Listen to the Podcast About Garage B Events at The Speedway
Podcast Summary
Jenna Chillington, representing the innovative ‘Garage B Events at The Speedway’, joined host Katie Cronin on the Felix and Fingers podcast to discuss current trends and indispensable advice for creating standout events. Jenna highlighted the uniqueness of the Speedway venue, a former garage warehouse refashioned into a blank slate space, saying its unique charm supports the breakaway from standard, cookie-cutter events.
Jenna gave insight into the current wedding trends observed at Garage B Events. Vibrant colors and the use of disco balls are increasingly popular, while weddings as a whole are becoming more untraditional. Throughout the year, the Speedway venue hosted several distinctive non-traditional weddings, eschewing large bridal parties and typical aisle walks for more personalized experiences. The pursuit of individuality is increasingly taking center stage, making Garage B a popular choice that enables limitless customization.
On a cautionary note, Jenna emphasized the necessity of a day-of coordinator, especially in a blank slate venue like the Speedway. Reliant on the couple to bring their envisioned event to life, Jenna stressed the importance of having a professional present to seamlessly coordinate the myriad of vendors and ensure everything transpires exactly as planned.
With its indoor and outdoor spaces, ‘Garage B Events at The Speedway’ necessitates a rain plan–a point Jenna insisted cannot be overlooked. In Massachusetts’ unpredictable weather conditions, having a backup plan is vital for an effortless transition if outdoor ceremonies need to move indoors.
Jenna reassured listeners that while the venue staff will ensure the building operates perfectly, they recommend couples to bring their own day-of coordinator to ensure their specific vision comes to life. Garage B does not offer in-house coordination services, underscored Jenna, marking the importance of personal involvement in creating a unique event.
In summary, Garage B Events at The Speedway has demonstrated through Jenna Chillington’s interview that they are champions of innovative, unconventional events. Emphasizing the importance of a robust backup plan and a day-of coordinator, they are evidently committed to bringing patrons’ extraordinary visions to life. Navigate to their website or social media to discover more about their offerings.
Learn more about Garage B Events at The Speedway
This interview was provided by Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos
Podcast Transcript
Felix And Fingers (00:24)
Well, hi Jenna, thank you for coming on to the Felix and Fingers podcast about full endeavors. It’s so good to have you.
Jenna Chillington (00:31)
Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited.
Felix And Fingers (00:33)
Yay, good. So I just want to ask you a couple of questions about your venue, which tell all of the listeners at home what venue you’re calling in from.
Jenna Chillington (00:41)
I am calling in from Garage B Events space in Brighton, Massachusetts.
Felix And Fingers (00:46)
Very cool. And how can our listeners find you on social media? ⁓
Jenna Chillington (00:51)
So you can find us
at Garage B Events on Instagram and Facebook. And then our website is the same garagebevents.com Pretty easy across the board, Garage B Events everywhere.
Felix And Fingers (01:01)
Cool. So what are some current trends that you’re seeing in the wedding or event industry?
Jenna Chillington (01:06)
Yeah, so we are a blank slate venue. So we do primarily weddings, but we do a ton of other stuff too. But in terms of trends in weddings, I feel like I’m noticing a lot of kind of not so normal kind of trends. Like people are doing a lot of just not as kind of cookie cutter, which is really, I think just our venue in general. We’re a…
old garage warehouse. So people come here, I think to get out of the cookie cutter trend. So I think I’m seeing like lots of color, lots of people notice like we do a lot of disco balls here. I think that’s been a trend forever. But I think like every wedding we had last year had one if or one to 10 disco balls here. noticing that a lot. We do a lot of untraditional weddings. So not so much, know, big wet
bridal parties, binguetti parties, not a lot of walking down a typical aisle sort of stuff. we kind of see everything across the board here. So yeah.
Felix And Fingers (02:09)
so cool. I love a disco ball myself, so that’s so cool. What would you say are some things that couples should never do?
Jenna Chillington (02:10)
Yeah. Yes, me too.
