Glossary
The words, plainly
Every industry builds a vocabulary that keeps outsiders out. Here is ours, defined for somebody planning a first wedding rather than for the trade.
A
- Aisle runner
- A fabric or paper strip down the aisle. Handsome in photographs, a trip hazard on grass, and usually cut by couples who have seen one outdoors in a breeze.
- All-inclusive
- A venue that supplies more than the room - typically tables, chairs, setup, coordination and bar. The word is unregulated, so the only useful question is which line items it removes from your own budget. See what the venue fee covers.See also: Venue fee, Site fee
- Amplification
- A microphone and speaker for the ceremony. Outdoor vows past the fourth row are frequently inaudible without it, and it is among the most common regrets in outdoor ceremony reviews.
B
- Bar package
- A per-guest or per-hour price for drinks, usually tiered as house, premium or top shelf. Per-guest pricing charges for everyone of drinking age whether or not they drink; per-hour pricing charges for the length of the bar. Pine View serves through an in-house bar from $20 a guest.
- Blackout date
- A date a venue will not book, usually a holiday weekend or a date already held. Distinct from peak pricing, which is a surcharge rather than a refusal.
- Boutonniere
- The flower worn on a lapel. Count them early — fathers, grandfathers, ushers and readers are routinely forgotten until the florist asks.
- Bridal suite
- A private room for getting ready. Ask three things: what time it opens, whether it has its own bathroom, and whether there is a second room for the other wedding party.
- Buyout
- Exclusive use of a property for a date, so no other event runs alongside yours. At Pine View this is the default rather than an upgrade, which is why dates go early.
C
- Cake cutting fee
- A per-slice charge some venues or caterers apply to a cake they did not make. Ask before you order from an outside baker.
- Ceremony fee
- A separate charge for holding and setting a ceremony site, on top of the reception fee. It usually covers rehearsal time, chairs and the turn. Pine View's chapel fee starts at $1,540 and holds both the indoor and outdoor sites.
- Charger plate
- A decorative under-plate that never holds food. Pure table dressing, usually a per-cover rental, and the first line most couples cut.
- Cocktail hour
- The gap between the ceremony and dinner, usually an hour, during which guests drink and the room is reset. It is not filler - it is the window your photographs are taken in and the room is turned.
- Corkage
- A per-bottle fee for serving alcohol you supplied. Venues with in-house bars and their own liquor licence generally do not offer it, because the licence is the thing being protected.
- Cover
- One guest, in catering language. A quote “per cover” is a quote per person sitting down.
D
- Dance floor
- Budget roughly 0.4 square metres for every guest you expect on it at once — never the whole list. In a room at its seated capacity, the floor is what gets squeezed.
- Day-of coordination
- Someone who runs the wedding day itself - timeline, vendors, cues - without having planned it with you. Distinct from full planning. Confirm whether it is a named person and whether you meet them before the day.
- Deposit
- The payment that takes a date off the calendar. Ask whether it is refundable, whether it transfers to another date, and what happens to it if you postpone.
- Deposit schedule
- When each payment falls due. Ask for it in writing at booking; most venues want the balance somewhere between thirty and ten days out.
E
- Elopement
- A very small wedding, usually under ten guests and often with no reception. Not the same as a micro wedding, which has both.
- Escort card
- A card telling a guest which table they are at. Different from a place card, which tells them which seat.
F
- Family style
- Service where platters are set on each table and passed. Slower than plated, faster than a buffet, and it seats more people per table than either.
- First look
- A private moment where the couple sees each other before the ceremony, usually photographed. It moves most of the portrait work to before the vows, which buys back the cocktail hour.
- Force majeure
- The contract clause covering events neither side controls. Read it. It is the clause that decided what happened to thousands of 2020 weddings.
G
- Getting-ready room
- See Bridal suite. Worth asking whether there is more than one, and what time each opens.
- Golden hour
- The hour before sunset, when light is low, warm and directional. On an open property it is the best photography of the day, and it is worth building the timeline around it rather than hoping it lands.
- Guest count band
- A range rather than a number — eighty, one-fifty, two-fifty. It is what venues and caterers actually need early, and the real list can be refined for months afterwards.
- Guest count minimum
- A floor on the number of guests you will be charged for, common where pricing is per head. A venue charging a site fee rather than a head count has no minimum, which favours smaller weddings.
H
- Head count deadline
- The date your final guest number locks for catering, usually seven to ten days out. After it, you pay for no-shows.
- Head table
- A single table for the couple and wedding party, facing the room. Alternatives are a sweetheart table for two, or seating the party with their own guests.
L
- Load-in / load-out
- The hours your vendors may arrive and must be gone. These hours, not the party, usually determine what a florist charges you.
M
- Marriage licence
- The legal document, obtained from a county probate court. In Ohio it is the couple's responsibility, it has a validity window, and it cannot be sorted on the morning.
- Micro wedding
- Loosely, under about fifty guests. Not the same as an elopement, which is usually under ten and often has no reception.
