Before I Do Podcast

It’s DINNER TIME! We’re talking all about wedding dinner service today! Food is our favorite and we have a LOT of opinions here, so let’s jump right in.  

Types of dinner service options at weddings:

1. Buffet 
2. Stations
3. Served Meal
4. Heavy hors d'oeuvres 
5. Food trucks 

We are going to talk through what we love, what we don't, and what we’ve seen work well for each of these service types. 

1. Buffet: 
   • What we love: 
     • The pre-work for a buffet is super simple
     • It gives guests straight forward options
   • What we don’t love:
     • If your guest count is over 200 people it takes FOREVER
     • If your reception space is already tight, it is SO uncomfortable
     • Guests give us mean looks when we’re dismissing tables
   • What we’ve seen work well:
     • They are great for groups less than 200 guests 
     • They are great in LARGE spaces 
     • Double sided/served! 
     • Have a preset salad, water, and table wine (caution if outside)
2. Stations:
   • What we love:
     • You get some creative food options
   • What we don’t love:
     • Guests are so LOST
     • It makes the reception space feel really chaotic 
     • It takes away from the structure of party flow
     • So many plates 
     • No way to dismiss tables 
   • What we’ve seen work well:
     • Make a map of the room to tell guests what food is where
     • Have a preset salad, water, and table wine (caution if outside)
3. Served Meal:
   • What we love:
     • It’s so organized
     • It is quicker if scheduled correctly 
     • Guests don’t have to get up as much! 
   • What we don’t love:
     • There is a lot more prep work
     • It does come with some extra staffing costs, but we think it’s worth it
   • What we’ve seen work well:
     • Table assignments with meal indicators on place cards picked up as guests enter reception and give caterer a count of each meal per table. 
     • Preset salads, water, and table wine to cut down on service time 
4. Heavy hors d'oeuvres: 
   • What we love
     • It’s super budget friendly
     • Great for a relaxed, day time wedding
   • What we don’t love:
     • People are hungry 
     • Same unstructured feel as stations 
5. Food Trucks:
   • What we love:
     • Yummy food
     • Creates a fun and relaxed atmosphere
     • Folks can keep coming back throughout the night 
     • Can be very budget friendly
   • What we don’t love:
     • Lots of guest movement
     • Can be chaotic 
     • Lacks a little bit of structure
   • What we’ve seen work well
     • You have to have the right venue space for it
     • Start at cocktail hour
     • Customizable food options

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[email protected]

@beforeidopodcast

@jacksonandjuneevents

And check out our website for all your wedding planning needs: www.jacksonandjuneevents.com

Today’s topic may be a heated one - unwanted opinions, advice, and conflicts that inevitably arise while planning.  

We might get spicy here, as these are things that typically lead to some stress, uncomfortable conversations, and weird situations, but we think that when you’re getting married, you don’t have time for any of that noise. So, we’re here to help. 

Please note - we don’t want to seem like we’re telling you not to take advice from anyone whatsoever. 

What we want people to take away from this is you can, and maybe should, hear people out initially but if you’ve decided on something and that person or people keeps pushing, you have to draw the line somewhere. 

We’re going to go through some real life examples of unwanted opinions and talk through how we would coach our clients to handle them:

1. Opinions about class (plated dinner, black tie attire, band vs dj, etc.)
2. Hand written/calligraphy on invitations vs. printed. Also digital RSVP’s. 
3. What to do when someone says, “Don’t spend a lot on flowers, they’re already dead” 
4. When someone is making it out like their opinions are MORE important than the fiance’s
5. Eating dinner separately from rest of wedding group 
6. Big one: having kids at the wedding 
7. Opinions about guest list and who is on it
8. Do you have to register for fine china?
9. Wedding registry vs. vacation fund 
10. Countering decisions we’ve already made 
11. Serving alcohol! 

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Reach out to us on social media or drop a comment on our website.

[email protected]

@beforeidopodcast

@jacksonandjuneevents

And check out our website for all your wedding planning needs: www.jacksonandjuneevents.com

Honestly, the differences between a wedding coordinator and a wedding planner are foggy even among other wedding industry pros. And just a little caveat here, every coordinator/planner is a little bit different, but this is how most folks in the industry would describe the difference, and how we at J + J break it down.

