In this episode of Now That I’m Engaged, How Do I Get Married?, Kevin Dennis and August Yocher sit down with Steven Burchard, owner of Magical Memories Entertainment, to talk about what “event needs” really mean and why understanding them early can lead to a smoother day and fewer misunderstandings with vendors.

Steven explains how weddings are made up of dozens of moving parts beyond décor and aesthetics, and why couples often underestimate how much coordination it takes to make everything feel effortless. From timelines and location changes to small “nitty gritty” moments couples don’t want to miss, he shares where miscommunication tends to happen and how proactive planning (plus the right vendor team) can prevent stress for everyone involved.

They also dive into the importance of asking vendors about their planning process, building a realistic timeline that can flex, and knowing when to communicate early… then trust your team later. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by all the pieces of a wedding day, this conversation brings clarity and helps couples feel more confident in the decisions they’re making.

Steven Burchard is the owner of Magical Memories Entertainment, a full-service event entertainment company known for helping couples plan with intention, communicate clearly, and create celebrations that feel seamless from start to finish.

Highlights

1. Why “event needs” go far beyond décor and aesthetics
2. The most common wedding-day misunderstandings between couples and vendors
3. Why planning processes matter more than couples realize
4. Timeline management: why it shapes how the day feels (not just how it runs)
5. How to communicate early, avoid last-minute changes, and reduce stress
6. Why trusting your vendor team is just as important as hiring them

Connect with Steven:

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Connect with Kevin & August:

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All right, folks, welcome to another episode of Now That I'm Engaged, How Do I Get Married? We're here with myself, Kevin, your host and our co-host, August, as well. And folks, we're with Steve Burchard. And he's going to be talking to us today about educating couples on event needs and improving satisfaction and reducing misunderstandings. So, Steven, welcome to the episode.

you

Thank you.

All right, perfect. And Steven, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how we got you here today?

Absolutely. So my name is Steven Burchard. I own a company called Magical Memories Entertainment, and we are an entertainment concierge service. And what that really means is that we ⁓ bring the right entertainment, the right providers for our clients needs, the best fit for the best needs. ⁓ It means that we offer

everything from your musicians to your DJs, photography, videography, we also have the wow factor aspect of it, which means things like ⁓ living tables, tropical birds.

We have caricaturists, we have the normal stuff like photo booths and things like that as well. What's really unique about us is we really marry all aspects of the wedding together in one place. So instead of having to call your photographer to remind them of one thing, your DJ to find remind them of another thing, or change a timeline, you work with us to bring everything into one aspect of it. So that's really where we bring the value. And what we really do is we actually work with our clients to make sure that all aspects are planned in advance. So we proactively reach out to

obviously all the vendors we work with or even if people that we're not necessarily connected with directly and we make sure that we're all on the same timeline and we proactively reach out to venues and vendor coordinators to ensure that everybody's on the same page because at end of the day the most important thing for us is making sure that we have harmony between all vendors.

I love it. All right. So Steven, we're here to talk about event needs. So when we say event needs, what are we really talking about beyond decor, aesthetics, and all that kind of good stuff?

Yeah.

Do do

Mm-hmm.

You want somebody pouring champagne on a spinning circle that's in the middle of your dance floor as guests are arriving to really give them a wow factor. Those are all vendors. Those are all pieces of the puzzle. And you can bring on a ⁓ wedding planner to help you coordinate that.

Their job is really to work on the details and figuring out exactly, you know, being on site and helping to ensure that they're- things are happening at the same time. They're not the ones that know the vendors. They're not necessarily also the ones that know which vendor is the right fit to ensure that your vision comes to life. That's really where we come into play is, is bringing that idea and translating what your thought is and what you want it to be to what the reality is possible. And that's kind of where that play comes in. So you're speaking of vendors. When you're speaking about vendors and you're speaking about choosing the right vendor.

