Get to Know: Centennial Event Staffing

With how saturated the wedding industry, in general, has become it is pretty rare to find a niche (even in the smallest corner) that has yet to be filled. Well… Daniel & Victoria Burgess, also owners of the fabulous catering company Smokin’ Glory BBQ, found not just a small niche but a rather big hole (in my opinion) that was begging to be filled in our local wedding & event industry. I could easily type out this long intro paragraph of why I was so excited when Tori came to me asking if the idea of Centennial Event Staffing was something worth pursuing, but instead I am just going to let her tell you about the company and you will quickly see why I find this to be such a valuable asset to our event community (and your vendor team). Tori kindly took the time to answer all my questions, and I am so excited to feature this side of their business on my blog! Without further ado…

1. Tell us a little bit about who you guys are, your background, why you got started, and what makes Centennial so unique.

We started Centennial Event Staffing because we saw a need in our community and felt we were equipped to tackle it. With years of experience in catering and 3+ years of specific wedding experience in the Inland Northwest, we were able to dive right into the event staffing scene with great connections, an understanding of PNW weddings, and the confidence to make it happen.

Centennial started because we noticed a lot of small, local Idaho catering companies were not able to cross the divide into Washington due to local and state regulations that were cost-prohibitive to the small business industry. Additionally, a lot of catering companies didn’t have the scope to offer full-service catering, including plated service, manned buffet lines, bussing, and trash removal. We started bringing this idea to the attention of a couple local wedding planners (hello, Sydney – one of our favorites) who said YES to this idea. What we didn’t realize was that by not having the caterers handle the clean-up, it was falling onto the coordinators and family members who then couldn’t focus and help with other important wedding logistics. So, in collaboration with these coordinators and other wedding professionals, we created Centennial Event Staffing – your extra hands to make your day run smoothly.

2. What services do you provide that differ from what some caterers or coordinators offer?

When it comes to food service, we can come in and compliment practically any caterer in the area. With caterers who only offer delivery, set-up, or a self-serve buffet, we can set-up hot holding equipment, monitor the buffet for cleanliness and cross-contact, serve the food in the buffet line controlling portion sizes, and tear-down the buffet. We also bus tables, remove trash, and can handle drink services such as refilling water, beer, and wine for guests who are seated. We can also execute plated or family style dining, allowing for more customization in the guest’s experience. Lastly, we can scrape plates and stack rental equipment for the company to pick up at the end of the evening, so the coordinators don’t have to!

Outside of food service, we offer set-up and tear-down of event spaces. We can help the coordinator, the rental company, or the DIY brides with decorating, space flips, and basic floral arrangement. Our disclaimer – we’re here to be your hands, not your designers, so simply provide us with your vision and we’ll make it happen.

Recently, we’ve expanded our services to include bartending. We’ve got a couple of amazing bartenders on staff and can offer a range of services from simple bartending at an hourly rate, to a manned rental of a taps trailer or mobile bar. We can work with the clients who simply need someone sober to pour the wine and open cans, to the whole works including mixers, garnishes, cups, and so much more!

3. Do you guys service a specific radius, and how are costs broken down for services?

Given that our business is based on service and there’s no transportation of food, we’ll ultimately go anywhere! However, we do prefer to operate within a 2-hour radius of Post Falls, Idaho – including Eastern Washington.

As a newer business, our rates are subject to change, but we are trying to keep it consistent and affordable for all of our customers. Every job incurs a small admin fee to help cover logistics and planning. Outside of bartenders, our service runs $25/hour per staffer, with a minimum of 2 staffers at all times. Our bartenders range from $60-$100 per hour, with an option to rent a trailer for an extra fun guest experience! The extent of how many staff members are needed depends on the guest headcount and the range of services requested. Lastly, we do charge a travel fee, and that depends on where your venue is located.

As we work on expanding our services, more perks, services, and add-ons will be available for purchase outside of the hourly rate of service.

4. I know the business is still relatively new, but do you have a couple of most memorable experiences yet? Perhaps in the best & worst way.

In this wedding industry, every job teaches us something new! Whether it’s something great to add to the list of services or something not so great to add to the ever-evolving contract, we definitely learn a thing or two.

