Wedding Business Solutions

So, my son got married. Want to hear the story?

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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So, my son got married. Want to hear the story? 

Are you easily accessible to your clients? Are you ensuring seamless communication to prevent day-of issues? In this episode, I share the story of my son's wedding and highlight crucial lessons about the importance of communication and responsiveness in the wedding business. 

Listen to this new 13-minute episode for insights on improving your client communication and handling unexpected challenges during events. 

Episode Summary:  

In this heartfelt episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast, I share the story of my son Adam's unique wedding in San Francisco. Unlike traditional ceremonies, this wedding spanned multiple days and featured intimate gatherings, a City Hall ceremony, and memorable activities like a cable car ride and a Hornblower dinner cruise. I highlight noteworthy experiences, both positive and challenging, such as vendor communication issues and special touches like custom whiskey blends. Through this personal recount, I draw valuable lessons on the importance of effective communication and customer service in the wedding industry. Don't miss out on this insightful and inspiring episode! 

If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com  

 

Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com   

 

View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/ 

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I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

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©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

My son got married. Want to hear how that went? Listen to this episode. I'll give you the story. Hi, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. I am just back for an amazing few days with our son Adam, who got married in San Francisco. And I wanted to give you the story because not only is it just the father bragging, but being someone who's been in the wedding industry for over 30 years, this was a little bit different than a traditional wedding. And I want to give you some of the experience. 

I haven't heard all of their experiences, but I can tell you that what we've experienced on this one, so stick with me on this one. So, first thing is, congratulations to Samantha and Adam. It was an amazing few days, and it was really, really special representing them. They're a little bit older than the average couple. They've been to a lot of weddings with their friends around the country, some international. And they've seen a lot of different types of weddings, from a Disney wedding to a wedding in Aruba, and probably everything in between. And they decided they wanted to do something a little different. Now, this wasn't about saving money. 

They ended up spending. I don't know what the total was. I only know our contributions. But I don't know what the total was. But it was just done differently. So here's how it went. They got married on a Thursday at San Francisco City hall, which anytime I mentioned that to anybody, they're like, oh, my gosh, it's so beautiful. And they're absolutely right. 

The building is spectacular. It's such a perfect place for this. It's not just for weddings, but it seems like was meant for it. If you look at my Facebook page, you'll see the real. And you can see photos over there of this. It's absolutely gorgeous. But you also get about 15 minutes. They were assigned an officiant, and she did a wonderful job of making it very personal. 

She said she's been married for 50 years, so she's got a little bit of advice on happy marriage there. So that was a nice little touch. And we have some great pictures there. We're able to stay there just for a little bit longer, take some pictures. And then we went to a little restaurant called Heist in San Francisco and just had a lunche. And this is a restaurant that Samantha and Adam have gone to before. That's why they chose it. They did have trouble getting a hold of the restaurant. 

This is one of these experiences, you know, answer your phone, answer the email. They were trying to get to somebody and say, we need to bring ten people in for lunch into a very small restaurant. We want to know that we're going to have a space for that. They eventually did get a hold of somebody, were able to make that reservation, and the place gave them a little cake, not a regular like a wedding cake, but gave us a little dessert thing as a little congratulations to them. Was a nice touch at the end, but it was hard getting a hold of them. They might have gone someplace else. So answer your phone, answer your emails. They had trouble with that. 

We then did the cable car thing. We had to attend. Ten of us in the family, very small family, ten of us. We got on the cable car, we went up the hills and down the hills. We had four generations from seven years old to 85 years old on there. And that was fun. Kudos to whoever the transit authority is there for their app. Adam was able to just get us all tickets, gets on his app and get us on there. 

So I can't remember the last time I was on a cable car, but I think it involved paying somebody when I got on it. And we got some great pictures when we got to the end down by Fisherman's wharf, and we're able to do other things there. Went to Guillard Deli, had got some chocolate, got some ice cream. Was great. And then the walked around a little and the couple went off to dinner, and we went on city cruises, which was hornblower, the hornblower, California, and did the dinner cruise. And I have to say kudos to them. Sometimes you think, oh, well, it's going to be about the view. The food was really delicious. 