That's the kind of stuff that we that you're looking at is the people that are on site physically doing the thing on the day of your day on the day of your wedding.

love it. The thing.

Yeah, it's very, very unique. Like, I don't know if I've ever heard of that before, but I'm sure you guys, because you offer so many services, have a lot of ideas of what goes into event needs. Do you ever feel like couples maybe underestimate how many moving parts go into the day and into running a smooth event?

Well, there's a lot to that question. ⁓ First and foremost, the answer is yes. There's a lot that goes into every wedding. ⁓ so I think everybody, no matter how big or small you go, you underestimate how much goes into it. ⁓ I actually got married last year myself. And I have to say, after doing this for 20 years and getting married myself, I can very honestly admit there's things I had no idea existed and happened.

Yes.

So I feel for every bride and groom out there, every couple that's considering it out there, don't feel bad. Even somebody that's been doing it for 20 years had a hard time. So it is a real thing. But what I always say to couples is the best way to make your life easier is hiring good people, is bringing on a team, because it's a team effort at the end of the day. And the biggest aspect of that is

you

getting a team that's going to be willing to work together. You don't want ego in there. You don't want people that are like, it's my way or the highway. And that's really the number one thing I always tell my brides and my clients is that you're looking for somebody that's going to be on your side because the idea that it's your wedding day, it's your day is the most important thing. And somebody that believes in that and that has that mission to deliver it no matter what that might be. And no matter what that might look like, at the end of the day, you need somebody that's going to be pushing for that goal.

Mm-hmm.

I love it. All right. So what are some top event related misunderstandings you see between like couples and vendors?

⁓ I mean, the classic ones are really ⁓ to start. It depends on the vendor. So I mean, that's the hardest thing. There are some key ones that are classic, like timing and like location and stuff like that. And that comes down to miscommunication. ⁓ That's not telling somebody something that's not, you know, keeping up with it. There's two aspects of that. I say it's not just the bride and groom. I say it also is heavily on the vendor, whoever you're bringing in. ⁓ We have in our company, we have a lot, we have a multi-step process.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

in in that we you know, when you first book with us, we obviously gather all the information we need. But then we also do a check in where we're doing our planning process because we actually go beyond just showing up and doing the thing. ⁓ So we go in into we've like I said, I always want to make sure that we were well aware of what's going to happen, how things are going to run how it's supposed to go. So planning is a huge aspect of it. So that's another check in to say, hey, where are we going? When is it well, there's all these details. And then on and then even right before the day of things change.

And we all know it and you forget, did I tell the DJ that we're actually going to be moving one room over because we have now more people or vice versa? Or did I tell the photographer we really want to do a first look now and it's going to be down the street? Because those things do happen and you just maybe didn't tell one of those vendors. Maybe you forgot to mention it. Maybe maybe you did tell them and they forgot they were driving, dropping their kids off at school. You got to remember vendors are still human, too. That's a reality. Like we are humans. You know, things do get forgotten.

But how do you ensure it as a bride and groom? You bring in people that do those double checks, you bring in people that make sure that they're, you don't want to be that person that's responsible for all that. So if you bring in those people that have been doing this, like I said, for 20 years for myself, you you then can feel confident that they have built in these checks and these verifications to ensure that they are really able to make sure these details are checked and verified. But the biggest ones kind of tie back to your original question, the biggest things I always say, I mean, timing, location, you know,

Yeah.

key details that are like, minute details. I want to say key because key makes it sound like big things. These are more like the nitty gritty. Like I really wanted a photo of this mantelpiece. I really wanted this group of people. You know, at my wedding, we had a bunch of my fraternity brothers were in there. And we almost until the end, we didn't get a picture with all the fraternity brothers. And one of my one of my brothers said to me, Oh, we should do a photo together. And I would I didn't even think of it. But that's like a key detail that that could be missed.

