Having prime real estate opens its owners to a lot of exciting opportunities. It could be the chance to put up a residential building, a commercial establishment or your own personal workshop for all things creative. Nowadays, a lot of hole-in-the-wall establishments have popped up, offering almost everything from homemade retail products to artisan delights to out-of-the-box drink mixes. Most of these Orange County establishments cater to the laid back crowd, looking for a cozy afternoon with friends, discussing love and life over chips and drinks.
As this market is quite limited and have somehow been saturated with all these startups, there are other ways to make great use of your real estate. Orange County wedding venues–these are the places that people will never, ever grow out. These are places where great memories are made and always remembered. Every time each wedding day is reminisced, the venue will never fail to be mentioned and included in that nostalgic walk down memory lane. Now what better use can you have for that piece of land on your hands, than to turn it into the place where dreams can come true?
More than just the drapes and the flowers that adorn most wedding venues in Orange County, it takes more than just frills to turn your venue into the wedding venue of brides’ dreams.
What’s your real estate?
Do you have a house built on ancestral land? A rustic yet charming farmhouse? A lakeside property with spectacular views of the sunset on any given day? Size up your property to see where its strengths lie and what its weaknesses could be. It could be set in the middle of Newport Beach with great parking space, or just a little place off the road outside of town to provide wedding parties with just the right amount of privacy. Knowing exactly what your space can offer will go a long way in terms of marketing your unique offerings once you’ve set it up to accommodate the best night of people’s lives.
To be able to fully evaluate every aspect of your property, here are some questions you’d need to answer:
- 1. Where in Orange County is it located and is it accessible?
- 2. Which part of the area can be best developed for weddings?
- 3. Can it cater to both outdoor and indoor events?
- 4. How many people can it accommodate?
- 5. If the area is residential, will the neighbors be amenable to the holding of large parties in your lot?
What investments will you need to make to set the place up?
Aesthetics is a very important consideration when couples begin scouting wedding venues in Orange County. Depending on your working budget, you may come up with a whole new concept for your place or just touch up on a few loose ends. If your place has been standing for some time, you may need to make some renovations like touch up the facade and repair some broken pipes or electrical issues or go for a total makeover to put together an absolutely new look and feel for the place. While pulling in the business for the place relies primarily in its marketing, it never hurts to have a venue that can stand and speak for itself, even at first look.
Another way to pump up the aesthetics is to focus on your venue’s strengths. As I mentioned earlier, your initial survey will be the main deciding factor as to what to highlight in your advertising campaign. You probably could bring to light the gazebo that has kept many a promise in its lifetime, or a large ballroom where parties were held up to the wee hours of the morning. Whatever you choose, put in the necessary investment to dress it up and make it that one place worth reserving one year ahead for.
How about value-added services?
You’ve got the place all set-up and now all you have to do is just make it ready for any wedding concept that your prospective clients might have for you. This is the part when you begin to list down what makes one, epic wedding. Most people immediately think food, booze and music. Indeed, they are right. What’s a wedding without all these ingredients for merrymaking, right?
Most modern couples also look into the wedding venue’s value-added services before finally making the decision to close the deal. These services include catering, venue styling, entertainment, and even full-on coordination. Due to their busy schedules, they would most likely appreciate a one-stop shop for all their wedding needs.
But before you think that you’ve got more than you bargained for here, remember that all you need to be able to offer these services are just teams of hardworking and trusted professionals whom you can call whenever a client places a requirement. A lot of people working in the wedding industry are very open to tie ups with venues, especially ones that can offer them continuous business. Try to come up with a network of suppliers–caterers, flower shops, coordinators, balloon makers, bands, technicals, etc. Once you do, you’ll have for yourself a comprehensive portfolio that will leave your clients not just in awe, but offering free word-of-mouth advertising for you as well.
The most important thing to note with these arrangements is the creation of special packages or special rates for your clients. The more flexible the packages are, the better, so that clients feel at ease when going through their requirements. That’s bonus points for you on customer service too!
Turning a prime real estate property into a wedding venue will take time and financial investment. You might want to explore looking into trusted partners to go into this project with you. This endeavor, with determination and vigilance, will definitely allow you to reap great rewards in the future. Once your place is setup and you’ve got a stellar marketing team working for you, there will be no way of knowing how long the line will be outside your door waiting to discuss their great fairy-tale day with you.
by Kerry Johnson – Follow Kerry on G+!