Never do. In our venue specifically, something that we really heavily push is always having a day of coordinator here. I just think people kind of underestimate when they rent a blank slate venue, what goes into it because I always kind of explain to couples when they come here that I’m handing you a blank room and on the day of your
wedding, you know, you all your vendors are coming in and coming out day of so someone needs to be here to coordinate them and make sure that their exact vision is coming to life in this big blank room. We as a venue will always have a venue manager here to make sure that the building is operating. But again, the kind of the way that I always explain it to couples is just we’ll have someone here working for the building, but you want to have someone here working for you and making sure that
everything that you put together. So thoughtfully over the past year and a half, two years actually comes to life. So I think that’s just a super necessity here. That and then having a rain plan. Because we are an indoor outdoor venue. So we do have a lot of people that will utilize our patio space. And sometimes if people want to do ceremonies on our patio, I just always.
Felix And Fingers (03:22)
Thank
Jenna Chillington (03:33)
heavily encourage them or their planner to come up with a plan for if there is rain because in Massachusetts it happens that we only get rain on the weekends. I think that’s just a trend every the past couple years. yeah, rain plans and day of coordinators here are kind of our must.
Felix And Fingers (03:44)
every Saturday.
Cool. So you would recommend that the couple brings their own day of coordinator. You don’t do that in house or do you offer that?
Jenna Chillington (03:53)
Cheers.
Yes, we do not offer any
in-house coordination. We have me, the sales manager, and then we have venue managers that are here the day of events. Sometimes it’s me, sometimes it’s not, who are here for the building, but we just heavily recommend having someone here to help coordinate the vendors and set up all the decor and all of that.
Felix And Fingers (04:16)
Cool. What would you say is the most unique or fun idea you’ve seen recently?
Jenna Chillington (04:21)
Something that’s really fun about Garage B is we have a whole wall of garage doors that open up into the patio and we had a late fall wedding. I think was last year. Yeah, that did basically a stained glass effect across the garage doors where they cut out cellophane pieces and put
colored cellophane on every panel of the garage doors. And so when the light came in, it displayed the color all across the floor. that was ever since that has happened, weddings come or couples will come in here and be like, how do I do that? How can I recreate that? And then I’ve had other brides that were like, making sure that’s not permanent. But I think that’s been the most creative thing that someone has done, a planner has done here.
just like a really good use of the space and the kind of really leaning into the garage door vibe that we have.
Felix And Fingers (05:21)
That’s so cool. I bet that looks just beautiful and you can customize the colors. It’s genius.
Jenna Chillington (05:26)
Exactly, exactly. was exactly their color scheme. it was a very bright wedding with lots of colors and their tablescapes matched the colors that they put on the garage doors and everything kind of matched together. And it was just really, really creative. It was probably our favorite wedding that we’ve hosted here in terms of the decor.
Felix And Fingers (05:41)
Really.
That’s so cool. So tell me any advice that you can offer for somebody who’s just starting out on their planning journey maybe.
Jenna Chillington (05:56)
I think…
I mean, I’m biased because I manage a venue, but I think finding the perfect venue I feel like should be top priority. mean, I know like catering is important, all of that, but I just think finding your venue, especially if you are thinking of going with a blank slate venue, because what I always recommend to the couples that come here is they come in, they’ll see the space, and then I’ll say, you know what we have here, so now go out.
Felix And Fingers (05:58)
in the media.
Jenna Chillington (06:23)
and quote out some different vendors and see if what you were envisioning can come to life here. Because I think that’s the first step is making sure you actually have a place to have your wedding. So I would say just kind of knock that out. And then also starting earlier than you think in terms of dates. Because if you have a very, like I have kind of 50-50 of couples that come in that have a very specific date that they need. And then some that are just like,
I want to get married in this month. I don’t even care if it’s a Saturday. Those are always great, but we, I do have a lot of people who come in and they’re like, I need this date. And I had maybe sold that date early, early last year, you know, so I think if you’re very specific about your date to book a venue earlier than later, cause people do book out further than you think. but at the same time, sometimes venues will have last minute, availability is on a Saturday that you wouldn’t expect. So it’s always worth reaching out.
