Listen to the Podcast About Wedding Venue Map
Podcast Summary
In a recent episode of Eventful Endeavors, host Spencer Shepard interviewed Shannon Tarrant, co-founder of the Wedding Venue Map. Tarrant is a lifelong member of the Central Florida wedding industry who began her career in offsite catering before transitioning to a role as a wedding sales manager. Noticing the challenges couples faced in choosing a venue, she decided to leverage her love for assisting couples and supporting local businesses to create weddingvenuemap.com.
Tarrant lends her 20 years of industry experience to the platform, providing couples a comprehensive, user-friendly tool to find their perfect wedding venue. She authenticates the Wedding Venue Map as more than just a map. Initially a print feature offering visual representation of potential venues, the map has since evolved into an interactive website capable of filtering specific requirements like indoor or outdoor settings, capacity, or even pet-friendly spaces.
Tarrant likens the capabilities of the Wedding Venue Map to browsing on Zillow. The platform focuses on pinpointing quality options that are a perfect fit for the couple’s needs and desires. Enriching the platform’s value is its free usability for couples; businesses invest in the venture, thus ensuring a cost-free resource for couples. Similar to venue concierges, Wedding Venue Map is there to make the venue selection process easier and more precise. Shannon Tarrant’s lifelong commitment to the wedding industry and her passion for helping couples are evident in this innovative tool.
Learn more about
Wedding Venue Map
This interview was provided by
Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos
Podcast Transcript
Felix And Fingers (00:24)
Hello everybody. Welcome to another day on eventful endeavors. Today, our guest, Shannon Tarrant is the co-founder of Wedding Venue Map and a lifelong member of Central Florida wedding industry. She started off in offsite catering, visiting venues all over Orlando. She later became a wedding sales manager, guiding couples to choose the perfect venue for their big day and seeing how firsthand how much time and frustration venue searches caused.
She combined her passions for helping couples with her love of supporting local businesses to help create weddingvenumap.com. Shannon, welcome to the show.
Shannon Tarrant (01:02)
I’m so excited to be here and chat all things venue.
Felix And Fingers (01:05)
We’re excited to have you. Well, first I got to start off with saying you have 20 years of experience. mean, that kind of speaks for itself, right?
Shannon Tarrant (01:12)
It’s been a wonderful ride. I’ve spent my entire career in the wedding industry here specifically in our market in central Florida. So lots of experience in that one avenue.
Felix And Fingers (01:22)
Sure, born and raised, are you from out of state?
Shannon Tarrant (01:24)
I’m from out of state. moved here in college. I’m originally from the Connecticut up in the New England area and moved down here for college in 2001. And then I just never left. I didn’t want to leave the sunshine. So I said no more snow for me. This is where I’m meant to be.
Felix And Fingers (01:34)
I understand. Yeah, it’s cold up there.
Sure, absolutely. So Wedding Venue Map is quite literally, but also I guess it’s digital, it’s a printed map that lists every venue with a defined geographical area and specifically Florida. But you guys list a little bit more info, it’s not just a map.
Shannon Tarrant (01:54)
Yeah, we’ve got on the print map itself, we started from a place of print, being able to give people that visual representation of where the venues were, we color code them. So it’s just really what’s indoor, outdoor or both, because it’s a way to give a little bit of a filter on the print map. But as we know today, as couples, we’re looking for something a little more specific and that ability to be able to really filter like they’re on Zillow. I have 100 guests and I want to outdoor ceremony, indoor reception.
had a barn farm ranch ballroom, like pick the space. So we built the website about eight years ago with the ability to really filter through helping to guide today’s couples on finding, it’s not about finding the quantity, it’s about finding exactly what they’re looking for.
Felix And Fingers (02:36)
meeting the needs first rather than just, you know, here’s everything that you need. It’s everything you need, but nothing you don’t, guess. ⁓ Well.
Shannon Tarrant (02:41)
Yeah, because there were
people who like really wanted to have their dog at their wedding. And so there was no capability to be able to filter by pet friendly venues before. So just being able to give them that ability to find what it is they’re specifically looking for and what’s important to them.
Felix And Fingers (02:46)
Yeah, sure.
