Latest / The Preferred List: A Wedding Vendor Podcast / Episode 45 A Cold November Tour Turned Into A Lifelong Business: Antrim 1844

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Episode 45 A Cold November Tour Turned Into A Lifelong Business: Antrim 1844 · The Preferred List: A Wedding Vendor Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Preferred List, a podcast about the people behind the best wedding days.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm James, a wedding filmmaker.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've spent years in the industry working alongside incredible vendors, and this show is all about real conversations with the ones who make it happen.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're a vendor or a couple, you'll get honest insight, good stories, and maybe a little inspiration along the way.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's meet today's wedding vendors.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Dort and Richard, how's it going?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having us.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because we are here at Antrim 1844 in your venue, and I gotta say, the views outside and inside are just so good, so good.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited to pick your brains on how everything started here at Antrim and kind of get into the business side of things.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just so fun.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I talk about all the time on the podcast is the heart behind this is getting vendors together at venues that are local.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully to them, this one is not local to me.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's about an hour and a half for me, but it's um so fun to see vendors coming together.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they bump shoulders in and out as they're kind of passing each other.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then one thing that's so fun is getting a chance to sit down with venue owners as kind of like the central hub for all of us, other vendor types.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're coming into your space and celebrating with our couples, walking them through one of the biggest days of their lives.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just so fun to kind of hear from all these different perspectives.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so Dort and Richard, thank you again for having me and for being on and sharing uh some of your story.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, Antrim 1844.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Where where did all of this start for you guys?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Dort, you're probably the best to kind of give the introduction.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: But one Antrim 1840, the name Antrim actually was derived from the original owners who were from County Antrim, Ireland.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, we added the 1844 on because that's the year that it was built.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: But Dort can probably give you a much better rendition of how it started and our first glimpse at Antrim on a cold November day back in 1987.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like you got the story too.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Throwing it to her.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, if I remember back that part, no, I'm kidding.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh Richard and I always, uh when we met as practically teenagers, we've always been um uh uh interested in preservation of old houses.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: So we lived in the Baltimore area, and so we would purchase a crummy-looking old house with really fabulous bones in the best neighborhood we could afford, and then we'd fix it up and sell it.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: We were back in the day like chip and uh what's it?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Joanna Gates, yeah.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, we started that.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: That was our idea.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um obviously we probably didn't succeed getting the same.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: You just needed the TV show.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't get the TV show, that's your problem.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, so um uh make a long story short, we went through eight houses in Baltimore, uh, fixed them up, sold them.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh never for business commercial reasons.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: We our family, two sons, and you know, we lived we lived in them and fixed them up and sold them.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: So then our real the last one we sold on the spur because the price was was too good to pass up when someone wanted to buy it.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: So our realtor, our real estate agent said, Oh, I've got this fabulous old house.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's just have you ever heard of Westminster, Maryland?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: And from Baltimore, that's not that far.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: And um, we're like, sure.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Well, just a little bit further.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's a town called Tawnytown.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: We're like, well, we've never really heard of it.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of sounds like a joke when you hear it that way.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we came out, it it the house had been abandoned for over 50 years.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: So it was just beautiful bones that no one had destroyed the bones, but the wallpaper was a hundred years old, the there's no furnishings in it, and we walked in.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: The outside looked kind of you know, stark and scary.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like Richard said, it was a cold November day, and there wasn't any heat plumbing or anything.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: And we were like, eh, it's a little further than we were thinking because our kids are in school in Baltimore, and I don't think we can make this commute every day.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: And um Richard said, Oh, we're up here, and we love going to historic properties and whatnot.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: So um we walked inside and fell in love with the uh grandeur, the architecture, the um the house was just almost like it was frozen in time.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Just need a little pain, a little condition, a little like a million things, but we fell in love with it.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: And um, everyone thought we were crazy, and we were gonna turn into a BB.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: Richard was in another bit in the car business, and I was an interior designer, so uh we thought, oh, in our spare time, and we can write off some of these pens as well.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Antrim is like a very hungry dinosaur, yeah.