I think one of the most memorable experiences has been coming in to assist a rental company with set up before and during a Sihk wedding in Spokane Valley. In anticipation of 300 guests, our staff set up tables and linens for breakfast, flipped the space during the ceremony, and tore-down the area after lunch. Each meal consisted of bussing hundreds of plates that our staff, along with the catering company, washed for hours. However, despite the smoky August air and the many, many dishes, our staff had a blast getting to experience a culturally different wedding, working alongside the caterers, and having a deliciously rich meal filled with new flavors.

We have yet to have a ‘worst’ experience, as we choose to look at every event as a learning opportunity. However, we definitely are working on expanding our final confirmation call questionnaire to be a lot more detailed. At Centennial Event Staffing, we strive to go above and beyond the set expectations, but we are working to make those expectations even more clear and concise for both you and our staff on the day of.

5. What is one thing you wish couples knew going into the planning process BEFORE it becomes a “I wish we would have…” moment?

In the broadest sense of this question, we regularly encourage couples to have fun in the planning process and to not forget the true goal of the wedding: to make the commitment of marriage with your best friend. Frequently, this fact gets lost in the budgets, the seating charts, and the infamous in-laws and stress and frustrations arise. But have fun. This is supposed to be the best day of your lives together.

But, back to Centennial, our advice would be to pay the extra little bit to have us come out. We know every vendor says this, but truly, it’ll make such a huge difference! Imagine if your wedding was delayed by 2 hours because no one, even though they said they would, showed up to set up the chairs and flowers in the ceremony area? What if your coordinator is too busy trying to set up chaffing sets and forgets to have the DJ introduce you to your guests at a certain time? What if your photographer, who you spent thousands on, is taking those precious family photos but there’s piles of beer bottles and heaping dinner trash in every corner? What’s the little bit of extra money when it means that your wedding starts on time, or your coordinator makes your grand entrance the most special event of the after-party, or the photos with late Grandma Sue came out perfectly? So, that’s our advice. Hire Centennial Event Staffing for your special day.

6. Lastly, what is on the horizon for Centennial? Are there any services you are hoping to add on in the future?

Oh – the best question, and the one that keeps us up at night. Our overarching dream for Centennial Event Staffing is to open up hubs all over the Pacific Northwest – offering these much-needed services to venues that are 2+ hours outside of Post Falls, Idaho.

But on a much smaller, much more local scale, we are working on adding valet and shuttle services to our scope. We currently offer parking attendance, but to step-up the game, we want to offer localized shuttle service from parking spot to venue, or from ceremony to reception. A valet service would also be amazing, especially for venues that offer parking that causes hardship on mobility-restricted guests or have unique parking situations.

We are working on expanding our bartending services. We’d love to get a few mixologists on staff who can handle the larger, more customized menus that some events wish to have. We also want to offer mocktail bartending services that can still bring the fun, party atmosphere while accommodating the liquor restrictions that many PNW venues do have.

Another service we’re looking into is simple, day-of coordination. We don’t want to step on the toes of any of our amazing planner friends, but we feel that Centennial can offer a point-of-contact person to help facilitate vendor arrivals, set-up and tear-down, and basic timeline management. We don’t foresee offering any full service planning, and recommend reaching out to Sydney for that, but we do feel that a point-of-contact person can help our clients get the most of our staffing services in the most efficient and clean way possible.

Lastly, we are working on partnering with local rental companies to offer rentals through our staffing service. We currently can offer hot-holding equipment for food service, but we’d love to collaborate with them to offer tables and chairs, linens, decor, dish and glassware and so much more in one convenient package for our customers.

Ultimately, if there’s something a couple wants – ask! We won’t ever know it’s a need if no one asks for it. And we can definitely make things happen if you give us the chance to explore and come up with an option that makes sense for both us and the client.

So, there you have it. If your venue and/or caterer do not offer the full-service experience for not only your guest’s enjoyment, but the enjoyment of yourselves too, then I would very highly recommend considering reaching out to Tori to discuss your options. I have no doubt you have heard the phrase “it takes a village”. It has likely been in reference to the raising of a child in the context you are used to, but this is also true in the world of events. There are so many amazing vendors & business owners who help put an event together and each piece (person) of that puzzle is needed to create magic. Truly, the number one goal of a wedding vendor is and should be to make your day run as smoothly as possible, but that also includes you making sure your vendors are set up successfully from the start of the event in order to make that happen!

Centennial Event Staffing:

WEBSITE

INSTAGRAM

CONTACT INFO: (208) 254-0532 or info@centennialeventstaffing.com