Event Management at Cold Spring Farm
What to expect from our Event Management service, and how it might differ from other New Hampshire wedding venues
We understand that there are varying levels of service when it comes to Event Managers, Day-of-Coordinators, Venue Coordinators, Venue Managers, Wedding Planners, etc., and it can be a challenge to differentiate between them. What exactly do they do? What do they not do? It’s important to understand the details of each service, so that you know you are going to receive the kind of support you feel you need.
Does Cold Spring Farm offer Day of Coordination, Event Management, or Wedding Planning services?
Cold Spring Farm does not offer complete Wedding Planning services. However, we do offer Event Management, included in your venue fee at no extra cost. We believe it encompasses typical Day of Coordination, but goes a step beyond that to offer support in the months ahead of the wedding, including timeline creation, floor plan creation, lineup creation, rehearsal support/management, vendor management, setup/breakdown assistance, and unlimited communication during your planning process.
What exactly does an Event Manager do?
Provides support throughout your planning process – While our typical management process begins between 8-12 weeks out from your wedding date, we are happy to be a resource for you throughout your planning journey. We are here to help with any questions or concerns that arise while planning your day or hiring your vendors, including scheduling walk-throughs as needed (whether you can be present or not).
Collect vendor contact information – Once your vendors are all hired, we will collect contact information for all of them you plan to have on-site at Cold Spring Farm. We contact each one 4 weeks ahead of the event date (or earlier, if needed) to ensure your entire wedding day team is in alignment about the timeline and that we are prepared to meet all of their needs (tables, chairs, power access, etc.)
Take over contact with your vendors on the day of the event – Unless you would prefer to be the point of contact, we will take on that role so that you can leave your phone behind and be in the moment on your wedding day.
Create a detailed timeline – We will work with you to gain an in-depth understanding of your vision for the day and lay out every detail into a ‘vendor timeline.’ This timeline will be shared with all vendors who will be onsite both digitally ahead of time and physically on the day of (if desired). Check out our blog on creating your wedding day timeline for more information about timeline creation.
Ensure the timeline is followed – On the day of your wedding, we will do everything we can to ensure the timeline is followed. We will seamlessly make adjustments when needed, ensuring all vendors are immediately made aware of any delays/changes, and we will support all efforts to get back on track if things do veer off.
Create a custom floor plan – We will work with you to understand your event’s specific needs and create a custom floor plan to suit them.
Assist in creating your Lineup – Think of your Lineup as your wedding day team roster. This is essentially an ordered list of the people who will be participating in your ceremony and grand entrance, complete with song choices for those moments. We will also be there on your wedding day to gather your crew and ensure they are prepared for those moments. Find out more about what a Lineup is and how to create yours here.
Support/run your rehearsal – If your wedding ceremony will be held onsite at Cold Spring Farm, we will be present during your designated rehearsal time to support this process as much as needed/desired.
Support your decorating process – Our wedding packages include 4 hours for decorating and rehearsing the day before your wedding. We will have all furniture placed according to the predetermined floor plan, and all desired décor from the website will be pulled out and organized, ready to be placed as you wish. Your Event Manager will be present with you throughout setup day, offering support in any way we can.
o Check out our décor selections here.
Breakdown/clean up – We handle the breakdown completely. Your belongings will be organized by item and boxed/bagged when possible to ensure an easy packing process when loading cars.
o If utilizing our bar service, our bartender will also break down the bar and box/label any leftover items that belong to you to ensure an easy loading process.
Manage vendor arrivals/departures – Your Event Manager will meet all vendors as they arrive and see them off as needed. We will provide direction, assistance, and cover any needs we can in terms of tables, chairs, linens, etc. Your Event Manager will also ensure all vendors have the time and space to take a break per their contracts and be a resource for them throughout the day if questions, issues, or additional needs arise.