Mm-hmm.

is that it would have been like, ah darn, I didn't get that. But if you want something like that, you really need to vocalize it. And that's the biggest thing is telling them those small things that are important to you. Cause it may not be something that happens at every wedding. And those are the things that are gonna get missed or the things that are not common at everybody.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I might be getting a little bit ahead of myself here, but what kind of questions would you recommend couples ask their vendors so that way, you know, if they are wanting a picture with their fraternity brothers or those small little details that your company takes care of, what kind of questions should they be asking?

Planning stuff is the most important thing. As I said from the beginning, that's kind of where I hang my hat on most things, is I think the pre-planning, the ensuring ahead of time that ⁓ your vendors that you're bringing in have a established process. And most vendors do. Most people that have been doing this a long time, whether it be a Google Doc, ⁓ it could be a PDF that you fill out, it could be a full system that you go in there, log in and do the thing.

You there are, ⁓ there are different ways and honestly, some are better than others and it doesn't necessarily matter. The big thing is that they have something in place. That's really the biggest thing that you want to start by saying is what is the planning process? If they're like, well, just tell me whatever you, whatever you want to do, you know, whatever you guys want to do, we'll do that. I've heard that, especially from like DJs, like on the day of, you know, I got all your information, but whatever you guys want to do, you just tell me whenever you want to do that dance, whenever you want to do your speeches, you tell me I'm here for you.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I don't I get very meh about that just because It's your big day. You shouldn't be the one making those decisions You shouldn't be deciding on that How the hell do you know if the caterer is gonna be bringing out food when you want to do the first dance? Like how do you know you don't as the bride and groom you don't know so you want to make sure that you bring somebody in who is proactive who is planning who is communicative

Mm-hmm.

Because that's the biggest thing is you want to be able to you want to make sure that they're communicating with everyone else. So that way everybody's on the same page. No matter if they work together like we do in our company, we're bringing a whole team or you bring in, you know, one person, which we also do. I mean, but that's kind of the thing is no matter if you bring in a whole team of people, you bring in a one person, make sure that they plan ahead of time and they're communicating with everyone. So that way everything kind of just runs smoothly.

Yeah, I love that. Everyone's got to run together and everything's got to be smooth. Otherwise, it's a hot mess is what I always say. yeah, yeah.

or you're screwing other people over too. Like, you don't want

to do that, making another vendor look bad, so...

So, all right, so, you know, you have all these people, obviously there's gotta be a timeline involved. So what role does timeline management play in how the day feels, not just how it runs?

I always say that timeline is the most important thing. It's not a strict timeline. you know, things do change. If you have a moment that you want to get pulled away for, you know, whatever happens, things happen sometimes. And it could be the, of a sudden the first course is delayed. All of a sudden things get, you know, moved around. Oh, we have to do this instead of this. Oh, let's move all the speeches to this because somebody needs to leave for whatever reason. Things happen. Things happen. And the biggest thing is

Mm-hmm.

planning ahead of time so that way there is a plan. The biggest thing is a plan can always change on the fly, but you really can't create a plan on the fly. It's not, it's not a plan if you're just making it as it goes. That's just how things are happening and most likely things will be missed. So planning something ahead of time, even if it's even if it has to be changed in the day of if you're planning at a time, at least you know where you're going. And at least you know what needs to happen.

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So that's the thing is, like I said, people are gonna forget about things. So planning ahead of time, ensuring that there's a timeline of events. ⁓ as I mean, so I'll tell a story about myself. I DJ'd a wedding on New Year's Eve. And I showed up to this venue and I walk in and I'm like, okay, we did all the prep thing, whatever, but all we were doing is DJ. I was one person, sole DJ, DJ MC, very simple. ⁓

Okay, yeah.

And when I rolled in, was like, all right, I talked to the venue and I was like, okay, where am I going to set up? They said they set me up. They're like, we're going to do the ceremony, da da da, do the whole thing. And then all of a sudden, you know, as we're getting into it, as I'm setting up, I'm like, you know, who's, who's the point of contact? Who's going to be kind of coordinating the day? And the venue points at the caterer, the caterer points at the venue, and then they both point at me. And I'm like, I, yeah, now that's

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

NAH!