Let's start with 5 key descriptors of a coordinator.

Coordinator (Event Management Package):

1. Services typically start ~6 weeks before wedding. You usually cannot access them before this mark.
2. When services do start, the coordinator will jumps in and help tie up any loose ends and executes your plan.
3. A coordinator will create your weekend timeline.
4. She/He will coordinate deliveries and vendor set up before and during the wedding.
5. She/He will be present to act as "air traffic control" on wedding day.

In a nutshell, you do the planning and your coordinator will jump in at the end to bring your vision to life.

Now let's talk Wedding Planner.

Full Service Planner:

1. Services start upon hire. 
2. A planner will help find and hire your vendors.
3. A planner takes the lead on design and assist in setting/following a budget.
4. You have access to your planner throughout the entire planning process:
5. A full service planner might also provide services like sending out invitations, tracking RSVP’s, delivering welcome bags to hotels, planning welcome parties, etc. 
6. Your planner will of course create your timeline and be present on wedding day to act as "air traffic control."
7. Your planner will attend vendor meetings with you, act as your sounding board, and help you make the big ticket decisions.

Basically your planner will get to know you and your wedding vision from the very start and execute plans throughout engagement to make that vision come true.

Now let’s touch on a Partial Planner: Another caveat, I feel like everyone does partial a little differently, but this is how WE do our partials:

A Partial Wedding Planner is a service level up from a Wedding Coordinator. View it as the Event Management package with added support and coaching - not hands off planning like a Full Service. 

In our partial plan, we help you set the foundation for your wedding plans by analyzing your budget, coaching you through vendor hires by sending a short list (usually 2-5) of vendor options that fit your budget/style, then you make the hires. 

In a nutshell, a Partial Planner is your wedding planning coach, helping you stay on track and helping you make wise planning decisions along the way, then will execute your plans through Event Management at the 6 week mark! 

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review!

Reach out to us on social media or drop a comment on our website.

[email protected]

@beforeidopodcast

@jacksonandjuneevents

And check out our website for all your wedding planning needs: www.jacksonandjuneevents.com

Your venue determines your wedding date, location, and overall wedding style/feel. Things really start to feel real when you have a date and a venue! And while choosing your venue is super exciting, it can also majorly eat into your budget… unless you ask the right questions and ensure your venue dollars are providing a location, service, and a comfortable guest experience.

Here are some key things I always advise couples to look for in their wedding venue:

1. How many guests can this venue accommodate? 

2. What services are included in the venues rental fee? 

3. What rental items does this venue require you to hire in? 

4. Does this venue have comfortable accommodations for your guests?

5. Will there be any other weddings scheduled during our wedding weekend? 

6. When can we drop off our decor items?  

7. What venue staff will be present on wedding day? What is their role? 

8. When does the “clock” start on wedding day? 

9. What time do we have to be out? 

10. What is the parking situation? 

11. Does this venue allow sparklers? 

12. Security Deposit and Payment Plan

13. Double Booking Protocol

14. Inclement Weather Procedure *for an outside wedding*

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review!

Reach out to us on social media or drop a comment on our website.

[email protected]

@beforeidopodcast

@jacksonandjuneevents

And check out our website for all your wedding planning needs: www.jacksonandjuneevents.com

Today we are talking about Proposals! We’re going to actually walk through the process Alex went through to propose to Sammy, to maybe help someone out there who might be stuck on what to do first. We’re also going to share some fun proposal stats we gathered through polling our audience on Instagram:

• 66% of our audience was together 1-5 years before getting engaged and 7% less than a year! 
• 47% of our audience said that their engagement ring was a total surprise, but 35% said they picked their ring out.
• 62% of our audience was truly shocked when proposal came
• 56% celebrated with just the 2 of them
• 61% did not have a photographer 
• 64% didn’t have help planning the proposal 

Alex’s planning process:

Pre-work: Talk with your partner about your shared expectations for your relationship, and the timeline they may have in their head. Do they want to get married before a certain point in time? Are they in no rush? Brides Magazine actually just published an article about how important this is. https://www.brides.com/collaborative-proposals-trend-8414491?utm_campaign=brides&utm_content=likeshop&utm_medium=social&utm_source=instagram

Step 1: Go ring shopping - I recommend you go together so you can have your significant other try rings on, primarily to get their ring size,  look at different styles, and at some places they’ll talk to you about what a high quality diamond looks like and give you options at different price points. 