Place/move items as needed – We can place the desserts and cake during dinner so they don’t sit out all day, we can move the flowers from your arbor to your sweetheart table, we can place late-night snacks you provide, or clean up the escort cards once everyone has moved to their seats. Your Event Manager will fill in all of those little jobs that add up throughout the day.
What is not covered by our Event Management services?
Finding/hiring vendors - Your Event Manager is not responsible for finding/hiring your vendors, negotiating prices, or reviewing your vendor contracts. However, if you’re looking for vendor recommendations, we’ve done the legwork, and we happen to know some truly amazing wedding pros. Please check out this list of vendors we love here.
Decorating for you – We don’t decorate completely for you. However, we do arrange the furniture based on your pre-determined custom-made floor plan, pull out and organize all borrowed décor, and we will be present to help and support you in your decorating process during that designated time. We will be your extra set of hands and help as much as you need.
Design – We do not create vision boards or curate the design aspects of your wedding, but we are happy to help you execute whatever you dream up and communicate to us to the absolute best of our ability.
Leave the property – Your Event Manager cannot leave the property to get things that may have been forgotten. To help avoid this situation, we send a standard reminder email 1-2 weeks out from your wedding date to go over the items we see frequently forgotten. After setup, we also check for any obvious missing items (ie, pens for the guestbook, napkins, number of chairs per seating chart, etc), and will communicate about anything we find to be missing on the day before the wedding.
Take the place of other vendors – Every vendor is an expert in their realm. Our area of expertise is organization, communication, and venue/event/timeline management. Your Event Manager is tackling many seen and unseen tasks throughout the day with very little downtime. They are present for every moment from before you arrive until after the last guest/vendor leaves. For scheduling, liability, and quality of service reasons, we cannot take the place of other vendors on top of these duties. This includes bar service, food service, DJ/emcee service, etc.
How does this work on the day/weekend of the event?
We are on-site before you arrive, and we will be there long after you leave, ensuring everything goes to plan. We will be present to support you on setup/rehearsal day, and we will start at 8:00 on your wedding day - setting up any outdoor/perishable items, meeting vendors as they arrive, ensuring the timeline is being followed, and solving any issues that may arise. Your Event Manager will likely have one assistant during your wedding day to ensure we have enough hands to meet your needs.
Are you allowed to hire an outside coordinator or wedding planner?
ABSOLUTELY! We love working with other coordinators/wedding planners, and we encourage hiring one if it is something you are interested in! While we have designed a service that we feel confident in, we recognize that some couples require more planning support than we are able to offer at this time. If you are looking for a more in-depth wedding planning service, or you would like to hire an additional coordinator to represent you throughout the day, please check out our favorites here.
We feel blessed to have been part of countless beautiful wedding days here at the farm. Every event has helped us to learn and grow as a business. We have redesigned our offerings throughout the years to include what we feel is most needed by our couples to create a seamless wedding day. We genuinely love what we do, and we make an effort to go above and beyond what you might see from typical ‘venue coordination' to offer a more personal and in-depth service. Weddings are sacred, personal, and each one is truly unique. We believe there is no one-size-fits-all method to managing weddings, and we approach this service as something that has the room to adapt to the particular needs of each couple/event. We have included this service in our venue fee because we feel strongly that every single couple deserves to have a stress-free wedding day. If you’d like to learn more about what is included in our venue fee, check out the details here.
See what our past couples have to say about the Event Management services at Cold Spring Farm
An accurate representation of our “why.”
Thank you for stopping by our blog today. We hope you have a better understanding of the value we aim to provide with our Event Management services. We utilize this blog as a space to share wedding inspiration, wedding planning resources, farm updates, and as a means of supporting other small, local businesses. Supporting small businesses directly supports the families that own them, the communities they exist in, and the local economy as a whole. In a weekly effort to support small businesses, you will always find other wonderful small businesses, including (but not limited to) wedding venues and vendors linked within our blogs. We hope that you check them out also, read their blogs, and consider the services they have to offer.