Yeah

very often happens. you know, a caterer that they quite literally said, like, I'm here for the food, the caterer said, the venue is like, we're just the venue. So who else is there? Who else is that person? Now, I could have just said, well, I'm just the DJ, I'm here to play the music. But that's not fair to the bride and groom. That's not fair to the client. ⁓ It's what and then what ended up happening in that exact situation is

Meh.

We had a timeline. We worked with our client ahead of time to figure things out. We spoke to the caterer ahead of time, work things out. I even printed out my timeline four times and gave it to everybody. Say, here, here's the plan that I have. This is what we're going to do. And I literally lined everybody up for the for the entrance into the into the reception. I lined everybody up. I was like, listen, wait for the music and then come in. Walked over. And this is all about myself. Walked over, played the music. They went up. They did the thing. Recessed the whole nine yards and then

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Yeah.

on the microphone, okay, this is where you guys are going. They went to the, you know, the cocktail hour. Then I grabbed them all together and I'm like, what are we planning? Okay, here's the thing. We're going to do this. Set them all up for the intro, introductions, did the introductions, went into the whole thing. But that would have been impossible, impossible if you didn't plan ahead of time. If you didn't have some sort of plan, you know, that in that situation, we had a detailed plan. And actually on that note at that exact wedding,

Mm-hmm.

We had such a detailed plan that the mother of the bride ended up coming up to me at one point in time and saying like, oh, we're supposed to be eating right now. Why are we still dancing? Well, the caterer had a delay and they like, and speaking of things, I reached, went into the kitchen. I was like, Hey, you guys ready for, for, you know, main course yet? They're like, Oh, we need another 10 minutes. Well, on my schedule, it says this time I could have been this way. i couldn't be like, Hey, dinner, you know, Hey, it's five o'clock, whatever, whatever time, you seven o'clock.

Everybody sit down for dinner. My timeline says seven o'clock dinner. Go sit. But if you're not checking, that vendor is not checking in saying, hey, you you guys ready? Are you ready for this next step? I mean, in that in that planning phase, yes, things are set up in a certain way, but things do change. And I mean, on that note, I'm kind of expanding on this. As a client, you have to remember that as well. Don't don't get so focused on every moment. Don't get focused on on it. Is it right now? Why is it? Why is this taking 10 minutes longer? Why is this things is if you get somebody that's good, if you get people that are they know what they're doing.

Yeah.

They're working together to figure the process out and things do get delayed. Things do change. Things get modified. It happens. It happens all the time. And it's just not, it's part of it. So don't get focused on the exact seconds of that. ⁓ But having somebody that knows how to connect all those dots is really important part of it.

Yeah, I always.

And I always say a timeline is a guideline, and it's just there to guide us through the day. And the time is, if we hit the mark, great. If we don't, that's OK, too.

Yeah, yes.

Yeah.

Yeah!

I feel like it's just like a good cautionary tale, not only to like you're saying, like hire the right individual vendor that you get along with, but making sure your vendors get along as a team because there may be times, like you said, where a single vendor has to step in, fulfill roles that they weren't necessarily supposed to do. But a good vendor like yourself will say like, it's not fair to the couple and I'm just going to go above and beyond for my client.

I mean that that's the end of the day. I mean, I always say I I mean I went to school for for marketing I have a degree in psychology and minor in communications I always tell people I'm over qualified for the job I do but I do it because I truly enjoy making people happy and bringing joy to people and that's why that's the purpose that's my like mission is to bring joy so what if I'm not gonna do that then why am I even here like that's the that's the mission so I'm gonna do everything I can to make that happen

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

All right, so how does educating couples on their event needs up front actually lead to higher satisfaction on the wedding day?

