One of a kind wedding venue with a classic & rustic flare
Pine Ridge Country Club weddings are extremely popular in the Lake County area. Not only does this fantastic wedding venue have amazing views with the classic original designs and paned windows but the service and food is phenomenal!
Our good friends at Dinos catering also runs Manakiki and Acacia. Pine Ridge, however, is a favorite amongst most couples. There are two rooms to celebrate in at this venue. First is the lower ballroom which accommodates smaller groups. It doesn’t have the glamour or character of the main ballroom but it’s still lovely. With that said, it does feature an outdoor patio space which is always fantastic. The main ballroom upstairs is what most couples reserve for a Pine Ridge Country Club wedding. It has a gorgeous backdrop and can accommodate approximately 220 guests.
When you first walk into the main entrance and through the doors, there is a grand, curved staircase. This leads you up to the pre-function area for cocktail hour. The cocktail area is a combination of rooms and the bars are conveniently set up in two areas next to each other in separate rooms. After cocktail hour has concluded, guests are asked to make their way to the main ballroom for dinner.
Dark wood beamed ceilings and stucco style walls
Everything about a Pine Ridge Country Club wedding is unique, classic and undeniably breathtaking. An amazing backdrop for any wedding at any time of the year. Its beauty and significant charm that it lends to couples, is something your guests will never forget.
Being in the Cleveland wedding DJ business for over 30 years, Selective Sound Entertainment has done plenty of accent up-lighting, Monograms, DJ entertainment as well as some live musicians.
For more info regarding your Pine Ridge Country Club wedding needs, Contact us here.
https://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//2020/12/Screen-Shot-2020-12-20-at-6.11.44-PM.jpg14221104Jay r Richhttps://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//SSE_WIDE_COLOR_LOGO-2.jpgJay r Rich2020-12-20 18:24:302022-01-06 15:07:21#20 of our Favorite Wedding Venues | Pine Ridge
One of Cleveland Ohios' best kept secrets, The Madison
The Madison, in Cleveland has been known as “one of the best kept secrets” for a very long time. Even so, this industrial-chic venue is quickly becoming one of the most talked about wedding reception venues that Cleveland has to offer. And for good reason!
The Madison in Cleveland is nestled just east of downtown. This charming old building was originally built in the early 1900’s for a luxury faucet manufacturer. Then, the 22,000 square foot warehouse sadly sat empty for decades. Thankfully, the owner and his team had a vision and years later that vision came to life.
Without a doubt, The Madison is a perfect combination where vintage meets modern contemporary. Even at its bare bones, The Madison, in Cleveland, permeates classiness. It is a true blank footprint that can be anything you want it to be. It takes some time and true vision to design. However, if you hire the right people, it can easily exceed your own expectations.
Selective Sound Entertainment and Events is a Cleveland wedding DJ company as wells as a lighting production company. It has always been our goal to exceed our clients’ expectations. In fact, if you browse through our reviews you will see that we have been accomplishing this for many years. With this said, we would love to do the same for you too! Our lighting design team as well as our production team would be thrilled to transform The Madison in Cleveland for you. Contact us today so we can get started.
Unique Ways Selective Sound has transformed the Madison in Cleveland:
https://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//2020/12/IMG_4304-scaled.jpeg966725Jay r Richhttps://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//SSE_WIDE_COLOR_LOGO-2.jpgJay r Rich2020-12-02 20:44:052020-12-18 08:58:47#1 of our Favorite Wedding Venues in 25 days | The Madison
What You Need To Know About The Cuyahoga County Courthouse
We’re back with more information you can use to plan your Cuyahoga County Courthouse wedding! If you haven’t already, check out our previous post about on basics of this downtown Cleveland event space. We’re going deeper this time with more specialized tips including information on catering, entertainment and lighting. This is one of the most sought after and unique venues available to couples and that’s why it’s worth investing a lot of time into looking at the space with open eyes before committing.