Absolutely. I was actually at a wedding last week and during their ceremony they had their dog actually bring out their wedding bands. was really cool. I love that kind of stuff. Yeah, felines are where it’s at. Well, something I found out right away of value for all of our listeners who are listening today is you guys are a free service. mean, what the heck? That’s amazing. I wish I just got married last month and I wish I knew about you guys. I had no idea it was totally free.
Shannon Tarrant (03:06)
I love that.
Yeah, it’s really, you know, that ability to be able to pair the couples with the spaces and vendors within the community that meet our quality standards and the businesses do the investment on our side. And so that makes it a completely free resource for couples. So we joke and say we’re like venue concierges, just being able to utilize the website. We get reached out to in the DMs all the time. We participate in about 25 wedding shows where we’re having those one-on-one conversations.
Felix And Fingers (03:39)
Absolutely.
Shannon Tarrant (03:50)
but it’s really being able to just help guide them and narrow it down, because wedding planning is so overwhelming.
Felix And Fingers (03:56)
It is, it absolutely is. There’s a lot of savings appeal with your services. You guys have gathered like lot of the, I noticed on your website, you kind of gather the best deals, discounts to help couples kind of plan the perfect day without necessarily branking the bank. You even have like an entire filter feature process which has vendors, holiday specials, getting tells about the special offers and filters you guys have in place.
Shannon Tarrant (04:18)
Yeah, we know that when it comes to your wedding, there are certain categories that are maybe more important than others in terms of your prioritization, whether you’re like, all I really care about is the food or photography is the most important thing to you. And as you’re deciding where to invest your money, you’ve got to kind of start making those choices of I’m going to put a little bit more here and if I could save a little bit over there. So we have a deals page on the website itself that…
our venue and vendor members have the ability and capacity to be able to share either, it never expires, you special offer for couples who find out about them on wedding venue map, or even like a limited time offer if they’re running a special for the month, or things like that. So it really allows, you know, the couple searching the ability to stretch that budget a little bit further by sometimes it’s a discount, but a lot of times it’s some kind of value add where they get an extra bonus if they just mentioned that they saw it.
Felix And Fingers (05:12)
that’s interesting. I’ve always been curious, you know, in Florida, obviously we have reasonably wetter as far as it’s not cold like it is over worlds, but during the summer, is summer a common booking time? Because it is so hot, obviously outdoor weddings might be not as appealing to young couples.
Shannon Tarrant (05:25)
Yeah, we’re actually backwards to the rest of the country here in Florida where everywhere else in the country summers their busiest three months of the year because it’s cold and wet and snowy and all of that. Whereas here, it’s a little bit warm. So a lot of those deals, discounts and things when couples are really trying to save money on their budget, like if you’re open to looking at maybe an all indoor venue or something in that June, July, August timeframe, you can save a whole lot on your wedding.
Felix And Fingers (05:37)
Sure.
imagine yeah but as long as it’s indoors because I mean the big things outdoors you have the heat but you’re just the rain that’s the thing that always I mean we got married in December and I was still afraid please don’t rain please don’t rain you know the whole time so
Shannon Tarrant (06:00)
Yeah, it can be a little
unpredictable with the weather in the summertime for sure. But I think it all depends on what’s the most important factor when you’re looking for the venue.
Felix And Fingers (06:10)
That’s true. So learning this recently, cause obviously like I said, we were on the wedding venue hunt early last year, but also just working with a few looks and Fingers. didn’t realize how many just wedding venues are in this state. mean, wow. Walk us through the process when maybe you have like a newly engaged couple log on to weddingvenumop.com for the first time and begin their search. What does it kind of look like?
Shannon Tarrant (06:34)
Yeah, I think the hardest piece in part when you’re looking in any market is to figure out first what it is specifically you’re looking for. So if you haven’t sat down as a couple and had that conversation of, know, what’s kind of the style of venue, because you both might not agree right off the bat, or do you want to be outside or inside? So having a little bit of those conversations, and I think the most other important filter factor is the guest count. If you haven’t sat down and actually made a guest list, like an
list out every name, just not quick math in your head. List every name, talk to the parents who are on their list. That list might be 70, that list could be 200. And that’s a huge factor when it comes to choosing a venue. So when couples hit our website, we always suggest that they make an account on the site. Because when you make an account, you can then favorite things, save things, put your information in one time, and then if you want to reach out to someone, all that info blows in automatically, saves you a lot of time.