The number one thing that I'd say I have a team of 25 people now, our company's grown a lot over the last couple of years and we were nationwide, we do events all over the country. So we have different people at work and that's behind the scenes to really, you know, connect people to the right things. ⁓ What I always tell them is the number one reason for people being unhappy because sometimes people are unhappy, you know, it's inevitable. But for us, the number one reason people are disappointed is not because we didn't deliver.

It happens.

It's not because we didn't do a good job. It's not because we didn't bring the thing we said we're gonna bring. The number one reason is because there's a misexpectation. That is the number one driver is somebody expected one thing and we ended up bringing something different. And what happens in that situation is that you need to really express what you want. You really need to, like I said in the beginning, telling somebody, I really want this photo, I really want this thing. that's the biggest aspect of it upfront is

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

being as transparent as possible, giving them as much information as possible, ⁓ delivering as much, telling them as much, being as detailed as possible. Even if you're not a normally a detailed person, try to think about it, ask your friends what they thought if they've gotten married before, like what has worked, what hasn't worked, what did you like, what did you not like? ⁓ It was really important to communicate your thoughts, your fears, your worries, your hopes, your desires, all of that, because your vendors should be listening to you.

It should be trying their best to understand where the process is, what you've gone through, where you're feeling on it, what you're hoping for. always tell, how I always start my consultations is how do you envision your day? How do you see it going? Because it's not about any of the individual pieces. It's not about the DJ versus the band. It's not about which DJ necessarily, which photographer. Some things are really important to certain people, that's true.

Mm-hmm.

but generally speaking, it's not about any of those individual pieces. It's truly about how the whole thing comes together and having somebody that can sit there and truly be interested in really pushing to have your vision in mind will help to get to that end result. And at the end of the day, when you leave your wedding, when you're done with all of it, you're not gonna think about any of the little pieces there. You're gonna be like, I had an amazing day.

Mm-hmm.

Why did you have an amazing day? you can think back on it. But why? But the end all be all is I had an amazing day. I had an amazing memory and it's going to stay with me forever. And if you can get somebody that can really get you that point and that meaning like you can communicate what you're thinking and how you think that's going to be and having that person translate that into a reality. That's that's the big thing to start with. I know that's a big statement, though, but that's kind of the idea.

Mm-hmm.

No,

yeah.

No, yeah. I mean, feel like the big themes so far have just been like, it's totally fine to communicate if anything, over communicate and just overall education on weddings. And I know like, like you said yourself, you've been married and it was even hard for you as a professional. So I guess like leading into that, do you think it's okay for couples to ask like why certain things are needed just so they receive that education? And do you think like

They may have less regrets if they're asking that question too.

Can I, i mean, I'm going to ask for clarification. What do you mean by why? Like, why is that, you know, speaker needed? Why? Which it depends. I say that, I said that kind of, yeah, it depends. I mean, you shouldn't go to your caterer and ask, why do we need an extra, you know, busboy? I mean, I'm paying for that. ⁓ I think there, I think you need to, I think it depends on what it is. ⁓ There are people out there, unfortunately, who oversell. There are vendors out there that

No, definitely.

Mm-hmm.

try to get you to do things that you don't necessarily need. ⁓ I am a firm advocate that you should not oversell. I tell my team all the time, I'd rather I'd rather ⁓ not get a sale than sell something that somebody doesn't need. ⁓ I just think it's it's immoral. And it's not it leaves a bad taste in somebody's mouth at the end of the day. Because eventually you'll figure it out. Eventually, you know, maybe 10 years from now, you're like, I really didn't need that. That second verse, I didn't really need that extra thing. ⁓ But in the same breath.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

You do need to trust the vendors that you're working with. you need to trust them to bring the thing that you're going to you're going to need and understand why. ⁓ And your vendors should really be able to translate that before you get into the event, before you even get to the contracting process. When you're, like I said a moment ago, translating your vision into reality. But during that process explains that person why they want, you know, what's the reason why they want that? You you want you want this experience. Great. Here's how we get there. And here's the pieces that we need to get there, not