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: And we just grew the business from four rooms, what uh 40 years ago, to now this amazing um venue that's so romantic, and it's just a slam dunk for a beautiful wedding.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how kind of how we grown, and also have the country inn and a restaurant and and kind of busy.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: There was an interesting way we actually got into the wedding business.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: When we had uh four guest rooms, we had one of uh one of my good friends was staying in a room and he got engaged, and they they came down the next morning and announced their engagement and then said, We would love to have our wedding here.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, at that point in time, we had one other person working here and no staff, no kitchen, no real kitchen, no, and of course we said, sure, that'd be great.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, this was probably uh you know late winter, early spring, and he wanted to get married in August.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we said, sure, Gordy, that'd be fantastic.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so maybe in June, we said, well, Gordy, how many people are you thinking about?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, like 250.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he said, You can do that, right?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh we actually met this uh gentleman, Mike Sell, who was uh kind of our first wedding coordinator with with Dorothy, and uh he was a really talented uh young guy, and he was a very good chef and stuff, and he knew the people at the church, and he knew all these women, and next thing we know, you know, we're had this tent out on the lawn, and we had the great Zambini doing fireworks, and I think I washed dishes for four straight days, and I was probably the most exhausted person ever.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: But then I got this check at the end.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: I looked at it and said, Hey Dor, we're in the wedding business.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of how we got started.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's so fun to hear sort of like those nine houses, was it nine houses that you went through before the stuff?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, before Edmund Least.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: But it's so funny that like it was almost like that there was this path that was being carved for you guys to get to this point where you had maybe a little bit more of the background and you weren't walking into this going like, well, we can't do this.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, we've done this like nine, ten times.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a bigger slightly bigger.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was like you said it was a much bigger challenge because uh in the uh other properties we could you know patch the electricity, patch the plumbing, do this and that.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Literally, here there was 30 amps of electricity in the house.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, you know, plumbing that was here is only one bathroom, and all those pipes had burst and no heat uh because it had radiator heat and all the radiators had broken.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we were literally started with a shell, and then the interesting We didn't really know what we were getting into.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was a big project, but we actually settled on uh December 29th in 1987, and we opened on October 8th of 1988 with our four guest rooms, and literally uh we asked the guests not to flush the talls because they hadn't been totally hooked up yet.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: But that was good.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: That was opening the grand.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we said, okay, all the guests, we the bathrooms look fantastic.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: We said we still have to kind of finish the plumbing before we open.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: We had a Dixieland band up on the uh balcony, yeah, the when you walk in the grand front porch.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: We um they were playing Dixieland, and um uh one of uh our claim to fame was that um Johnny and Inus, we were we were friends with and he was at the at the opening party, and it was like um it was so much fun just envisioning what well this could this could work.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: We're not really sure of all the details, and then our business plans kept growing, and we had a relationship with the Tawny Town Bank and Trust, and we would put together a plan, and and there were a couple people who believed in us over there, and they'd say to Richard, like it was the handshake days, sure, you know, um we'll we'll learn you XYZ and we expanded to nine rooms, then we did outbuildings, the carriage the sleigh.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: We kept uh we knew the we needed the quantity of rooms to to make the bottom line work.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's Richard's MO, making the bottom line work.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: I can spend the money on the drapes and the wallpaper.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: Richard has to figure out the bottom line, but then we bought um the uh all the mill houses that were built in like the uh early nine in late 1900s for workers at the old mill in Tawnytown, they were contiguous to our property.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: So we started buying them and restoring them.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: So we're up to 40 guest rooms now, a fine dining restaurant that's award-winning, amazing wine cellar.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: So we have the culinary uh nailed.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's fabulous.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then the I think the property's beautiful and the architecture's spectacular.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: We tried so hard not to alter any of the uh ruin the 14-foot ceilings and the gorgeous original windows by we had Richard designed hiding all of the heating, plumbing, all the works are hidden, and so it really is like walking into a any beautiful National Historic Trust property, yeah.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: But but you get to use it, and that's the cool part, you know, it's not roped off, everybody's running around.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: Can't go in that room.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: We have a great uh we have this really cute pub that everybody loves.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know how it grew, and yeah.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say, how do you go from that cold November day with like nothing working, 30 amps of power?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, you have much more than 30 amps of power in your house if you don't know that already.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um we literally ran a hundred amp panel to our garage.