So yeah, I hope that’s good advice. ⁓
Felix And Fingers (07:18)
No, that’s a great idea. Yeah. Yeah, you never know.
That’s great advice. What about Garage B would you say like makes you the most unique?
Jenna Chillington (07:24)
Yeah.
couple things, think our location is really fun. we’re in the, we’re on the site of the campus of the Charles River Speedway, which is like a mixed use community space that has a brewery, a cocktail bar, a coffee shop, a pizza shop, sake bar, and just like this big outdoor area. we
when people get married here, their guests will arrive early and then go up to the brewery or the sake place and have a pre-drink before they come here. Or we’ve had weddings who have arranged the wedding welcome parties with the brewery here or had after parties at the cocktail bar here. So I think we’re really lucky to kind of have like built-in pre and post like businesses around us that we also coordinate with.
Felix And Fingers (08:14)
visit.
Jenna Chillington (08:17)
And then I think just the history of the place is really cool. This literally used to be a garage space. It was built in 1940. The whole site was built in 1899. This was built in 1940. Used to literally be a garage, was an auto shop for a little while. So there’s a lot of history. I just think it’s just really fun, all the stories that are behind it. And then I think just
I’ve been here since we opened. I’ve seen probably 40 plus weddings here at this point and every single one has been so completely different. I think that just a blank slate venue gives you a lot of flexibility to do exactly what you want and us specifically being, know, the really leaning into the warehouse vibe. You can really lean into that. You can elevate it. You can really do whatever you want. So I think we are like truly, truly a blank slate in that aspect. So.
Felix And Fingers (09:12)
Very cool. Yeah, I love that history. That’s so cool. What would you say is your like, a current availability like? How far out are you guys booked right now?
Jenna Chillington (09:12)
Lots of fun unique things about this place.
Yeah, it’s really fun.
you
Yeah,
I’m definitely noticing it’s funny I feel like we try to follow the trends with like when the engagement seasons are in terms of for weddings specifically, but we’ve sort of noticed we do a lot of bar and bar mitzvahs here as well. And so we noticed that this spring really fills up with those and then we kind of go into wedding season by June, July. And then that’s just what that is until the end of the year. So right now I’m
I would say about 50 % booked up for 2026 and then still with some really prime weekends. And then 2027, I’m starting to get some inquiries for, I see more so that our bar and bar mitzvahs are booking two years out more so than weddings, but I’m definitely starting to get some 2027 inquiries. But I have noticed I would say in the last month that the wedding specific leads are coming in pretty fast.
for 2026. So I’ve been telling people as I tour, just if again, if you have a very specific date to kind of hop on it sooner than later, because it’s not even a sales tactic. It’s just that I’ve been seeing a lot of leads in the last couple months. And usually that comes more towards the end of the summer, but it’s a little earlier this year. So again, just following the trends and trying to figure out when they’re going to be is that’s kind of just the name of the game. But yeah.
Felix And Fingers (10:44)
Cool. Could you give us like an average event size and cost at the venue?
Jenna Chillington (10:48)
Yeah, our maximum capacity is 240, but we have some suggested capacities based on your setup. So for weddings, we’ve learned over the past couple of years that 180 is kind of a sweet spot here. If you want to have a dance floor, buffet, bar, all of that. Also, that number fits pretty comfortably out on our patio space. So if you are doing ceremony to reception, you can have everyone fit pretty comfortably outside. With that, we have had up to 200-person weddings. Just you have to be
Those ones have been just different setups than my normal wedding would. And I would say the lowest amount that I would suggest here for a wedding would be no less than 100, or the space might start feeling a little big. But I would say the sweet spot, my favorite number here for a wedding is 120 to 140. It’s just like a really comfortable number for a big dance floor, plenty of seating, plenty of space, plenty of room outside.
Felix And Fingers (11:19)
and
Jenna Chillington (11:38)
And then terms of cost, since we are just a blank slate, we only sell the space, we only have a cost per whatever day that you’re getting. So our weekends range from off peak 5,000 to peak 8,000. That’s for our 2026 prices. So the most you’re gonna spend is 8,000 on a day and the lease is 5,000 for a weekend. And then our weekdays go down to 25, 3500. Yeah.
