kickoff month into holding events. are you going to discount this month with the understanding that your new and learning how the flow of the business is. I return hopefully your bookings are a little more forgiving if there is any hiccups?

[@thehaveneventspace]

Thanks for commenting!! We did offer a 10% discount off of our first 10 weddings booked as an incentive for clients who were booking before the building was up. We started taking bookings the month we started construction (March) and within 4 weeks had booked 15 events. We opted to keep our pricing lower than the market around us for our first full year (2022) and then raise our prices for 2023. This is reflected transparently on the pricing page of our website (www.thehaveneventspace.com/pricing) so our clients know in advance what to expect. I have been in the event industry for over a decade, so I am certainly not concerned about hiccups with the events themselves, but in regards to learning the business, most events are booked 12-18 months out, so you will have time to learn, adjust, make mistakes, grow, learn some more, and perfect! We are being very flexible this first year with our clients (payment plans, optional cleaning fees, more custom bar offerings, etc) but once we are established after a year, we intend to harden up to a rigid set of offerings and not really customize much, mainly to provide a consistent and duplicatable experience to all of our clients! PS - Don't be worried about a "bridezilla"... That is a cliche term that people who provide poor services use to justify their underwhelming performance when the clients get mad at them. Offer a quality product, work hard for your clients, and be honest, and you have NOTHING to worry about :)

[@wagil90]

@@thehaveneventspace I found a video where fire sprinklers are becoming an issue. Did you need to include those on your build?

[@thehaveneventspace]

@@wagil90 Fortunately, we did not have to include those! Our county was fairly flexible with us since we dug a 6 acre pond, and that will be there for the fire truck to pump from should they need to in the event of a fire.

[@elauravigoureux1066]

Hi ! thanks so much for this very informative content. Would you be willing to share your business plan ?

[@ogomarzie4998]

Do you need a permit if you are outside of city limts?

[@thehaveneventspace]

Yes! We are outside city limits here. You will want to call your local zoning and planning department to ask for details!

[@ShelbyLynnPin]

Did you have your business plan when you met with an architect?

[@thehaveneventspace]

No! Just a vision board. I ended up using the renderings from the architect in the business plan. So it was several months later that was created.

[@roshondafinch7142]

What is the average cost of retaining a architect?

[@thehaveneventspace]

Mine was about 30K for the total project.

[@daisyhamburgesa]

Can you share your business plan?

[@1mgberg]

How much did you pay your architect and how did you come up with that $$?

[@thehaveneventspace]

Hi there! My architect was about $60k. As with any loan (especially commercial loans), you are going to have to have an equity injection (down payment) to get any bank to fund you. We used personal funds to purchase the 40 acre land for cash as well as pay our architect. This showed the bank we had skin in the game and we’re serious, allowing us to be funded for the remaining 1.8M for our construction loan. Commercial construction is not a cheap endeavor, but we knew that by going all in on the front end, there would be reward and profit on the backend! Be sure to watch my next video, I’ll be posting in the next day or two and will talk more about this! - Thanks, Blake

[@liliprince100]

Whose shoes?

[@thehaveneventspace]

Omg 🤫!!!!

[@blueh7991]

Congrats. I'm in the Midwest. Please hook me up with the guy you know who helped you get financing!

[@thehaveneventspace]

Email us and I’m happy to connect!

[@niccolemcconnell2463]

i’m in the midwest!! can you hook me up with your guy?! anyway i can get in contact with you for a mentorship? i have so many visions and ideas i want to get them to life!!

[@thehaveneventspace]

Hey Niccole! Send me an email and let’s chat!!! [e-mail]

[@melissastroup4140]

:)

[@valeriefrancis7877]

Wow! This video is amazing! You broke down everything that I have been looking for! It’s been a burning desire to have an event space and I am so happy that I came across your channel! Kudos to you and more success to come!

[@idodreams2512]

Thank you so much!