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is probably the size of the garage that we have, it's probably smaller.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: I remember plugging in something like a blow dryer or something, and the 30, that was it.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: That blew up the 30 amps, and then we had zero.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: Zero.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but how do you go from skeleton to 40 rooms, a full wedding business?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what was there like a thought before, or was it just like, let's just dive in and we'll figure out what it's an interesting thing because having to uh you know redo any of these other houses and things like that, we really kind of thought that we probably were going to flip Antrim at some point in time.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we had a a couple who um came to us and had a property in Lexington, Virginia, which was the old governor's house, which they had given to Washington Lee University, and they had been in a lawsuit with Washington Lee um and trying to get the house back because they didn't think the university was really using it correctly.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Anyhow, make a long story short, we went down and looked at it and we put together a business plan for that property.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but as we kind of thought about it and relocating and everything else, we decided that we were gonna stay at Antrim.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: But we then took that business plan and adapted it and then put it to, you know, towards Antrim.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so in 1992, that's when we expanded to uh 13 rooms, redid a bunch of outbuildings, opened a restaurant, and really, you know, built the pavilion, which really gave us the ability to have weddings and keep the restaurant open on Saturday nights.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was kind of when we said, okay, we're in here 100%, we're probably not gonna be leaving for a while, and made the big investment to kind of just build the business.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you had this big plan for somewhere else, and then you just ended up doing all the big stuff right where you already were here.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm curious though, if you could speak just for a second to the vendors, the business owners that are listening, and they're in this spot where you guys were the November day where you're like, okay, I can see the picture of this thing that could work, could be a big booming business that could, you know, move mountains, so to speak.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: What's your best advice for them in that moment to kind of take the plunge, take the leap, you know, jump off the cliff a little bit and like start the thing that's not fully figured out yet?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the the funniest thing about it was maybe about two years after we kind of started a business, they uh asked Dort if she would um teach a course at Carol Community College on how to run start a bed and breakfast.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was gonna be Dort was gonna talk about the fun aspect or the running the back bed and breakfast, and my job was to talk about the nuts and bolts, the insurance and everything.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I went first, and about two hours later, this woman meekly in the back goes, Is there anything good you can say?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was, and I said, I said, Don't worry, my wife is next, and you all will be 100% back in.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because it does have its great attributes, and but you also have to realize there's an awful lot that goes into it.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's lots of different fees and hurdles you have to, you know, pass, and uh it's even more complicated today with regulations and things, and some of the stuff we were able to do then would be more difficult to do today.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sure.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you really have to kind of look at it and say, how how is how's this really gonna work and how can I get past this and really understand the regulations and everything else?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And when it comes to the other part of the business, the fun part, that comes natural.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: You have to have a natural instinct in order to do that.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm curious how the passion of everything kind of fits in for you with like the nuts and bolts version that he's bringing to the table.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I can everybody teases me because I I'm an interior designer before I became um an antrim uh worker owner.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I can look at a space.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it could be a brown paper bag, you know, and and my vision are colors and fabrics and and um balance and um elegant beauty without it being, you know, over like not approachable.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we also have a uh background in antiques because Richard's mom was in the antique business.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: And since he was a little boy, you would go to um at once a year, she would go to London to the Burnsley Market, which is something famous in London.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: And you go at five o'clock in the morning.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a uh antique flea market, but like you know, never you've never seen before.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: And Richard would carry his mom's bags around or something.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what yeah.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and his passion for antiques, we always tease him because he's uh very good at um silver, china, the brass accessories that go in the fireplace.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: He has um so together we can pretty much make uh something look very um uh special and uh romantic is um I think soft uh fabrics and the uh I I'll probably get this one chopped off, but the minimalist look is not for me.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's gonna stay in.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: I need the fabric, the tassels, the trims.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: You heard it here first.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: The tie backs.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not gonna change.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, I think the two of us together that helped the vision because we knew we could get to that point uh easily and collect.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's so much fun to which I think it's it could be difficult for some that are in business just by themselves.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: You have to bring the passion and the creativeness and also bring the nuts and bolts and making sure that you know the bottom line is being met.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I also think one of our um uh natural aspects, like Richard said, you have to have that passion.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: It has to come, you can't take a course and become a hospitable, gracious, over-the-top um hostess or host.