It Has Character
While there are venues in Cleveland that are more affordable spaces to rent for a wedding, they usually require you to invest in decor in order to make it more grand looking. This is not the case with the Cuyahoga County Courthouse. Less is more because the venue is bold, big and breathtaking. When comparing venues, make sure to take this into consideration. The money you save on decor might be the difference you need to make the Courthouse fit your budget. Decor choices should be more subtle and reflect your sensibilities more than anything else. There’s no need (and no way) to cover up any of the look of the architecture. The goal should be to embrace the aesthetic and not overdo it. Here are a few tips from our founder, Jeremy “Jay R” Rich:
Lighting Design at the Cuyahoga County Courthouse
Not all lighting designs work in this venue. Because the building is not a neutral blank slate, going against its established design features is a waste if even possible. What works here is subtly. Warming up or cooling down the features of the venue is one technique that works and can make for some striking designs. If you start with trying to narrow down the feeling of what you want for the look of the night vs. getting into specifics, you’ll be in a much better place to collaborate with a true lighting designer who understands this venue. Ultimately, it’s your decisions that we’ll go with but we won’t hesitate to inform you on the building’s strengths and weaknesses. When you choose true professionals, you get more than order takers…you get invested consulting. Here’s what Jay R has to say about lighting at the Cuyahoga Country Courthouse:
Sound Works Differently Here
One thing you’ll hear about from any wedding supplier who works at the Cuyahoga County Courthouse is the acoustics are a little different there. This space couldn’t be less like a hotel ballroom with their uniform shaped rooms, typical ceiling heights, and soft sound absorbent surfaces. The Courthouse has none of those features! This is a marble very open space with pillars which would be a challenge for an entertainer less familiar with what they would be getting into there. Here are what Jay R says you should take into account because of the uniqueness of the Cuyahoga County Courthouse:
We hope all these tips we’ve shared as the result of years of experience serving couples at this historic and grand venue make a difference in your planning. If you have a specific question that was not addressed here, feel free to drop Jay R a line!
https://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//2019/08/Cuyahoga-County-Courthouse-Cleveland.jpg10801920Jay r Richhttps://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//SSE_WIDE_COLOR_LOGO-2.jpgJay r Rich2019-08-27 14:27:492019-08-27 14:27:49Cuyahoga County Courthouse Tips For Lighting, Entertainment and More
Wedding Planning Tips from Cleveland Wedding Expert Jay R Rich
Selective Sound Entertainment (SSE)’s founder, Jeremy Rich, has been helping couples with their dream days for over two decades. While each couple has different tastes, goals, and visions, many experience the exact same pitfalls in their planning experience. The reason for this is varied. Typically, this is due to the enormous amount of pressure and lack of experience in planning their own wedding. A driving force behind this blog is to educate couples in order to avoid these issues regardless if they end up working with our company or not. We want to work for the couples who we are a good fit for. Our goal is to make sure everyone can benefit from the experience. The wedding planning tips we share enable couples to have a much better experience leading up to their ceremony and reception.
We sat down with Jay R in order to document as much wisdom as possible to share with you. As you will hear on the video, Jay R is very passionate about wedding DJ entertainment, lighting design, videography, photo booths as well as live wedding music. However, he spent most of his time discussing how couples end up with up so much stress. This is mostly due to planning and communication issues. Many of these issue can be avoided but it requires everyone involved getting as organized as possible. The following is a compilation of a few of the biggest wedding planning tips Jay R discussed in the interview.
Choosing a Vendor on Price Alone
Meet with the vendor you have in mind before you sign a contract.
The difference between offering value and being the least expensive can be vast. Low price offerings don’t automatically mean an inferior product or service. However, there are usually reasons why a vendor is so much less than their competitors, especially with wedding DJ’s. Wedding entertainment has no barrier to entry. To be a professional DJ doesn’t come with any tests or certifications. In fact, many do it for fun on the weekends while mostly focusing on their day job. While that’s admirable, there’s a level of professionalism and honing of your craft that you never reach unless you put in the time and are “all in”.
Another limitation with working for people with low prices because of a low overhead is a lack of back-up systems. With Selective Sound, we invest money in training our team members before they ever lead an event. We also have warehouse staff, on-call entertainers, and technicians available as runners. If something happens to your entertainer on the way to your wedding or if a piece of technology breaks down, we are always prepared.