So make an account so that you’ve got that dashboard where anything you favorited that you wanna come back and look at later, you can save all of those things and then go head over to the venue search and start filtering. So if you only know that you’re having a hundred guests and you want an outdoor ceremony, start to filter it down. There’s hundreds of venues listed on the site.
So it gives you that opportunity to start to see, know, maybe you’ve got all these factors and you filter down to the point every now and then somebody’s like, I think something’s broken. There’s no venues listed. I’m like, you might’ve over filtered. You might’ve got a little excited with how many choices you put in, but I think you can kind of start poking and seeing what does it narrow down to. And if you change that factor, what pops up. So you can head over and be able to see which venue specifically. And there is also a digital map on the website.
Felix And Fingers (07:58)
Sure. Right. Yeah.
Shannon Tarrant (08:14)
So you can not only see which venues are appearing and look at them, but if you care about where they are in terms of like how far away it is from your home or where it is in the central Florida region, because central Florida is so big or vast area.
Felix And Fingers (08:27)
That’s right, and dense, yeah.
That makes sense. So one of the important things you mentioned was getting that, having a meeting obviously previously too before just going in cold turkey, but I’ve always been curious about this because we had a issue with this kind of planning our wedding where we initially set out for, there’s probably gonna be 120, could be 140, but it ended up being like 80. If you are guessing, right, and you’re trying to sit down and at least get a head count, is it good to high ball? Because you can always, know, less as long as you, because at least you know we’re only.
Max 140, this place will only go up to 130 to qualify. Is that a better way to kind of gauge the size of a wedding party? Like too high versus too low?
Shannon Tarrant (09:04)
Yeah, always, because if you’re going to actually invite, should base it on the number of guests you’re actually going to invite. Because if you’re going to invite 140 people, I mean, we know they’re not all going to say yes, but you also might find five or 10 other people you would have liked to have invited, but they didn’t fit the budget. So I think it’s always better to plan. Trust me, working at a venue, there were many people who…
Felix And Fingers (09:14)
Right.
Sure.
Shannon Tarrant (09:25)
would say, they’d book a space that fit 125. And then they’d come back and be like, God, they all said yes. And I’m like, well, now what are we gonna do? Cause we can’t, like, we’re gonna have to put the dancing in a different room. It changes the whole flow and vibe if we have to start shoving people into a space. So always choose a venue that meets that max guest count.
Felix And Fingers (09:43)
I feel like having a lot of experience, you said you worked at a wedding venue yourself, that must have really helped kind of shape a lot of the questions and filters because you were there first hand experience.
Shannon Tarrant (09:46)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and I mean, I think I saw if couples were looking to include something like Felix and Fingers as a part of their, you wedding, they want that like entertainment value and whether it’s, you know, having that dueling piano vibe that we love. If you want that, you’ve, and you know you have something like you want that live music, you almost have to start to consider that when you’re choosing a venue. Because couples would come in and they’d tour and I’d ask them things like, have you thought about a band or a DJ?
And they look at me like, I don’t know, we haven’t talked about that. And I’m like, it’s kind of an important factor because in this space, we don’t have the power. You’d have to get extra generators, run the power. There’s only one place in space it fits. Whereas in the ballroom down the hall, I can do anything you want. We got power built into that room for days. So I think you have to at least envision your wedding a little bit more, especially when you want some of those unique factors like some creative entertainment, like…
having Felix and Fingers create a whole vibe at your reception. You need the space to be able to do that.
Felix And Fingers (10:49)
There’s definitely a lot of logistics involved. mean, even sometimes there’s, especially with outdoor venues, whether it’s historical, they might have a sound ordinance, right?
Shannon Tarrant (10:56)
Absolutely. There’s factors that you wouldn’t know to think of, which I know makes it really hard because you don’t know all the questions to ask and you maybe haven’t thought that far ahead. you know, that’s those conversations when you newly engage. Like take some time to just have fun. Like don’t run out and start looking at venues tomorrow. Like take some time. Start having those conversations. What have you dreamed about? Like
Felix And Fingers (10:59)
Right.
Shannon Tarrant (11:17)
I mean, I know most of my friends all had a Pinterest board long before they were engaged. So they already had a vision in their head. So it’s kind of like, let’s have those conversations together.