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, that's almost got it.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: You've got to have that passion.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we've always enjoyed entertaining, and that's very key.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: You just that's this business, really.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Especially from the venue perspective.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: What is that about the people?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because I mean, the the wedding business is so people focused.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Has it always been enjoyable to to be working alongside so many people and having like in this venue space, like you got different people coming through the doors constantly?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the interesting part about that is that um when when we first started, it was uh Dort and Mike, but Mike was more of the chef, and Dort was more of the wedding coordinator, and we really created some amazing relationships.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: We still have people who come back today 30 some years later and look for us.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, we tell our staffs, you know, we used to cook breakfast, we used to do this, and they all kind of okay, right.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, hey, yep, you walk five miles in the snow and stuff, and and then these people would come back and go, oh, Richard used to cook breakfast for us and totally and so oh oh also we're being validated, yeah.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and so, you know, again, I think part of our success, um, I really leaned towards Dorothy on the fact that she was able to make these connections with brides and grooms and created a really great relationship.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that really, you know, that was that was before the internet and before, you know, the novel.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: All the stuff that we're doing, and you're not getting reviews online and stuff.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was just a matter of just doing a great job and people and word of mouth and that type of thing.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, advertising was totally different in those days, and uh, and so it's about being being genuine to your customers, and they were more than just customers, they were you know became great friends.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I love that.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's a testament to a business working over the long term.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're way more focused on the people and the people having a good experience and more people learning about that good experience and just snowballing it that way.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the um trickiest thing um is the relationship that you have with your staff and training your staff to think and hope they, you know, buy in it if probably it's like a coach of a you know, football team or something.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: You don't buy into the coaches, you might as well like hit you know, hit the road.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: So we would we were so lucky to have some of the most incredible uh staff members who would, you know, we would do anything for each other.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: So if it was a tough day, the you know, they would kick in or vice versa, or if they had, you know.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: So those relationships.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Or uh just as important as the client who's a it's a 24, you know, when the wedding's over, like we'll we might see them for their anniversary, but the the staff is our we've always been genuine to the staff and tried to help them.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so interesting because I hear a lot of photographers mostly that go down like an associate photographer route where they have people shooting for them, like lead shooting for them, and it doesn't work.
• 22:30
  unknown: Yeah.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I wonder how um, you know, without that sort of day-to-day working that you guys would probably have with staff here earlier on, um, when things were kind of just starting out, um, I feel like it just takes the time, like the face-to-face time for them to absolutely to buy into like what you're what you're talking about.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: True.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we were very lucky because you know, we had some young girls who were like sisters and cousins, and they all were from Tawnytown, and they would they were just unbelievable.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And their moms who work for us, so we had these families, and one family was uh their last name was Mormon, but we call them the Mormon family.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: People go, Oh, this is a religious section you have going on here.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, no, there's just this one family.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: And literally, I think between the cousins, the brothers, the sisters, the moms, there must have been 18 or 20 who worked here at one point in time.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: And we just had an amazing relationship with them.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the uh the last one, Donna, um, just retired maybe 10 years ago.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: So she was uh over 25 years with us.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so we know uh and they really bought into what what we were our vision, and that was made so much easier to translate that to the vision of the bride or what was trying to be accomplished that day.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious some of the things that make Antrim different than you know, the other venues that might be around.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: When you come to Antrim, it's a soup the nuts experience.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: So when you meet a wedding coordinator with Jill or Katie, that person's with you from the very start, the day you walk on property till the day you have your wedding or their your wedding day with a lot of venues hand you off to a wedding a banquet manager or something like that.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: And they're always there for a wedding.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: You don't need a wedding, they're actually in the way.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: Our wedding coordinators are so professionally trained for Antrim.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: You can't do things you do at a DC hotel because we're we probably wouldn't need to do it.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's I think that the problem is when uh venues call people that work there coordinators or planners, they all mean something different.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's that's part of the issue is like when you come to a venue and they say, Here's our coordinator, that could mean day of, they just jump in last second and then just run the day, or it could mean like what you're talking about, Richard, where they're they're literally helping you plan the whole thing and they're with you, they're helping you the whole way.