Well-paid professionals are also one of the reasons we have maintained a long history in Cleveland as trustworthy professionals. We keep the people happy who are in the position to make or break an event. This is because they are talented and reliable. We’ve seen a lot of the lowest bidding entertainers come and go. This is because they didn’t have a sustainable business and couldn’t maintain their credibility. There’s no do-over for a wedding reception. Therefore, you need to make sure you ask all the right questions when you are choosing who will help make your day the way you want it.
Budget – Be Open and Honest
Open communication is the key to success!
We’ve written before about the importance of setting your budget early before you start the hunt for vendors. This may be one of the most crucial of wedding planning tips. Jay R believes this is a critical point on the road to success for families celebrating a wedding. Make sure everyone with a vested stake in the wedding gets their say and lays out what they are willing to contribute. This form of open communication and organization should follow through to your conversations with those you are willing to hire as well.
While your research online may have turned up pricing and packages for the vendors you want, it’s always worth having a conversation with them. This way you can see if there is something they can offer that would meet your goals while staying in your budget. You’d be surprised by how much creativity and budgets are connected. A true professional isn’t going to change their pricing because they were asked to go lower. However, they can offer you alternative solutions that have less hard costs, such as labor and less products.
All of this is to say that the biggest regrets couples have had seems to center around compromises they made for the sake of their budget. This, unfortunately, resulted in selecting vendors that didn’t perform. The best way to get around this is to talk about budgets early, often and with everyone while asking your preferred vendors to be creative.
Meet Face to Face
Millennials and Generation Z are the most skilled researchers of any generations. That’s because they’re adapt at seeking out online information in order to make better buying decisions. That said, we still advise you to meet with the vendors you are considering face to face. Some wedding pros look better online than they do in reality. This is due to slick marketing. Others could look ideal but when you meet with them you immediately don’t connect.
We think online research is extremely important to decision making for weddings in Cleveland. According to Jay R, listings like The Knot and Wedding Wire work because they are peer reviews. Research can get you 80% of what you need to make a decision so we agree that reviews, videos, testimonials etc. are useful to pick your top few choices. After that, make at least three appointments with the most important vendor types (venue, catering, DJ/entertainment, photographers) in order to have an in-person talk to see if you click. It might seem like a redundant step but it can make a huge difference.
For More Wedding Planning Tips – Watch The Video
Here’s the video of Jay R being interviewed about decisions couples regret making. We don’t want to scare anyone with negativity but it’s important to us that you learn these lessons the easy way before your big day.
https://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//2019/03/wedding-planning-tips-cleveland-djs.png6081080Jay r Richhttps://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//SSE_WIDE_COLOR_LOGO-2.jpgJay r Rich2019-03-04 21:42:272019-07-10 12:22:54Expert Wedding Planning Tips So You Don't Regret Your Wedding In Cleveland
Most people will tell you there are stages you go through from the minute you are engaged to the day of your wedding. It’s a roller-coaster of emotions and decisions. Many veteran wedding professionals have advice for couples on any aspect they are asked about. They simply have far more experience dealing with weddings than most of their clients. That said, there’s one recommendation we give that is a bit different than a lot of our peers. That is, build your wedding guest list before you create your budget. We really think it’s the best first step when planning your wedding.
The number of guests you have drives every decision and especially comes into play when you consider your budget. Your guest count becomes your new multiplier. Due to this, you’ll need to know it with every meeting you have with those who would potentially be involved in your wedding. Wedding cakes are sold by the slice, caterers charge by the plate, and each centerpiece is one per table. This of course, means everything revolves around the number of attendees from your wedding guest list.
For what we offer, the guest count comes into play for the amount of equipment we need to make sure sound is ideal. On top of that, possible decor features such as pin-spotting for centerpieces are contingent on knowing your multiplier. The amount of space you will actually be using in your venue can impact where the best placement of the dance floor should be and potentially even the use of pipe and drape. Even photo booths hinge your wedding guest list for things like printing, novelties and speed. If you work together on your ideal list first, you can use that number to drive the rest of your conversations.