Felix And Fingers (11:25)
Absolutely. mean, we’ve talked about this a little bit already, but you you mentioned that the I think your website does have an entire blog with like 500 articles dedicated to helping them planning trips, know, excuse me, tips, inspirational real weddings, like you said, like a not a vision board, but Pinterest board. Was that the thing? Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything you’d recommend a couple’s do? Like, I guess we talked about a little bit, but you know, having meetings, but
Shannon Tarrant (11:43)
Yeah, like inspell. Yep.
Felix And Fingers (11:50)
Anything else before kind of like, would you recommend looking at a planner before or after perhaps? don’t, don’t know what the most tactical approach.
Shannon Tarrant (11:58)
Yeah, I think the hardest part is probably the money. I think having the general idea of your budget, which no one ever knows, there’s a statistical average that if you were to Google or use chat GPT that you can just ask how much is the average wedding in this market in this year. In 2025, the average central Florida wedding was like 32,000 and change for 130 guests. At least that gives you a data point.
Felix And Fingers (12:15)
Sure.
Shannon Tarrant (12:24)
That’s like, it’s a statistical data point. Don’t freak out. You’re like, I don’t have 32,000. I get it. Not everybody’s gonna spend that, but you need to know what is the average and have all those conversations with the money people. And I think that a planner, if it works in the budget to hire a planner for full service planning is a wonderful factor if you really need, if you’ve got a larger budget and you really need somebody to help guide you to maximize all the choices to really stretch that budget as far as you can.
Felix And Fingers (12:31)
Yeah.
Shannon Tarrant (12:54)
But I think at a bare minimum, you should look at having somebody do that wedding day management, month of day of whatever it’s called. Every planner calls it something different, but having someone to help. And if they’re gonna do that piece, a lot of times you’re not booking it until after you choose the venue. So you can kind of look at the venue’s preferred vendor lists and say, hey, which planners already know this space really well? They know the rules here, they work here often. So you can kind of look at the after fact.
Felix And Fingers (13:03)
Sure.
Absolutely. Yeah, one of the things that we had to deal with was I didn’t know, I still don’t really entirely, I guess it’s a venue to venue thing, the difference between preferred and non-preferred. think obviously preferred means they’ve worked with them in the past and they have like, know, credibility and trust, but I never understood, is it like, is it a cardinal sin to book an out non-preferred vendor at like a wedding venue? Do you know anything about that?
Shannon Tarrant (13:40)
Yeah, I think there’s a lot of different terminologies that float around. And if you’re not in the event industry, it can get really confusing. So for most venues, some of them have a required list, meaning like a city owned venue, they’ll have a required catering list. Like you have to use these six caterers and you can’t go off list. And in every other category, you can hire whoever you want, as long as they have a business license and liability insurance. That might be the only limitation.
Felix And Fingers (13:46)
Sure.
Got it.
Shannon Tarrant (14:05)
So they might have a required list for one category and a preferred or no list on the other side. So required is required. You have to use whatever they put out there. Preferred is usually exactly what you said, that they have worked at the venue before, they’ve had a great experience with them and compared to some of the others in the industry, they would love for their couples to hire them. And most venues have a pretty well-rounded preferred vendor list. So gives you lot of options to kind of look at.
see who’s the right fit, do a little bit of research. But there’s a lot of venues now that are super hands off, meaning you just book the venue and they say you can use anyone you want as long as they’re licensed and insured. So I don’t think it matters to go off list if it’s allowed. Some venues now charge if you go off list. It’s gotten, it’s every, but how would you, you wouldn’t know all these things if you were a couple. So I don’t think it’s a bad thing to go off list. And you have to remember that things like Unique Entertainment, like Felix and Fingers, they might not.
think to put that on a list. The traditional wedding is like band or DJ and they might not, Felix and Fingers doesn’t really fall wholly in any, in either one of those categories. It’s kind of unique. So always just have the conversation with the venue to say, hey, have you ever heard of this business? Could you ask around some of the planners if you’re looking to get that referral?
Felix And Fingers (15:06)
Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense. And I think you guys also have your own list of vendors you’ve worked with as well as venues on Wedding MiniMap as well, correct?