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it's like picking a college.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think when you step on the campus, you know if that one's for you or not.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: When you book a wedding here at Antrim, everything is pretty much included.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's a one price, one-stop shop.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we have a preferred vendor list that we just are very particular about who is on that vendor list.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you know that when the bride calls that vendor, they're gonna be satisfied for that vendor.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: He's gonna show up on time, he's gonna do a good job, and respect the property, and respect the property, and respect nothing's worse than the somebody who thinks that, well, I can drive in the middle of your lawn because I'm a musician.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh no, you can't.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's you it's usually the photographers and biographers that get in trouble.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's us, it's us.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh, let's do this creative thing, and the venue's like, uh, no, you're not even supposed to be over there.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we have we have a rule in the pavilion that you can't hang anything from the chandeliers because they're matching chandeliers, and I'll go in there and a florist will have like a florist we don't know.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Two tons of green flags.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like uh guess what?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: You're buying both of them if we have a problem here.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and that's why we love a preferred vendor because we know we don't have to go and police him and stuff.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to use our preferred vendors.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, if you have your own florist that you deal with or your own, you know, idea of what a ban you want or whatever, that's fine.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: But we also are very particular about when they come on property that they understand our rules and regulations and work with us too.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Not just a bribe, but they have to work with us too.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, we A, we know what's best for the property and what's really going to work.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: And B, the you know, that uh it can't be you can't get here two days early and start decorating a pavilion or something.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: We just have to make sure that you work within our parameters.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I talk about this on the podcast all the time.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: If the vendor team, and that could include the venue as well, or people from the venue, if everyone's working together for the common good of, in your case, the space that you guys have that we're using, but also the couple, then you're never gonna have a spot where someone's like overstepping and you know, thinking like it's not about them, right?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's sometimes sometimes we need to be reminded of that.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I find that sometimes with with musicians at times or a DJ and say, actually, they're not actually here to see you, uh, they're actually here for the wedding.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you're just a big part of it, and it's great.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: You but you know, we were actually gonna do what the ride and groom wants to do today, and we're gonna work with what how the venue and how it's working with everybody else and our timing.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's and sometimes that can be very challenging.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um but we and again, that's why preferred vendors, we know that they're gonna work, they understand what our parameters are and time slats are, and uh, we want to be on time, the bride wants to be on time, and timing is very important when you're doing a wedding and it for the bride to get all the things that she wants to get accomplished.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, besides the preferred vendors list, what other questions should couples be coming to the venue with ready to, you know, get more information so they can make the best choice for themselves?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you always have to be um aware that there should be a plan B for the ceremony, because everyone wants to be in our magnificent uh renowned rose garden with the arbors and the fountains, and but what happens, you know, you have to think of a plan B.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: And we have a lovely um couple of different choices, and of course, your wedding coordinator will walk you through plan B.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes it's the day of darn it, we're gonna have to move the ceremony in indoors, but we um uh we have so many spaces here that uh appeal to so many different um brides.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's mostly the brides who chooses where they want to walk down the aisle or down the stairs or down the, you know, uh that seems to be more of a girls, a brides thing.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: But we do have lots of um, believe it or not, lots of options here.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: And plan B is an important question because Mother Nature's very fickle.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think the plan B, even if it's not here at Antrim and it's at some other venue or you're in some other state, um, going to the venue tour and saying, like, hey, what are other spaces that we could use?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: In case.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: In case there's weather, in case this, in case that.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: And even just an idea of like, hey, if we had less people come, could we use a different room?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or if we had more people come, can we still use the same room that we're thinking?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some of that you have to have like some details figured out before you come.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: But um there's so many questions you should ask your wedding coordinator because she's seen it all from people with two people at the wedding to 400 people at the wedding with the with the tent on the croquet lawn.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, so there's so many questions you can ask, but they are all answerable.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you you keep bringing up the food side of things here, and I'm curious how how do you guys handle food for weddings and um the events and stuff?
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you could even kind of talk to the other venue owners that might be curious, like, oh, what do they do for food?