I've actually been on it before. One time, years ago, I did some sales training for Hornblower, and they took me on that. That's why I thought about, let's not just go to a restaurant. Let's do something a little different. But the food was delicious, Dorothy, our server, was amazing, telling us, listen, it's going to be windy on the way out, less windy on the way back. We got some great pictures. And again, it was really a wonderful time. And it wasn't just about the views. 

The food really was good. There was a DJ on there. And again, he was fine, uh, not knowing who the crowd was. But he did read it, you know, well enough. And I, again, I thought he did a good enough job there. Okay, so that was Thursday. I know that was just one day. And then Friday did some running around, shout out to 50 flowers, who supplied flowers for the wedding. 

And again, Lisa, thank you so much. Was actually, some of it was a gift and really do appreciate that. But we had beautiful flowers that Samantha's friends were going to be doing some stuff with. And then Friday night, rented a restaurant called the blue plate out. We were down by the financial district staying. So on the other side of town, I want to say west. I'm not exactly sure. Nice little restaurant. 

They've gone there before. They bought it out. Had a little patio area in the back. And this was the quote unquote formal night. The restaurant was great. The servers were great. They had good communication with them ahead of time. So that was wonderful. 

The little personal touches that Samantha and Adam did. Our younger son, Ian, who's a wooden worker, he made little wooden blocks that held a photo and a note. And each person's place setting had a photo of either Adam and Samantha or both of them with that person. And then behind it was a personal note from them to that person. Really nice personal touch there. Some nice wines and really nice menu that they did for dinner. It was our place for a few hours. That was great. 

And then on Saturday, they live in Oakland. And there is a place called the. The. Oh, my gosh. The Cameron Stanford Cameron Sanford mansion, which is a museum right on Lake Merritt and has a beautiful outdoor area. And that's where Saturday night was. And that. So Friday night was about 30 people. 

Saturday night was about 50 people. And this is where there were some wonderful things and some hiccups. The taco, it wasn't a truck, but the taco bar, if you want to call it. They were making asada and kanitas and chicken and all the fixings there. They were fantastic. I'm sorry, I don't know their name, but they were fantastic. They did have some problems with the rentals. And let me tell you about this, because this again, goes back to communication and some other things. 

Initially, when they found out they needed rentals, they needed a dance floor because it was outside. So grass and other non hard surfaces. I reached out to my network. I got them a rental company. Samantha reached out and said, I would like to speak to someone because I don't know what we need. We need a dance floor. We need some tables and things. Can I speak to someone? She actually wanted to get on the phone. 

And the response came back, no, just go to our website, figure out what you want. And then, you know, let me know and I'll make you a quote. I know some of you are scratching your heads there. Some of you like? Well, I don't want to talk to them either, but most people do want to talk to somebody, and they don't get to because they're these, you know, millennials and Gen Z's and they don't want to get on the phone. And here was a bride saying, I want to get on the phone. And the rental company said no. So that was amazing. They ended up going with another rental company. 

And this company, Samantha said, was on a higher price compared to some other ones because they had some things that she thought she might need, like fire pits, which it turned out we werent allowed to get anyway because of the mansion. So rental company shows up, sets up the dance floor. Okay, fine. And then we were there before the couple, and then the party bus comes with the couple. The popcorn machine wasn't delivered. The glassware wasn't delivered. So they came and delivered the dance floor, and then they didn't deliver the other stuff. And they had actually called Samantha and told her, yeah, the truck broke down. 

We're having some issues with that. And she said, no, you need to get it there. They get the dance floor there. They forgot the glasses. They forgot the popcorn maker, which they ended up bringing later. It was too late for the glassware. Thank goodness the bar company had plastic for us, but they didn't bring that stuff. Now here again, she said the price was higher than some other companies. 

As the price gets higher, your service should be better, not worse. It should be good at any level, but it should be better, not worse. So this was a really bad example of somebody dropping the ball instead of saying, hey, we're having a problem. We're going to make this right. In terms of the truck maybe having broken down or something like that, they didnt. They didnt handle it. The other thing was the bartending company. They reached out to different bartending companies. 

