Your thoughts on my future carreer change

[EddieWalker]

While nothing is set in stone, my thought is to be the place to have the wedding or event, but not actually provide any services other then set up table and chairs, and clean up afterwards. I will not be involved in food or drinks. I wont be involved in decorating or flowers, or a DJ, photographer or band. That is all up to the person wanting to book the location. My involvement will be very limited.

As for the building, my plans are to have a great room with a view of the pond and into the wildlife preserve. It will have a large deck on the pond side that should be able to hold smaller groups up to 100 people. The great room should be able to hold twice that, but I'm still working on how to seat 300 and still have a dance floor. I've been to quite a few weddings where everyone was spread out all over the place, and I've been to those with everyone sitting together. Together is better!! There will be a changing room for the bride with it's own bathroom and seating for bridesmaids. Also something similar for the groom. I'm going with separate bathrooms for men and women like in a restaurant. There will be a large storage area similar to a garage on an house for storing tables and chairs. Probably portable heaters and fans too. And space for other stuff that I don't know about. The kitchen and bar will both be open to the great room. I'm going over ideas on that, but think that counter space is going to be the big issue. I don't see much need for cabinets, but will go with open shelves instead. A couple of refrigerators, freezers, ovens, cook tops, microwaves and even two sinks. I'm not sure about dish washers since I'm not planning on supplying silverware or anything that needs to be washed. The bar will have a sink, fridge and commercial ice machine.

DJ or band should be able to fit anywhere and supply all their own stuff. I'll have plenty of outlets for that. I'm also thinking of a speaker system for speeches and seminars. It will also provide a place to just play the radio or music from your phone.

I'll post a pic of the floor plan when I think I have it figured out. With this being new construction, I'm hoping to learn what others have done right and what they would do differently. When looking at websites, I'm struck by how many places lack an open floor plan. So many of them look to have been from a building designed for something else and then converted to do weddings and events. I think this will be a huge advantage for me when comparing what I build to my competition.

Eddie

 

[dave1949]

I think the challenge may be to provide both open space for large events and more intimate spaces for smaller gatherings. 40-50 people in a space designed for 300 + dancing is not going to be very welcoming. I wouldn't want to artificially limit the market by trying a one size fits all approach.

How that can be accomplished without taking away from the overall ambiance is a design problem. My inclination, just off the cuff, would be to have a wing or wings off the main space that is aimed at accommodating smaller groups.

Providing the facilities and offering a full catering service yourself is more than I would want to bite off, so I get that. But I do think you may be missing an opportunity to increase your return on your investment by not teaming up with someone who is your in-house caterer, plus they use your kitchen facilities as their home base for other events they may cater at other locations in the area. You make some return either way. A good food reputation is a powerful selling point. You would be stealing a page from how other businesses manage to bring expertise and services to the table without hiring a bunch of people.

There is also a market for start-up/entrepreneur kitchens rented out by the day(s) or week. Someone thinks they have the world's best recipe for something, wants to start a business, but don't have the capital to invest in an FDA approved kitchen facility. You make a return no matter what the success of the product is.

If you get a kick out of weddings, that helps , but overall I would look at this as investing a pile of money that you need to get a return on. It may be that you never own the whole thing outright and carrying debt is part of the long-term picture. I am reminded of a high school acquaintance who's family was in the rental business in a college town. His goal was to be $1 million (1968 dollars) in debt by the time he was 25 years old. If his debt service was 5% and he netted another 8%-10% above that, he is making reasonable money.

I do think you are smart for looking down the road to the day when attic crawling is not in the cards. Yours is a physically demanding profession and we all wear out eventually. You could come up with three reasonable plans for your next Act, make some notes about each then put them away for about six months while you enjoy your own new marriage. Then get them out and see how you feel about each.

 

[brin]

Eddie...Here in my country in Georgia we have zoning laws and a city fella came out and signed a contract to buy the 30 Acres next door to me and adjoining 12 other neighbors properties....He had to go to a country commission meeting to get approved for a " Special Events Facility " to have weddings, corporate events and other various meeting functions...He was going to build a facility very much like you are planning....The property already had a 2 Acre Lake....but he was going to ad the Lodge type meeting facility and other buildings and parking for 200+ cars....

We , the neighbors ,defeated him in the commission meeting and now the property has been purchase by a really nice couple with 2 children...What he wanted to do would have impacted our property values and our way of life...It would have brought crime, drunks and partiers to our quite rural neighborhood...We had to fight the commissioners...even in the press to win the fight....