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

I got you, can do that. Even though that's kind of the way I approach things is I'm like, I know after 20 years of doing this, trust me, you're fine, we're good. ⁓ And you know, you can have the right situation. If you trust your vendor, that might be your, that might be your, you know, your, way of doing it, but like trust that vendor. I think the big, the big problem that I often have is that we talked about over, over communication that that's can be a double edged sword. think a lot of vendors, there are any vendors out there, professionals out there listening right now, they're probably like, yeah, over communication. That can be challenging.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

there can be over communication. The big aspect of that is understanding or not understanding, trusting the vendor. And once you've decided on who to go with and you've communicated, you've set it up, you've got it documented, you started the timeline, you wrote out a timeline. Now you, you know, let it go to the wind and trust the person that you're there with because they're going to take what you told them and deliver it. So that's the biggest thing is communicate early. That's the big thing. Communicate early and then trust later ⁓ because at some point

Yeah.

You've communicated as much as you can, they've learned as much as they can, they're going to do as much as they can.

Well, and you're talking about communicating early, like should couples start discussing like all their event logistics, you know, earlier to avoid last minute stress or, you know, like, is there a right time to do all this or, you know, I, I know as a vendor, I get frustrated when there's like, like I get little, little bits and pieces instead of getting the whole picture all at once, you know, so what's the right, what, what, what, what way do you feel the right way is to do that?

Mm-hmm.

Great question. I think it's a step by step process. i think people ⁓ have a really hard time doing everything at once. that's just, ⁓ know, some people are really great at multitasking and thinking about multiple things. But decision fatigue is real thing. So take step by step. know, when you're in the beginning process, you're booking your vendors, really truly listen to the idea of ⁓

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

having a timeline of when you want to get things done, sending yourself a deadline, hey, I really want to book my photographer by the end of the month. Then once you get that finished and figured out, then change your mindset and say, okay, now I really want to get my music figured out, you know, within the next week. I've picked three people, breaking them down, da da. So take it step by step, chunk by chunk, and that helps you with this timeline process. And then while you're going through like the booking process, don't necessarily start getting into.

the planning of the photographer, the planning, because they're going to send you the paperwork that they need or the planning forms they need or whatever. Don't worry about that yet. It's you still have time. You know, do that thing. Don't keep it to the last second. But get the things you need to do when you need to get done, because it's it's easy to start processes. It's easy to start. This is anything in life. It's anything in any any company, whatever you're doing. You know, it's easier to start something. You can start something, but finishing it is the hard part. So now if you start lots of things by the time you get to start, you've started everything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now you're like, my God, I'm so like overwhelmed by all of this. So it's because you started so many things, you have so many things to do now. But if you take it chunk by chunk, working on that process, that's the big thing. ⁓ That being said, you need to work on it, you know, methodically, you have to start work on it, find an end date and get it done. Push yourself. If you have kids, if you have work, you're traveling, ⁓ buying a house. I mean, there's so many things that happen in life that delay those processes.

Yeah. ⁓

but push yourself because you're going to one of the most expensive days of your life. You're going to the most, one of the most meaningful days of your life. You're going to the one of the most, one of the days that has the most people that have ever been in one spot for you in your life. So at end of the day, that is a big pressure. It is. So give it the credence it deserves. You know, you're not going to show up to, you know, there's so many more things in life that you put a lot of thought and effort into and people don't do it as much as their wedding as they should.

Mm-hmm.