The bartender herself ended up being really good and friendly. But they were supposed to come an hour and a half before everybody got there, set up, get the beer on ice. They didnt. They were still setting up while people were showing up. Fortunately, my wife put the beer in the refrigerator that the place had, which wasnt that big, was able to get it cold. But again, sure, they did a good job in the end, but you're supposed to be there an hour and a half early. Show up an hour and a half early. And if you're not going to call and let somebody know, because I had to let the couple know, and they had to call somebody. 

And then they came. But again, they showed up late with theirs. So what are the lessons learned on this? The lessons learned are, we had a wonderful time. In the end, most of the guests, if not all the guests, didn't know any difference on this. Maybe some of the family heard some of the things like, hey, where's the popcorn machine? Or, why are we drinking out of plastic instead of glass? The mansion itself was great. They were very helpful. I did make a point. I said to the person at the mansion, what do we need to do with the garbage at the end? And she thanked me for asking. 

Because most people don't think of that. And I said, yeah, I know we have to take it away. One of their friends had a pickup truck. And they said, no, we have a dumpster, but it's locked. And so and so will be here. And they'll have a key for that. And you can get in there. But she really. 

It was genuine. She was saying, well, thank you. Thank you for thinking of that. Thank you for asking. So this is a communication thing. Because I had asked the couple, and they didn't know. Which means it wasn't told to them. Or if it wasn't told to them at the right time. 

Where they were in the frame of mind to be thinking, oh, at the end of the night, all of this needs to get cleaned up. Fortunately, my wife and I are kind of can do people. And they got. Everybody else got on the party bus. And we and one of their friends and their day of were helping. And we got it all cleaned up. And it was fine in the end. But communication. 

Communication is the issue here. What do we know? I can tell you that Samantha and Adam were part of the problem this year. With people booking later. Part of that was not their fault. Because city hall in San Francisco. Only puts the calendar up three months in advance. If you're not having your reception there. And they were just having the ceremony there. 

So they couldn't even start planning this until July for September. And again, September 1 of the busiest wedding months. Thursday wasn't the problem. Friday, probably not a problem. Because the place they rented is not a wedding place. It was a little restaurant. Saturday became more of a problem. They did end up getting a photographer for Friday and Saturday. 

And a videographer for Friday and Saturday. Music. That was another issue. They got a band. Thank you to my friends, who I reached out to dj's. And bands were able to, you know, be able to accommodate them. Unfortunately, one of the members of the band had a recurrence of their cancer. So they had to cancel. 

But they got somebody else, had a little three piece combo, had beautiful background music, and then the guitar player actually became the DJ and we were using that dance floor and it was great. So thank you to all the vendors that were involved with this. Thank you to Adam and Samantha for allowing us to be a part of this. Thank you to you for listening. And hopefully you get a little bit of encouragement that you're doing things right and maybe also find out if maybe things aren't going so right sometimes. Are people having trouble getting a hold of you? Is the communication back to the customer? If there is an issue, are you going to the customer that there's a problem? Are you going and saying, hey, here's the thing and we're fixing it and this is what we're doing about it? Are you checking your orders to make sure that everything gets there so you don't have to go and redeliver that costs you money to have to go do that again instead of doing it right? So where are these things dropping the ball on that? That's what you want to be able to find out. All in all, had a great time. The happy couple is like the rest of us, recovering right now, except we have jet lag. 

They don't, they probably just out later than we were. So thanks for listening to this. Thanks for indulging me in it. Thanks for all your congratulations to the couple. Online. Again, more pictures on my Facebook page and on my LinkedIn and my Facebook business page. There's a reel up there as well if you want to see some of those photos, including the special whiskey blend that I was asked to make for them. That was the one thing Adam asked me early. 

He said, would you make us a special whiskey blend? And my wife and I, we said, sure. The short story is we blended 14 different whiskeys that were represent people and places in their lives. And so California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Jameson, irish whiskey and a few others. And that represents people and places in their lives. We re age them with american and french oak that was first soaked in port wine and sherry first. So simulating, putting it into a port cask or a sherry cask. And then after aging for seven weeks, we took it out, charcoal filtered it, bottled it with custom bottles, custom labels, wax seal on the top, laser engraved coasters with their logo. If I haven't already said this, the family motto is, why just do something when you can overdo it? So I'm not going to overdo this podcast anymore. 

Thanks for listening and see you on the next episode. Bye. 

 

I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks. 

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site: 

©2024 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com 

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Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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