By: Jessica Robinson
We got married at St. Patrick’s Church in Collinsville, Connecticut and then the reception immediately following at La Cupola Ristorante & Inn.
Your wedding is one of the biggest parties or events you will ever plan in your life. Make sure you have a list of questions ready and get everything important in writing! It’s imperative that you do, or you might miss out on certain things you planned.
I knew what I wanted. Owning a wedding company, we really wanted to be hands on. So, my mom made the wedding cake, I designed all of my own flowers and my husband and I along with some friends did all of the landscaping at La Cupola to make it really pretty.
Frank Rosa, the owner of La Cupola is very old-school. He didn’t have a contract and to this day, still doesn’t. We trusted that giving him a $500 deposit would hold the date and then trusted him on his word of the menu and the per head amount. My dad paid him cash for the balance. Looking back on it, about a week or so after our wedding we realized that he never deducted the deposit we had paid from the balance. So Frank ended up with an extra $500 tip, on top of what we had already paid him. Our wedding was very beautiful and the food was incredible. There were a few things that were missing but for the most part we were very happy.
With the wedding industry evolving, I think it’s really important for you to have contracts with vendors and wedding venues. Especially a place like La Cupola. We’ve had personal experiences with Frank from La Cupola over the last several years that have been less than pleasant with us and our clients. One of our clients was booked there and had paid the deposit knowing he sold her hard on the fact that he only booked ONE event per day. The property was yours for the day, period. Frank called her only a few months out and asked if she minded if he booked another wedding for the same day, since she didn’t have a huge guest list. She was extremely insulted and felt she wasn’t the top priority, thus ended up booking another venue.
GET IT IN WRITING:
This is so important. With Frank, he really means well. However, he writes it down in his book and God only knows if he’ll remember a year from now what you talked about for your wedding menu. AND if the price goes up, you can be DAMN certain he’ll argue with you, saying that’s NOT the menu you discussed or you owe him more money. BOTH extremely unprofessional and just plain rude. (not to mention stressful when you are planning a menu)
If you have it in writing you know what your meal consists of, when payments are due, what dollar amount per head you agree on, whether open bar is included, rentals if any, if tax is included or is additional. It’s all spelled out for you to glance back at and refer to when he DOES forget. AND believe me he will.