Felix And Fingers (12:06)
Cool, okay,
that’s really good to know. What’s the deposit amount? Yeah.
Jenna Chillington (12:08)
Yeah!
Yeah, so we do 50
% deposit to fully take the date off of the calendar. That is non-refundable because when we take the date off the calendar, that means we don’t sell it to anybody else. And then the rest of the amount is due about a week out from your actual event date.
Felix And Fingers (12:27)
Cool. Do you have a cancellation policy?
Jenna Chillington (12:30)
Yes,
so again, the deposit is non-refundable, but as long as you cancel outside of 30 days from your event date, you are not responsible for the rest of your rental amount, but that deposit that you originally put down would be held.
Felix And Fingers (12:45)
Okay, do you have an in-house catering service or do couples provide their own caterer? I’m assuming since you’re a blank slate that they bring their own.
Jenna Chillington (12:56)
Yes, they bring their own. We do have a great list of preferred caterers. So it’s six different caterers that we’ve kind of formed partnerships with over the last four years that we heavily, heavily suggest. It’s not totally exclusive at this time, but because we do like to still be pretty flexible for people, but we do have a small fee associated if someone is going to bring up off list caterer.
Felix And Fingers (13:19)
Okay.
So does that go across the board for vendors? Do you have like any vendors that you like, are couples like required to use them or is there like a fee if they don’t?
Jenna Chillington (13:30)
Just with caterers, because that’s just like the biggest thing in terms of kind of like what we have, what we don’t have, not having a kitchen. And it’s just, takes up a lot of the sales manager’s time. we do have a list for everyone else. So we have great bar services. We can do food trucks here. So we have food trucks, floral, all that. Those are not exclusive at all. It’s just, I will put someone on that list after they’ve worked here and have come suggested from the couple or person doing the event.
As long as they have worked here, they would be on our list. just, don’t put anyone on our list unless I have actually worked with them here in our space.
Felix And Fingers (14:00)
Yeah.
Okay, cool. What’s the bridal suite situation like? Do you have anything like that or like a changing area?
Jenna Chillington (14:10)
That’s a great question. We didn’t for most of the time that we’ve been open so far. That’s definitely something that we were kind of lacking, especially with how many weddings that we do. But speaking of the Speedway, the place associated with us, we have a small area called the Annex that we have started using as a small event space. It’s about a thousand square foot, blank, again, blank empty room, but it does have…
some nice kind of like movable couch furniture, like lounge furniture. So we’ve actually started using that space as an add-on to weddings or events that need that extra space. So it’s only like $500 add-on. You get it for the whole time of your rental. And it is essentially an annex. It’s about a 30 second walk from the garage. So it’s not attached to here, but it’s a really great resource for couples who either wanna use it for a getting ready space, for just a quiet area for the couple to be.
after they get married or some people have used it as just a holding area for their bridal party before they walk down the aisle. we’ve had people use it. We’ve only been able to offer it over the last six months or so, but most of my weddings this year coming up have added it on as just an extra resource. So we’re really happy to have that. We didn’t have that for a while, so it’s really exciting.
Felix And Fingers (15:13)
Six months.
Yeah, that’s great. That’s such a great space. Do you have any noise ordinances or curfews?
Jenna Chillington (15:24)
Yeah, yes.
So we’re pretty lucky because again, most of the businesses that are surrounding us are part of our community. So right now with the entertainment license that we have, we have to follow those ordinances after 11. So if we have an event with the garage doors up, we just have to have those doors go down by 11. You can still go as loud as you want inside, but we just have to follow. I think it’s a 70 decibel limit after 11 from outside.
We don’t internally have many outside of that and as long as the garage doors are down, really can’t hear much after that.
Felix And Fingers (16:02)
Cool, it’s great that you have that option to close them, because then you can keep the party going if there’s a late wedding. Cool. Do you have ample parking available or is it complimentary?