Shannon Tarrant (15:31)
We do, we call them trusted vendors, because every ⁓ vendor, we pre-vet them to make sure that they meet a similar criteria of what the venues would require. So meaning they have experience, they’ve got Google reviews, they’re active on social media, they have a great website, we check venue references so they can’t just join. They really have to meet their license and insurance. So the same things that the venues are most likely gonna look for and ask, we make sure that all of our vendors meet that so that
Felix And Fingers (15:34)
I like that.
Shannon Tarrant (16:00)
Our venue partners, our planner partners, we can confidently just refer couples to say, look, everybody on here meets our list of requirements to be a quality vendor. So you can kind of confidently shop through that list to make sure that they’re of a certain like par of experience.
Felix And Fingers (16:17)
That’s fantastic. I mean, it’s great that you guys have the trust. I like the trust trusted vendors. That’s a good word. We need more of that.
Shannon Tarrant (16:22)
Yeah, it’s hard.
mean, there’s a lot of amazing businesses here in central Florida that we meet and we connect with and they’re like, we want to join and we’re like, well, you don’t meet criteria. many of them, I mean, yeah, it feels so gross sometimes that we have to do it, but we’re really out to protect the couples. We’re out to, because we’ve all seen it in the Facebook groups and things like that. People being like, I hired this DJ and he canceled the week of my wedding. Like no one on our list would ever do anything like that. They wouldn’t make those mistakes and those.
Felix And Fingers (16:30)
Yeah, you can’t sit with us.
Right.
Shannon Tarrant (16:50)
because they know our reputations on the line, their reputation. That’s why like we fully check through all of those things to make sure that that wouldn’t happen. And most of the times when we meet people and they don’t meet criteria, a lot of times they just didn’t know how important it was. We do a lot of educating and they usually come back within a few months and they’ve elevated to check all the boxes and they’re ready to go. They just, you know, sometimes they need to know.
Felix And Fingers (17:12)
That’s funny.
Sure. Educating, can sound, I don’t know. It’s definitely, sometimes people have to learn. Here’s how it works here. It’s to be mean. It’s just kind of, actually, kind of help them, really help you guys.
Shannon Tarrant (17:24)
Well, there’s certain categories of vendor like with music. You wouldn’t ever think about going in somewhere, plugging into people’s power and all those things without liability insurance, right? But if you’re a wedding officiant, you might be like, what do I need liability insurance for? Like that shouldn’t, why would I need that? That’s not a big deal. And I’m like, ooh, until you say the name wrong at the wedding, which I’ve seen and it did not go well. Like, and so I think that like just educating the businesses and the couples why you should only be hiring vendors that…
Felix And Fingers (17:31)
Right. Right.
Mm-hmm.
⁓ man. ⁓ man.
Shannon Tarrant (17:54)
carry liability insurance. protects the couple, it protects them. Like everyone’s protected, you know, and these are the quality standards that it might budget wise, you might save a little bit by going off book, but is the headache there? You know, are you sure they’re gonna show up? Things like that.
Felix And Fingers (18:11)
Yeah, that totally makes sense. they can, are you guys like accessible? Like for example, there a customer, it’s customer service, but you know, can they reach out to you and ask questions about that like through the website as well?
Shannon Tarrant (18:22)
Yeah, we find that most of the times the conversations for those questions live in the DMs on Instagram. They don’t often reach out to us through the website, but we’re always here to support. So a lot of times, like I had a bride who had the hardest time finding a venue. She had very specific criteria. I was like, girl, you got to meet me in the middle. Like I can give you ones that meet this list, but they might not meet that list. Like we’ve got to prioritize some of these things and
Felix And Fingers (18:28)
Fair enough.
people using social media. Got it.
Yeah, sure.
Shannon Tarrant (18:47)
You know, it’s just being able to have that conversation with someone who’s knowledgeable. Me and my whole team know this market here in central Florida. We know the general area and anywhere. If you’re listening to this somewhere else in the country, there’s probably a local directory in your area or a planner who’s been in a long time who has all of that knowledge that you might be able to hire to help you. We just do it for free.
Felix And Fingers (19:08)
Yeah.
And that’s, I mean, you had me at free. Well, the first thing I saw was like, man, that’s amazing. I wish we, I mean, I wish I knew, I really do. So when you’re talking to these couples, are you noticing any sort of patterns when the couples are booking? For example, like through website traffic or direct user feedback, is there a time that they’re booking a lot? they getting back to you? Like, what does the feedback kind of look like? And also just, I guess, the time they’re booking.