- Minimum spend
- A floor on total spend rather than on guest numbers, common where food and drink are in-house. Ask whether the site fee counts toward it or sits on top of it.
O
- Off-peak
- The months a venue prices lower because demand is lower. At Pine View that is December through March, and it takes $1,000 off the hall. See rates.
- Officiant
- Whoever legally solemnises the marriage. In Ohio the officiant must be authorised by the state, and it is the couple's responsibility to confirm that, not the venue's.
- Open bar
- Drinks paid for by the couple rather than the guest. It can still be limited - to beer and wine, to a set number of hours, or to a spend that closes the bar when reached.
P
- Peak Saturday
- A Saturday in a venue's high season — here, April through November. The most contested date type in the market: claimed earliest, released last.
- Peak season
- The months a venue prices highest. At Pine View that is April through November. Peak Saturdays are the first dates to go and the last to open up.
- Plated dinner
- Each guest served an individually prepared course. Predictable and elegant; usually the most expensive service style and the one that needs meal choices collected in advance.
- Plus one
- A guest invited as somebody's companion rather than in their own right. Decide the rule before you address a single envelope, and apply it without exception.
- Processional
- The walk in. Its order and its music are the two things a rehearsal exists to settle.
R
- Rain plan
- The alternative to an outdoor ceremony, and the date by which the call is made. The best version holds both sites so the decision is made on the morning; the worst asks you to choose months out.
- Reception only
- Booking the dinner and dancing without the ceremony, usually because the vows happen at a church. Priced lower, and it changes the whole timeline.
- Recessional
- The walk out, immediately after the vows. Shorter, louder, and the photograph everybody wants.
- Rehearsal
- A walk-through of the ceremony, usually the evening before, usually followed by a dinner. Confirm whether rehearsal time is included and whether it is guaranteed or subject to another booking.
- Rentals
- Anything hired in — linens, chargers, lounge furniture, tenting, specialty chairs. The line that varies most between two venues quoting similar fees, because a venue supplying tables and chairs removes most of it.
- Room flip
- Resetting a room between uses - most often ceremony to dinner. It is why cocktail hour exists. Ask who does it and whether it costs anything.
- RSVP date
- The deadline for replies, usually three to four weeks before the wedding, because the caterer needs final counts about a week after that.
- Run sheet
- The minute-by-minute schedule of the day, held by whoever is running it. If nobody has written one by the week before, that is the next job.
S
- Seated capacity
- How many guests can sit down to dinner. Always ask whether the figure assumes a dance floor — it frequently does not, and that is thirty to forty seats. Our hall seats 300 with the floor still open.
- Seating chart
- Who sits at which table. Needed for plated service, strongly advisable otherwise. Build it after the RSVP date, not before.
- Service charge
- A percentage added to food and beverage. It is not a tip and does not necessarily reach staff - ask what it covers and whether gratuity is separate. Pine View quotes tax and gratuity as separate lines.
- Shoulder date
- A date at the edge of peak pricing — late March, most of November. Reasonable weather, lower rate, and the least-asked-about dates on any calendar.
- Shoulder season
- The weeks between peak and off-peak, where weather is still reasonable and pricing has started to fall. In Ohio that is late March and much of November.
- Site fee
- The charge for the space and the time, separate from food and drink. It is the number to compare between venues, because everything else varies with your guest count.
- Standing capacity
- The fire-code maximum with no tables in the room. The largest number a venue can print and the least useful one to plan against.
- Sweetheart table
- A table for two, for the couple. It buys you the only twenty minutes of the day you will spend alone together.
T
- Tasting
- A sit-down where you choose your menu. Ask whether it is included, how many people may attend, and how far in advance it happens.
- Toast
- A short speech with a drink in hand. Three is plenty; five is a queue. Tell every speaker their limit in writing and nobody has to be cut off.
- Turn
- See Room flip. Also used for the clear-down after the party, which is the part nobody tours for and everybody remembers.
U
- Unity ceremony
- An optional symbolic element - candle, sand, handfasting, tree. Adds two to five minutes and usually needs a small table you must remember to ask for.
V
- Vendor list
- Some venues require approved suppliers; others welcome anyone insured. Ask which, because a required list can quietly remove a caterer you had your heart set on. Outside vendors are welcome here.
- Vendor meal
- A meal for photographers, planners and band members who are on site through dinner. Most contracts require it. Budget for it at roughly half a guest each.
- Venue coordinator
- The venue's own staff, responsible for the building and its people rather than for your vendors. Not the same as a day-of coordinator, who works for you.See also: Day-of coordination
- Venue fee
- See Site fee. Read what it includes before comparing it to anything - a low fee on a bare room you must furnish is rarely the cheaper number.
W
- Welcome party
- An informal gathering the night before, usually after the rehearsal, usually for out-of-town guests. Increasingly the thing couples add when they want more time with people than the wedding allows.