Step 2: Think about how you want to propose, and how your future fiancé would want to be proposed to. 

Step 3: Nail down the who, what, when, and where to have the perfect proposal

Step 4: Get your significant other wherever you need them to be and pop the question!

It’s showtime! You will be nervous, excited, emotional, maybe even black out, but it’s going to be one of the best days ever.

In conclusion, get on the same page as your significant other when it comes to the proposal. Get aligned with when, how, and under what circumstances. But it’s also totally fine to keep some small details a surprise! The most important thing is that you two are making the big decisions together! Hope that helps! 

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review!

Reach out to us on social media or drop a comment on our website.

[email protected]

@beforeidopodcast

@jacksonandjuneevents

And check out our website for all your wedding planning needs: www.jacksonandjuneevents.com

Setting a realistic wedding budget is the most important thing you have to do to start planning off on the right foot, but weddings are EXPENSIVE! Here’s some data to give you a good idea: 

• The average wedding cost in the US:  $33,000. And inflation has totally impacted that - the average cost rose 14% from 2023 to 2024. FORBES: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-loans/average-cost-of-a-wedding/#:~:text=The%20average%20cost%20of%20a%20wedding%20is%20%2433%2C000%20in%202024,wedding%20feature%20is%20the%20venue.
• The average cost per wedding guest is ~$300. This average is based off the TOTAL cost of the wedding, not an average catering/food and beverage cost per head. https://pros.weddingpro.com/report/the-knot-real-weddings-vendor-report/#:~:text=50%25%20of%20couples%20surveyed%20said,wedding%20and%20the%20value%20of

5 Steps to set a realistic wedding budget:

STEP #1: Figure out how much you have to spend:

• How much do you personally want/can you contribute? 
• Have the conversation with your parents: How much are they willing/able to contribute if any? If your parents have NO idea where to start, send them some updated numbers from trusted sources like Zola: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-loans/average-cost-of-a-wedding/#:~:text=The%20average%20cost%20of%20a%20wedding%20is%20%2433%2C000%20in%202024,wedding%20feature%20is%20the%20venue. 
• Add those figures up, and that’s your Overall Wedding Budget. 

STEP #2: Use your Overall Wedding Budget to figure up how many people you can host at the wedding: aka: how many people you can feed.

• Work backwards from your overall budget to figure out how many people you can feed using the info below:
  • Catering is ~20-30% of your overall budget
  • Average catering cost per guest = $85 per person https://www.theknot.com/content/average-cost-wedding-catering
  • Average TOTAL cost per guest = $300 per person 
• Example:
  • Overall Wedding Budget = $50,000
  • Estimated Catering Cost = 30% of $50,000 = $15,000
  • Number of Wedding Attendees =  Estimated Catering Cost / Average catering cost per guest | $15,000/$85 = 176. 
  • Now cross check with the TOTAL cost per guest figure:
  • Overall Wedding Budget/ Average Total Cost per guest | $50,000/$300 = 167 
  • Conclusion: You can host and feed ~167 to 176 guests at your wedding. 

STEP #3: Estimate your Venue Cost: 

1. Your venue will be around 30-40% of your overall budget: https://www.theknot.com/content/wedding-budget-ways-to-save-money
2. Example: 40% of $50,000 overall budget = $20,000

STEP #4: Estimate Remaining Vendor Costs based on percentage of your Overall Wedding Budget. Use these percentages found at

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review!

Reach out to us on social media or drop a comment on our website.

[email protected]

@beforeidopodcast

@jacksonandjuneevents

And check out our website for all your wedding planning needs: www.jacksonandjuneevents.com

Not sure where to start in your planning process? We've got you covered. Today, we are talking about the FIRST thing that should be done after you get engaged: host a “Wedding Dream Sesh” with your fiance. 