Shannon Tarrant (19:12)
Yep.
Hahaha
Yeah, we do a lot of, yeah,
we do a lot of surveys also. So we just finished our annual survey of engaged couples. And so I think there’s been such a huge shift in terms of a few things. think guest count is one of them. A lot, that kind of middle has fallen out a little bit. So meaning a lot of the weddings are a lot smaller under 80 guests or they’re much bigger, over 150. So not that there’s no one in the middle, but I think budgets have started to dictate a little bit. You either have the money to spend and you do the bigger wedding.
or you’re really trying to have the best wedding you can with the budget you can. So I think those people are being like, I’m having a small wedding. I’m like, girl, that’s like the normal at this point. So I think guest count sizes has been one of them. I also think that we have a generation getting married, which I’m here for Gen Z. It’s probably my favorite generation of all time, but they have grown up in the digital world of getting everything fast, quick, dirty, like everything’s at their fingertip. And when they want to make a decision, they can do everything quick.
Felix And Fingers (20:09)
Yeah.
Shannon Tarrant (20:28)
which has shrunk the planning timeline. So a lot of times they are getting engaged and then waiting, not doing a whole lot, or they start to do research, they get overwhelmed, they see what it costs. They’re like, God, I don’t have the money for that. I have to take a break. Then they save up and they’re like, all right, we’re ready to go. And all of a sudden they still wanna get married in that timeframe window that they originally did, but they haven’t yet booked a venue. So we see so many of the leads coming through the website of people still looking to book their venue for this year.
Felix And Fingers (20:47)
Window. that’s right.
Shannon Tarrant (20:57)
And so if you’re booking a venue within six to nine months, then that means all the other vendors haven’t been booked yet either. So not that there aren’t plenty who are planning further out. I just think a lot of the timelines have shrunk in terms of how far out people are choosing their venue, which then means choosing everything for their wedding.
Felix And Fingers (21:16)
So it may go back to our point earlier, before you even do anything, get a head count and also maybe book a venue sooner than later down the line so you can give yourself more time to work with.
Shannon Tarrant (21:27)
Yeah, even if you know, like, I mean, it’s a lot of math weddings are, which is not everybody’s favorite subject. It’s a lot of budgeting and dollars and dealing with like, what can we afford and what lifestyle cuts are we willing to make to maybe we don’t doordash for the next six months. And then, you know, so that we can have the money we need for the wedding. But I think when you can lock the venue in, you know, find the space that makes sense for you and get that contracted, even if it’s for 12, 14, 18 months out, even my like,
Felix And Fingers (21:31)
It’s not mine.
Alright, sure.
Shannon Tarrant (21:56)
my stepson and future daughter-in-law are engaged and they’ve been engaged and they’ve, you know, been figuring out life. They’re young, they’re in their early twenties, so they’re like getting settled in their house and things like that, that they’re like, we’ve got time. And I was like, so what are you thinking? Like fall of 2027. And she was like, I don’t know, like January? I’m like, girl, it’s February. Like that’s 11 months from now. We gotta get moving if you wanna get married in January. And so I think people don’t think.
Felix And Fingers (22:16)
Yeah.
Right.
Shannon Tarrant (22:24)
When they want a specific venue or they have a specific vision, you’ve got to plan a little bit further out. If nothing else, then just the venue. Get that one box checked so you can figure out the rest.
Felix And Fingers (22:35)
Yeah, absolutely. It’s a big relief too, because I mean, I feel like we spent probably, man, at least a month or two just finding venues. And it’s hard to get momentum when you don’t even know where you’re going to get married yet or have a date. So I feel like it’s not gravy after that, but it’s definitely a big first step in the right direction.
Shannon Tarrant (22:50)
Well, you’ve
got to think that like, it’s kind of like shopping for anything like it when you were shopping, if you’ve ever shopped for a house or tried to find an apartment, it’s a process, right? You find something that you want to see and then you reach out to them and maybe they don’t tour on the weekends because they’re busy. And then you’re like, well, I’m going to have to take a day off of work. And then, so you think you can just take three days off and go tour all the venues and their schedule doesn’t line with your schedule. It takes time. And so if couples on average are touring five to seven spaces, that could take
Felix And Fingers (23:03)
Right.