Jenna Chillington (16:03)
Yes, yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
So we do have
parking. We actually got really lucky. There’s a health center that’s right behind us and they actually lease us their parking lot anytime that they’re closed. So we get it limited times during the week, but on the weekends we have full access to it starting at around 2 p.m. on Saturdays up until midnight on Sunday. So we are able to offer about 100 spaces to
guests and vendors on Saturdays and Sundays, and then Fridays after five, which is really huge for a Boston venue to have parking. So we do have to charge for it. It’s just a pass through from the lease that we have with them, but it’s a game changer to be able to have that much parking.
Felix And Fingers (16:49)
Yeah.
Yeah, for real, that’s amazing, because Boston is the hardest place to park, especially that many people.
Jenna Chillington (16:57)
Yeah.
Yes. Yes. If
anyone’s like me and I don’t know where I’m going to park when I’m going somewhere, I maybe don’t go. But no, and we also have a really great driveway for UberLifts drop off. There’s a driveway directly in front of the garage. So anyone who’s not driving, there’s really easy access. And then also for weddings that do shuttles or trolleys or anything like that, there’s a really great driveway in front of the space too. So we have lots of options for parking or rideshare.
Felix And Fingers (17:08)
I’m like…
That’s awesome. How early on an event day can vendors access the garage for setup?
Jenna Chillington (17:32)
Yeah, so we do 12 hour venue rental period, which is we started out doing 10 when we first opened, but realized that just again with the blank slate, people just needed a little more time. So we do 12 hours. So clients can decide where they want their event to start and end within that 12 hours. And then that kind of dick kicks what their rental period would be. So our only main rule is we do have events end by midnight.
Felix And Fingers (17:44)
Thank you.
Jenna Chillington (17:58)
So if you were to go all the way till midnight, you’re rent and be allocated about an hour for breakdown. So it would be like a one to one rental or more if you did five to 11 to be 12 to 12. So 12 hours total, which is usually ample time.
Felix And Fingers (18:10)
So vendors can come anywhere in that window? Okay, cool. I know some florists and stuff they need that whole time. We take about two hours to set up our pianos before I guess it’s right there. It’s not too long.
Jenna Chillington (18:23)
Yeah.
Yeah. It depends on the, yeah, it’s always like light. If there’s a ton of lighting, they usually want to get in first and then florals, yeah, usually want to get in just to get everything because they’re usually the ones on the ladders and all of that before the furniture gets put in. So it’s always like a formulated plan of kind of who gets in first and who’s going to be in each other’s ways. Yeah.
Felix And Fingers (18:34)
Right.
So now on an event day you mentioned that you either you or someone else will be on site. Is that are you the event coordinator?
Jenna Chillington (18:51)
No, so we kind of refer to ourselves as venue managers on the day of, just to kind of delineate away from being the actual event coordinator for the day. we’ll always have a person on site, they’ll unlock the doors, make sure that the space is delivered in a nice condition to the client, be there for the vendors if they have questions about power, storage, making sure that the bathrooms look good and are stocked, and then just kind of being a resource throughout the day.
We definitely will help if there are needs from the planner or the coordinator, but we do not necessarily run timelines or send anyone down the aisle or anything like that. But always have somebody here to make sure that if there are any issues with the building or anything like that, that they can be answered.
Felix And Fingers (19:33)
Cool. So will you be the main point of contact prior to the event?
Jenna Chillington (19:38)
Yes, yes. So I’m the only point of contact up until the day of the event. So I handle all lead communications, tours, doing the tours. And then after they sign a contract, they have access to me throughout their planning. If they need to come in for more tours, once they hire their vendors coming in for a final tour, I’m their contact up until the day of. And then we, like I said, we’ll hand over to one of our team of any managers for the day of.
Felix And Fingers (20:04)
Cool. All right, well, that’s all I have. Thank you so much again, Jenna, and a shout out to the entire team at Garage B Events at the Speedway ⁓ for being just a great option for Boston area brides and couples, and as well as for other events too. Sounds like you guys do really great work, and it was such a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you so much.
Jenna Chillington (20:08)
Okay, yeah.
Yes.
Okay.
Thank you so much for having
me. This was great.
Felix And Fingers (20:27)
Yay!
Jenna Chillington (20:28)
you
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