So remembering all the how big of a day this is and how much you're putting into it give it detention and time it needs. Even if it's a couple hours a day, but if you do it in a chunk by chunk process, it makes it a lot easier to get it done. So I don't know if that directly answers your question, but to answer your question more so is that if you start early and then give yourself a timeline, no aspect of that feels like it's overwhelming and you can get those things done in a timely fashion. And then, you know,

Push to get it done earlier than you think you need to. If you think you need to get it done a month out, push to try to have everything done two months out. Inevitably things will change. Inevitably things will evolve. People will fall out of friendship with people. People will move to different parts of the world. People will cancel. Things happen. So things will change as you get closer. Just don't leave it till as you're lining up. Going back to another story. We were DJing another wedding.

Hmm.

Yeah.

No.

My DJ I just happen to be there I showed up to just you know shake the hands of the bride and groom and wish them luck and my DJ was lining up our the couples and the bridal party for the entrance and Literally as they were lining up the rights like oh, can we change this song? We want to do this. Can we move these? we can we? Yeah You know at the end of the day like I said, you know No matter if it's me or if they got to work with me They they all had the same drive to bring that moment that that really matters to that person. So the answer was yes

but that's not an ideal situation. Setting up, you know, trying to change things on the fly, downloading new music while he's sitting there at the DJ booth before people are walking through the door. High stress for the person that's doing it. There are vendors out there that would be like, no. ⁓ But the thing is, that's the extreme. That is like the worst case scenario. But I mean, I've had stories for myself where, you know, at four o'clock in the morning, the day before the wedding, somebody sending me their paperwork, you know, that kind of stuff.

No, not at all.

Yeah

That's just asking for trouble. That's asking for problems. That's when it becomes way too tight. And that's unfortunate, like I said, you're not giving yourself the timeline. You're not giving yourself the buffer. So like we used to be like, oh, we need paperwork two weeks out. Now we're like, we need our final paperwork a month out. Cause that gives us time to process everything, put everything where it needs to be. And it's also not fair to other, you gotta remember there are other people involved, know, companies out there, even if you're one person who does it, even if you're hiring that photographer who's a sole purpose in, and that's, just doing one wedding.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

but they have other weddings throughout the year. have other events. They have family matters. They have all the other things. They're people too. So they have things. So you have to give them time to do that stuff. You're not the, ⁓ know, as unfortunate as it sounds, you're not the only thing in every vendor's life. You know, you have to remember that they do have other things going on. So they have to still life. ⁓ So giving them the time to make that happen. And then the more time you give them, the more likely they're going to be completely on point for you.

No, it's true.

I feel like you get out of it what you put into it. It's kind of the theme you were getting at. The more work you put into it, the more time you spend thinking about those things that you're going to want the day of and not changing our minds last minute. I feel like that's really what it comes down to.

That's a good point.

Mm hmm. I agree. Yeah. I mean, you could change your mind. Things do happen. Like I said, it's it's it's it's good. That's it. But that goes back to the communication factor. You know, make sure that you communicate before you're lining up. I'm sure it wasn't the thought that's gave up to your head. You know.

totally, yeah.

No.

Yeah, we've all had moments like that. They are crazy. ⁓ Alright, Steven, can you tell us maybe one or two misunderstandings that you wish couples knew how to avoid before they start booking vendors and really get deep into the planning process?

think the number one thing that I'm a part of a lot of wedding Facebook groups around the country and one of the theme that I often see is people saying I'm okay with a college student, I'm okay with somebody brand new, I'm okay with somebody that's starting off and that's fine. I always say there's the right tool for the right job.

I know that's a big one, so.

Mm-hmm.

it's fine to know to get somebody like that. People need an opportunity, they need experience. ⁓ But you also have to understand the value that's being brought by somebody that has experience. ⁓ Whether it's, it's not, it's not about going out there and just doing the thing. And I keep saying the thing because whatever it is, photography, DJ, play an instrument, you know, whatever it is, whatever the thing is.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

The thing.

It's not just about doing the thing. It's about all these other things we've been talking about, like specifically the planning. And then also, and this is a big part of it, is that weddings are very complex. We kind of started with that idea. Weddings are very complex. And with their complexity comes a lot of changes and the ability to pivot and understand how to manage a situation, which only comes with experience.