Shannon Tarrant (23:16)
two to three months to get them, if you really wanna see them all, if you don’t find the one and you really wanna see them all, they could take a few months and of just getting those appointments in. But you’re right, the venue dictates the backdrop of everything and really even the rest of the availability of the budget. Cause if the venue has venue food beverage, well, you’ve checked a bunch of boxes. If you’ve only done venue and now you have to go find catering and bar and all the other vendors like.
Felix And Fingers (23:38)
Mm-hmm.
Shannon Tarrant (23:41)
It dictates the backdrop of the rest of it. So you kind of got to get that first box checked.
Felix And Fingers (23:47)
Absolutely. Well, I know you guys book a lot of what your resource for a lot of people that are getting married But you also I believe you guys book Venues for private events public events. Tell us more about that
Shannon Tarrant (23:59)
Yeah, I think one of the best things that couples planning and people in the industry don’t always realize is that the wedding industry in any city is such an incredible community. We all work together on event day to literally help people have the best day of their life that they’ve probably had so far, the biggest party they’ve ever thrown. so through that builds.
Felix And Fingers (24:14)
Yeah.
short.
Shannon Tarrant (24:20)
long-term relationships like my relationship with Felix and Fingers Nate and I became besties at an event like there’s just you know we’ve become this community of people who you know we work together we play together we do business together we network and it’s a lot of small businesses so we host monthly networking events in that ability for really couples you know it’s
couples to be able to work with people who love working together, right? So that they can get those referrals from that site. It’s not events specifically for the couples. We host our own networking events and then we partner and promote all the local planning events. So there’s wedding shows in the market, there’s venue open houses, there’s fun date nights. So we kind of help support the couples finding all of those events. We don’t plan couples events ourselves. We plan business to business events to really be able to grow that community.
to make it easier for the couples when they meet a DJ, that DJ can help them recommend a photographer, a florist, a caterer, a cake person. So we really kind of build and keep that community close.
Felix And Fingers (25:23)
The community aspect definitely helps everybody, And yeah, it creates camaraderie, I’d imagine too, lifelong relationships. This kind of circle is actually perfect for my next question. what is your favorite, is this your favorite thing or what is your favorite thing about getting to work in this industry full time?
Shannon Tarrant (25:37)
Yeah, I think that, I think weddings are so stressful. Like I said, it’s usually the first time you’ve ever planned an event that big. But my favorite thing about our industry is it is really that ability for the professionals that you hire to really love what they do. Like we all love, you don’t work in weddings on the event side of the world. There’s so many people in photography who start in weddings and are like, I’m done with weddings. And they go on to family or.
corporate or commercial work, you don’t continue to work with weddings if you don’t love love. And so we have such an amazing wedding industry within our market that really does love love and they love raising the bar and pushing styles and trends forward and thinking outside the box and really just delivering on an exceptional experience for every single wedding. my favorite part is when someone submits those real weddings and our members and planners and vendors.
Felix And Fingers (26:05)
Sure.
Shannon Tarrant (26:33)
send us the work and you can see the culmination of everybody’s work come together to have the best day ever.
Felix And Fingers (26:36)
Mm-hmm.
That’s amazing. mean, it definitely is always authentic when you can tell someone really loves what they do and you love love. So you’re in the right business in the right time. That’s amazing. Shannon, thanks for being a guest on our podcast today. It’s been an absolute pleasure to find you guys. I think the best way is weddingvenuemap.com other places on social media you’d to shout out?
Shannon Tarrant (26:57)
Yeah, we’re pretty active. We’re on Instagram on wedding venue map. If you’re in the central Florida area, you can always reach out to us, DM us, take a look at the site, create an account. But even for people not in the area, if the blog is such a great opportunity, we really try to be like down, dirty, direct, honest. I know how hard it is. So the honest advice that I’d give you in front of me is the same way we write our blog posts.
Felix And Fingers (27:14)
Yeah.
Awesome. All my listeners, go check out weddingvenuemap.com It’s got a lot of resources. I was actually looking this up doing my prep and I was like, again, I wish I knew about you guys previously. again, Shannon, thank you so much for being a guest on our show today. It was an absolute pleasure.
Shannon Tarrant (27:32)
Thank you, excited to help however we can.
Felix And Fingers (27:35)
Awesome.