Not Everyone Will Come
Download a wedding guest list template
A lot has been written about the typical percentage of those who RSVP for weddings. We don’t believe there is a consistent percentage across the board. However, there are many factors to consider when speculating your count. With weddings in Cleveland, you have to think about the weather. You probably know that snow is possible between October and April. This can definitely keep many people from traveling on the roads. Travel in general makes a big difference when it comes to your wedding guest list. If most of your guests are in-between Akron / Canton and Cleveland, Ohio, expect a higher turnout due to the decreased financial burden.
The percentage of family vs. friends can make a difference too. Family tend to find a way to make it happen more often than friends. Finally, take into account seasonality. Are the Cleveland Browns playing on that date? Do you have a lot of summer vacationers on your wedding guest list? Are there guests in college? Lots of questions like this can give you a somewhat clearer picture. Bottom line, you won’t know for sure who will RSVP but it won’t be 100%.
Kids or No Kids?
There are a lot of opinions about kids at weddings…many of them are strong ones. We provide detached council when it comes to questions about kids. This is because it can work as often as it doesn’t and it’s ultimately your decision. You know your crowd better than we do. And, either way, you are the one who will have to deal with the ramifications. One piece of advice we do have is to be consistent with your policy. A surefire way to make people feel alienated is to have a policy that isn’t equal. Most of the time, it is a pretty safe play to go with all or nothing when it comes to kids. The gains and benefits from having or not having kids around at your wedding don’t add up to more than the cost of hurting anyone’s feelings. Be fair, communicate and stick to your guns.
Create A Tiered Wedding Guest List
Your wedding guest list will ultimately determine the size of your venue and so many other things.
As mentioned, not everyone you invite will attend and your guest count makes a big difference on your budget. Since you know this when creating your wedding guest list, consider sending out invitations in waves based on tiers. If you do that, you’ll be able to add others as spaces open up. Creating tiers has its own challenges, of course. Usually more than one person has a say as to who is invited. If there are multiple decision makers weighing in on who is invited, give them each an allowance of guests. By doing that, you’ll even out the impact of who gets to come for sure and who is on standby.
Couples Are Two Times The Guests
If you are looking at pairing down your guest list, then we know it’s obvious that guests’ plus ones make up half of your list. A common point of contention we’ve seen over and over are couples who get upset at guests who bring dates they don’t see as valid. Like with the inclusion of children, breakdowns in expectations from ambiguity. The clearest ways to communicate who is a valid plus one and who isn’t is by saying anyone can bring a plus one or only married couples can come as a unit. This clear cut rule is routed in fairness.
Venue Limitations
The guest list determines so much. Number of centerpieces, how much food, which venue, etc.
The first questions couples ask during a tour of a venue is almost always “How many guests can your venue accommodate?” The amount of guests in a venue has many factors including safety, comfort, legality, room flow, etc. Against all that, they are running a business. More guests means more revenue for the space and a larger cut from your budget to you. That’s why it’s important to work with professionals who have a great reputation and don’t take chances. It’s also a good idea to look at pictures of the venue with a configuration similar to what you are looking at. There’s sometimes a distance between what a venue can legally accommodate and what is ideal for your guests.
We work with venues all the time to take in many different factors in order to have a win/win for everyone. Once we know your guest count, we can call upon our experiences in a specific venue. Then we can help draft a floor plan that makes it look like it was built for the exact number you have. If you are ever unsure about how a specific venue will accommodate the number of attendees you’ll be having, feel free to ask us. We’ll be one hundred percent honest with you. Even more, we’ll also provide you with options that can help manipulate the space to make it perfect for you.
In Summary
While we provide wedding entertainment, lighting, photo booths and other entertainment, our goal is to do more than that. We want to be your partner. While most event companies stress the creation of the budget as the first move you should make, we know weddings of any budget can be special as long as you have the right people there celebrating with you. Reach out if you are looking for a team with over two decades of wedding experience in your corner.
https://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//gatsby-tablesetting.jpeg7211080Jay r Richhttps://selectivesound.com/wp-content/uploads//SSE_WIDE_COLOR_LOGO-2.jpgJay r Rich2019-01-11 17:08:572020-03-12 21:13:39The Importance of Your Wedding Guest List