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: I honestly I'm gonna defer the the food to Richard because he runs the he's he runs the restaurant part of the uh food and and beverage end of of Antrim.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think um one of the accolades we seem to get most of is how it's some of the best food people have ever had at a wedding, which is really, really you know, rewarding to us.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Our executive chef um has been with us for three years and he's been amazing.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: And when you plan your menu, you're planning your menu with that chef.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's we don't have a banquet chef.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: The food that comes out of that kitchen is the same food that is coming out of the same kitchen that our award-winning restaurant gets.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you're getting that value, that value of food, and that quality of food, and everything is prepared and served hot.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll do a 200-person wedding, and we will say entrees have to be out every table within 18 minutes.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're very particular, but it's hot and it's correct, and it's really rewarding, and you know, so again, it comes to timing, it comes to being on top of things, but when you're here, we have you know, when you book your wedding with us, we then set up a menu, we give you menu choices, and we'll set up a menu tasting, and you'll be able to sit down.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have any questions, the chef would be available to answer those questions and we design your menu for you.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's again an individual, each individual has their opportunity to design their own menu.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I feel like I'm hearing more that venues, and maybe if you're if you're a couple listening, you might experience this more that venues want a little bit more control on the food side of things.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I've noticed, and just like thinking through like if I was a couple or if I was a guest and I'm sitting down ready to eat dinner at a wedding, the food comes out cold or not quite right.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's so easy for that person, I think, to think, oh, Antrim's food was not good.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it was some outside catering company that was just pumping out food, it's like, oh, Antrim's photographer is weird.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what a weird photographer that it it's like this weird thing, I think, that it just like everything gets lumped into the venue.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: And leaves a bad impression.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And leaves a bad impression.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it's like, you know, that's not a photographer that's on our preferred vendors list, but it just goes to show, I think, um, you know, putting intention into the food side of things and having that opportunity to, you know, have your hand on that to make sure that the quality stays so important.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: Whoa, how did how did you that food is so the filet was perfect, the temperature was at the crab case?
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, How do you do that?
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because another thing, our servers are ours.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: So your weight staff is trained and they know how to get uh you know, around those, you know, tables around the at uh the right timing is so important.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean and I think when you were talking about questions uh that you would ask a venue, if the venue itself is not producing the food, they're doing an outside catering venue list.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: I would really be yeah, particular about checking out those uh the vendors who are the caterers who are gonna be doing it, and exactly what each catering company is offering, what they whether it's the alcohol portion, whether it's the food portion, and it makes sure that that's gonna fit your vision of what you want that day.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it really makes a huge difference because again, now you're working with the venue and you're also working now with the food and a different whole different aspect of it.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: But if they're not together, they're not in sync, that could affect your whole day.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's when kind of the grooms get involved.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: They seem to be the foodies and the winey, you know, they want to know that if there's wine service, these are good questions, like for for a bride and groom to ask about wine service at dinner, champagne toast.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: What should, you know, uh recommend?
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um you don't this is a terrible thing to say, maybe, but you don't want to waste the precious aspects of your reception that you work so hard from the ceremony on grounds to the last uh, you know, to the the the sparklers or whatever at the end.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, it timing, like Richard said, you don't want to wait forever for a dinner.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it's just it's just a fact, yeah.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_02: Dinner is fabulous.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: If it's a uh A plus 100%, that's a that's huge bonus.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what happens here at Antrim.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: But um it the timing.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, have you ever been somewhere?
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like two and a half hours later, it's like, well, and everybody is probably drunk because they haven't eaten anything.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're starving.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was wondering in that at a at a recent one.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: We have bars all over the place.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: So um I I think we've got it down to the street.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: I literally I was at a wedding and I I was talking to the the uh videographer and I was like, how is everyone not just like plastered right now?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, oh, they probably were challenged now because there was a huge set out for for hors d'oeuvres and and appetizers and stuff, and I was like, oh yeah, that makes sense.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um but um I'm curious uh on the like B side that kind of corresponds with the weddings.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um are you seeing a lot of couples that are kind of using the rooms and staying kind of for the weekend, or is it kind of just they pop in for the wedding and then they pop out?
