Jan. 8, 2021

The owner of a Tea event venue has created a wedding planning business.

Melissa Matlock of Plan to Plan Weddings said she saw the need after working with brides at Prairie View Event Hall.

“A lot of times, our brides would contact us a year before their weddings, and they were at a standstill,” Matlock said.

She created the business to provide additional help to those who are using Prairie View and other venues as well.

Plan to Plan Weddings offers three packages.

“The full-service planning is where we pretty much do everything for the brides,” Matlock said. A wedding planner will go with brides to meetings with vendors, coordinate behind-the-scenes details and take care of decorating.

Another package is a partial planning service for “brides that have problems getting started, or they get stuck maybe finding vendors or coming up with color schemes or need help putting together a timeline,” she said.

The third package is a “day of decorating,” Matlock said. “Our staff will come in and decorate for you and take care of pickup and tear down and returning rentals.”

Matlock and two other coordinators will work with the brides.

“My coordinators love what they do,” she said. “It makes it a little more personal when we have a little bit of a smaller staff.”

Package prices range from $500 to $2,500, and brides who use Prairie View get a discount.

Matlock and her husband, Erik, became partners in Prairie View in December 2019 with a plan of becoming the sole owners within six months. That happened even though the coronavirus pandemic led to the postponement of many weddings that were scheduled in May and June. After that, more events were held as planned, she said.

“Now, we’re over three-fourths booked for 2021,” she said. “The only dates left are in November and December. We have back-to-back weddings (Fridays and Saturdays) for every other single month. … People are already interested in 2022.”

Prairie View, 27091 Kerslake Place, is hosting an open house from 5 to 8 p.m. Jan. 21 for brides and others who might be interested in using the venue. Vendors, including staff from Plan to Plan Weddings, will be there to offer information on services.

“Plan to Plan Weddings is doing all of the decorations and the room layout,” Matlock said. “It will be completely set up for a 250-person event.”