What we mean by this is to have a chat with your fiance about your wildest wedding dreams and expectations. This may sound kind of fluffy, but we think it is SO necessary. You’d be shocked at how many couples we’ve worked with where we are in a meeting and one fiance is SHOCKED at the ideas the other fiance is spitting out. Or how many times we're deep into planning and the groom joins for a meeting and is just blown away by the plans we’re working on or the budget. We think it’s extremely important to plan this thing TOGETHER and know what is important to the other when it comes to planning. 

So, here’s what we suggest for your “Wedding Dream Sesh”:

1. Pick a day a couple of weeks after you get engaged (give yourself a little time to really celebrate before starting the business talk)
2. Make it a date night! Go to a fun restaurant or coffee shop, but somewhere you can pull out your notebook and have a good chat. 
3. Talk about the following and kind of flesh out each of them:
   • Wedding Size
   • Location 
   • Time of year
   • BUDGET - who will be contributing? How much do each of you want to contribute? Who is paying for what family wise?
   • What are the most important aspects of the wedding to each of you? AKA: where do you want your money to be spent?
   • How “traditional” do you want things to be? Prime example: paper vs digital RSVP’s?
   • What type of ceremony do you want to have? Religious? Non religious? Do you want a friend to officiate? Or a member of a church? 
   • What cultural/religious traditions do you want included?
   • What are your expectations for family involvement?
   • Do you want to DIY a lot of things?
   • How big of a wedding party do you want to have?
   • When/where do you want to honeymoon? Leave immediately after? Or wait a while? 
   • Band vs DJ?
   • Do you want to really focus on guest experience or have a simple guest experience?
   • Any family dynamics you need to discuss?
   • What have you seen at weddings that you LOVE/what have you seen that you HATE?

So, basically get on the same page with what’s important to you, what are your biggest wedding dreams, what you want, and what you don’t want when it comes to the wedding. The goal is to plan together and set a solid foundation for planning! 

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review!

Reach out to us on social media or drop a comment on our website.

[email protected]

@beforeidopodcast

@jacksonandjuneevents

And check out our website for all your wedding planning needs: www.jacksonandjuneevents.com

Welcome to Episode #1 of Before I Do! We are Sammy and Alex Kesner, husband and wife and co-owners of Jackson & June Events, a wedding planning company based in the Athens, Georgia area. We are beyond excited to bring you a podcast for planning a wedding AND building a strong foundation for marriage, because let’s face it - marriage is no small thing!

We started this podcast for many reasons. First, we went through the season of getting married ourselves not too long ago and now get to watch numerous couples go through it from “the other side” since starting Jackson & June Events. It’s such a transitional period and while there is a LOT out there about planning the details of your wedding, there isn’t a lot out there about how to plan your wedding (the smart way) and how to build a strong foundation to build your marriage upon. So, we want to help with the tough stuff, the things you’re losing sleep over, and the things you may not know about that could come and totally knock you over by surprise.

We also want to discuss weddings & marriage from the vantage point of both a bride and a groom, which is where Alex comes in! As grooms become more involved in the planning process, Alex will provide an additional perspective and fresh eyes on the ideas and topics we discuss, so both sides of the wedding party can hopefully resonate. Grooms, you can tune in, too!

And lastly, we have both learned a TON and have grown together in our own marriage as we’ve created a business and a family with our two precious daughters, Amelia and Maisey. As we continue to learn how to navigate life together, why not share it with you all?!

What You're Going to Learn:

What are some things we’re going to cover over the next couple of weeks? These are just SOME of our upcoming episodes:

• Conversations you and your fiance NEED to have so you don’t kill each other while planning
• The 2nd Step in wedding planning: BUDGET! Setting it, chatting with your support system about it, what to include, how to come up with a reasonable budget, and the importance of not starting your marriage in total wedding debt
• How to manage expectations from your loved ones from the very beginning of planning and how to set your guest list
• All things related to finding and booking your wedding venue
• Moving in together: Our biggest pieces of advice and maybe some hot takes! 
• Bachelor parties, proposing, raising kids
• And so much more! 

Love what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review!

Reach out to us on social media or drop a comment on our website.

[email protected]

@beforeidopodcast

@jacksonandjuneevents

And check out our website for all your wedding planning needs: www.jacksonandjuneevents.com