Next, Stivers brought in the ‘celebrity’ wedding planner Donnie Brown to talk about the wedding planning process. She opened by asking what the advantages of having a wedding planner were.

“Would you do dental surgery on yourself? … The wedding industry is a complex creature, and there’s a lot of details and stuff that goes on. So a wedding planner takes care of all of that for you. They also get you better deals than you can get on your own. I send a lot of weddings to a photographer, so he cuts me a better rate for the service than he would for you because I’m a repeat customer.”

What are some overlooked expenses?

“When you go to a hotel or a venue and they tell you ‘this is your food and beverage minimum,’ clients come in all the time thinking, ‘well, that’s all it’s going to cost.’ That’s not what it’s going to cost; that’s just the minimum you have to pay. 

Plus, there’s a 22% service charge/gratuity plus tax, so you’re looking at 30 percent on every dollar in addition to what it says the total is.”

Not everybody has to come to your wedding. Every person dilutes the budget [and] reduces the value of the wedding. So just bring the people you care about, and don’t be afraid to tell somebody ‘you can’t bring a guest.'”

Finally, she sat down with Butch Stivers of Delicious Cakes in Addison, Texas, to talk about wedding cakes. 

“Today, wedding cakes are really the ultimate vehicle for self-expression. Most brides like to see a cake that ties nicely with the decor.”

He also explained some of the new trends in the wedding cakes:

“In the Dallas/Fort-Worth metroplex, there are a lot of new venues pop up on the outskirts of town, and a lot of those are doing country themes. So we see a lot of what I call “Country Chic” wedding cakes, where they’re naked [and] decorated with fruit [and] flowers.”