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: I would say um the rooms had become very, very popular.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and that's one of the reasons why we've expanded over the years, having enough rooms to be available to to brides.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: We changed our policy a couple years ago where uh now if you book a wedding, we will guarantee you 30 guest rooms would be allowed upon your initial booking.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: But we also now allow the bride.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: So if there's a Friday uh bride and a Saturday, and we want to do a rehearsal dinner, we know that you're gonna get at least 10 rooms that you can do your rehearsal dinner and have 10 rooms for you know your wedding party or parents or whatever.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we also have a dedicated person who does nothing but room wedding rooms and we'll you know, we'll be once you sign a contract with us, they want to be in contact with you, describe exactly how our rooms uh work.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have very particular rules about how our rooms work, actually more to protect you than to protect the property.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we think it's really, really a good thing.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: You you actually book building by building, not room by room.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: That way you don't have, you know, a couple of your fraternity brothers who haven't seen each other for the last four years, having someone who's having their 25th wedding anniversary.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, so it makes a so we really do look out for you and want to make sure that you have the best setup.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it really works out well.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh From the bride's point of view.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: From the bride's point of view.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um to have all your bridesmaids, your sisters, your moms, you know, in the same space.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: It takes them for uh a little bit longer to get ready.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just a little bit more.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: A couple minutes extra.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: So the guys are in their tuxedas playing pickleball down on the court for hours while the girls are getting ready.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: And the um uh that just adds another wonderful um family uh friend touch to being in the same place instead of traveling back and forth from you know, hit hither and yon and getting there a little bit frazzled and a little minute late or something.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's so awesome to see them have fun on the property.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you get the you get a chance to see more, experience more.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of the uh best things that my wife and I did is we got the venue like for the weekend.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that Antrim does that specifically, but just the idea of spending more time here and making a weekend of it and experiencing more while you're here, I think it's so fun.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it definitely is.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we have uh facilities, we have tennis courts, croquet lawn, uh pickleball, swimming pool.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you can use all those facilities and kind of really relax and really kind of have a like you're saying, a great weekend together.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: And we we feel that um that having the rooms really makes the bride a little more relaxed.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when you get back to questions they should ask the venue, um if they're don't have rooms on the property, where is the most the closest?
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: Where is the hotel that they would work with?
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: Plan ahead a little bit.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so they can plan ahead so they know about room blocks and different things that uh different hotels would do, the distance from the hotels to the property, all these things make a big difference, especially if you're selecting a venue and you're expecting a lot of Valentine gas.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that just reminds me of the save the date, um, which usually comes out um from the bride and groom, maybe six months before the wedding.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's really important that you have some ducks in a row for additional accommodations, or is there uh any uh like car service or all those questions to help your guest feel comfortable to that?
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I have one more question for you guys.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: If if you could picture where Antrim will be in the next like five or ten years, you guys have been in this for a long time.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we'll have to pick picture that from heaven because we probably don't.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: You got five.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, you got at least five.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: Tell you that to be a few.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: We'll say ten, we'll say five.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: We'll say five.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you guys have you guys have built an amazing space here, and you've been in business for a long time.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just curious, you know, even after all those years, like where do you guys see Antrim going in the next five years?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think that, you know, um one of the positive is, and Dort kind of mentioned this earlier, is we have a fantastic staff.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm here on a property pretty much every day.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I don't have to be here as much as I used to be.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I might come in for four or five, six hours and used to be 12, 13 hours.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_01: And Dort used to be on property a lot more than she is now, but she can come in and help when we have decorations when we have to.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: She actually does all the Christmas decorations and puts everything up.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: And by hand, we have some what we have some elves that come in and help us.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: But so I think in five years, I think we'll be where we are now, but we're always growing.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, for example, we lost a a site which was kind of a more of a less formal site um that um you know we used to do weddings in, and it's taken us five years just for that site to develop, and now it's called the Boxwood Gardens, and it's beautiful, and it's creating a beautiful LA, and it probably another four years is going to be spectacular.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we're planning for the future, and we're always we're building towards the future, and um, and I think the future's bright.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Dort and Richard, thank you so much for having me here at Antrim.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's been so fun already, and um just so cool to hear you guys' story, how this all kind of came to be.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, where can people that are listening and watching follow along with what you guys are doing here at Antrim?
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: We have a great website that gives you lots of information.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: We also do well on social media, so you can find us there.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we'd love for you to give us a call.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: You can call us and set up an appointment with Katie or Jill, and we'd love to hear from you.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, all those links uh will be down in the description below.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're wondering what the website is or what social media platforms, that'll all be down there for y'all to click on.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I appreciate you guys again.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys are listening or watching, uh it'd be amazing.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be so helpful if you just share this with a friend who would benefit from hearing the story that Rich and Dort uh shared.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh, you know, if you could leave us a review, leave a comment, ask a question, I'll be there.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be there to respond.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I just appreciate you guys so much for tuning in if you've made it this far.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's all for this episode, Antrim 1844, and we'll catch you guys next time on the preferred list.