Are you sure you can legally do this without getting a variance for proper zoning...? If not , do you think your neighbors will be OK with the traffic, noise and drunk folks that will be leaving the functions..

 

[mikehaugen]

There is a facility in this area yhat I have been to two wedding receptions at. One useful feature it has is folding, storable walls. I'm sure it wasn't a cheap because th hey were quite nice- you couldn't tell unless you got up very close to them, and they were quite sound proof. This adds a lot of flexibilty in the size/number of events you could have simultaneously. It could be one big room, three smaller rooms, or a small and medium sized room. It may be a consideration.

 

[EddieWalker]

Fortunately, here in East Texas, if your land is outside city limits, you can do most anything you want with it. The only permit I'll need is for the septic, and that's because of Federal Laws. The county has some restrictions on environmental concerns, but that wont affect what I'm planning on doing. The biggest concern is garbage pickup, and I'll just get a dumpster for that. The Health Department is very strict on food preparation, but with catering, it's a non issue. All the rules revolve around where the food was cooked. Alcohol laws have been changing here fairly quickly. Parts of the county have gone from dry to wet. I'll have to learn what they are, but it's not a big deal. I wont be selling it, that will all be up to the vender.

Lots to think about, thank you.

Eddie

 

[Mike_Kanzer]

Eddie-
I like the idea of a wedding venue for your property. The gazebo is truly amazing. Around here some of the small vineyards host weddings to supplement there income. Would you need to carry some type of liability insurance incase someone hurts themselves on your property? I am looking forward to see how you solve the shingling for the cupola.
- Mike

 

[riptides]

Have to jump in here, the older I get, the less I want to deal with people and things.

I want simple. And I don't want to work. Dealing with people is a lot of work. You always seemed like a jack of all trades type. I think once your build out is compete, you may have to look at management thereof and not maintenance of... if you know what I mean.

 

[TheGoose]

Eddie,

You'll probably have to install a PUBLIC SUPPLY WELL or have yours upgraded as such (may not be possible). Last one I bid was about $25K and a registered engineer will have to sign off on the plans. You'll have to submit monthly samples for testing at the county health dept.

For your viewing pleasure:
Could My Private Well or Water Supply Actually Be a Public Water System?

Fortunately, here in East Texas, if your land is outside city limits, you can do most anything you want with it. The only permit I'll need is for the septic, and that's because of Federal Laws. The county has some restrictions on environmental concerns, but that wont affect what I'm planning on doing. The biggest concern is garbage pickup, and I'll just get a dumpster for that. The Health Department is very strict on food preparation, but with catering, it's a non issue. All the rules revolve around where the food was cooked. Alcohol laws have been changing here fairly quickly. Parts of the county have gone from dry to wet. I'll have to learn what they are, but it's not a big deal. I wont be selling it, that will all be up to the vender.

Lots to think about, thank you.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

My land sits on what was once Camp Fannin, a World War 2 Army Base. They built a large sewage treatment plant and have several deep water wells that are now operated by a Municipal Utility. I have a six inch water line into my land already and access to a man hole for city sewage is 2,600 feet away. It requires a road boar under the highway, which I've had done twice already. Once for the water line, the other time for the natural gas line, so it' s not a big deal to do it again for a sewage line.

Cost for the sewer system is in the $80,000 range and it would be able to handle 200 RV's and 60 cabins easily. This is, or was, my next big step towards building the RV Park. That does not include running sewer mains throughout the land with manholes every 500 feet and at every turn in the line. My budget for just sewer was a hundred grand.

If I go with the wedding venue, I can get a septic system for each venue for ten grand. While city sewer is a huge plus, I don't think I have the need for it anymore, which removes a huge expense right off the top when comparing the two options.

Same thing with roads. Instead of building them to handle 40,000 pound motor homes, I just have to deal with 5 to ten thousand pound autos and pickups. The footage of roads goes down from miles and miles of it, to about one mile total when it's all said and done with three different venues at each corner of the land. Another huge savings, especially since I can do one at a time and add the others if and when the first one works out.

So on just utilities, it's a pretty big difference getting one started over the other.

Eddie

 

[KubotainNH]

Sounds like your land is perfect for multiple usages. Personally I like the gathering venue better, it would be less intrusive and no one bothering you at night. The raw numbers of campers with vehicles on your land would be intrusive and constant. I'll mix it up a bit with this thought though, could you start with the wedding/gathering venue on the side close to where you will be living and add a smaller R/V section with cabins in the future? The cabins could be used for the wedding folks when needed and maybe a high end cabin for honeymoons. Much better than a hotel.

Do you have an aerial picture of the land? This forum is a great place to bounce ideas around.