⁓ So if you're working with somebody, you're deciding which, what to do and how to do it, if you know, and it's not necessarily about the most expensive either, just to be clear, you know, being the most expensive doesn't make them the best. It doesn't make them the, you know, the, the, It's, it's not about the most expensive. And I don't want to say that by any means. What's important is understanding what you're getting and then accepting that. Don't sit there. And I think that's the biggest misconception is that

Mm.

you know, either treating all vendors the same, you you're starting off and then thinking that they're going to be delivering the highest level of whatever and being able to do it and knowing which photos need to be taken. You know, I see a lot with DJs and photography, the two ones I really see mostly with, you know, getting somebody that's like, just need somebody that's a college student to come to DJ my wedding. Do they know how the cadence is? Do they know how to do the thing? So that's the biggest thing is really understanding the what you're what you're getting.

Mm-hmm.

And what you're asking for and the ability for them to do this So that's what I think the biggest misconception is is there you're gonna go out there and everybody's kind of the same a DJ is a DJ a photographer is a photographer Understand there is a difference between different levels. It is kind of complex I mean that you know, I will say like somebody like myself. I've been doing this for 20 years So I've learned after doing thousands of events

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

which person's a good fit, you know, a DJ, like somebody come to our company will come to us and I will kind of interview them or one of the people on my team will interview them and say, okay, you know, what do you what's your style kind of music to you? Like, what's your feel? Do you want high energy, low energy? And then I play like, you know, matchmaker ⁓ for vendors. That's good. The reality is, you know, you know, we sit there and we play this matchmaker aspect of it. You want to, know, a Spanish speaking high energy ⁓ DJ, a female DJ for your wedding.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

great, I got the perfect person for you, here you go. And how do you really know? Those are some of the aspects of it, understanding the abilities of the people that you work with and connecting it to the needs of the client and translating it. that misconception is oftentimes where it happens, or the misunderstanding.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Yeah.

I

love it. All right, as we're getting ready to wrap up here, are there any planning tools or documents or anything you can help when it comes to timelines, layouts, or doing walkthroughs that might help reduce misunderstandings the most?

⁓ I mean, we have our own internal documents that we utilize. It's built throughout our system. So when clients book with us, we have like a, I mean, it's evolved so much over time. And to be quite honest with it's evolved even since I got married. When I actually audited my own company and how I did things, I had an interesting experience where I quite literally acted as if I was a client from inception to execution. So I let my entire company sell me and plan me and I got to audit it live.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

No.

⁓ as a client, which was very fascinating. ⁓ it's that being said, is you learn that process. ⁓ But that's those there's like, there are plenty of planning forms and plenty of planning tools out there. But when you work with a lot of vendors, they have specific ones that they've designed that work really well for them. That's kind of our thing is we have ones that are very specific to us and what we utilize, and how we run our system. So it's kind of my thing.

That's fun.

love it. All right, well, Steven, can you tell us a little or tell us how to get in contact with you and let all the listeners know where they can find you?

Sure. Once again, it's magical memories entertainment. We go at magical memories. Weddings is on Instagram and Facebook and magical memories. Weddings.com is our is our company site. And you can kind of check out all the things that we do on there. And if you ever want to set up a consultation, even if you're going with somebody else and you kind of just want to get another perspective on it or you want to work on some further ideas and expanding upon what you're working on currently, I'm happy to sit down and have any kind of conversation with anybody.

I love talking events. I've been doing it for 20 years and it's probably one of my biggest passions is talking to people about what they're passionate about and what they love to do.

No.

I love it, and it shows. All right. And we'll make sure to have all of Steven's information in the show notes as well as in the email blog that goes out. So Steven, can't thank you enough for being here and sharing all your wisdom with our listeners. And folks, thank you for being our listener to another episode of Another Mugage. How do I get married? We'll see you next time.

haha

Thanks, guys.