NEW CANAAN – While nearby wedding venues can garner as much as $18,000, nuptials at Waveny House are bringing in just $3,500, a trend that town officials want to see change.
Striving to make Waveny House more competitive, branding consultants presented a plan on Thursday to the Board of Selectmen.
The 36,000 square-foot mansion, built in 1912, historically hosts 60 weddings a year. The house has a reputation of being a good value, said First Selectmen Kevin Moynihan, with rates that have not been raised since 2017.
Town officials have been discussing for years “how to really promote Waveny as a premier wedding event kind of space,” while keeping it available to the community, Administrative Officer Tucker Murphy told the selectmen.
The proposal, presented by Sarah Allard of Case Study Brands, calls for hiring a dedicated part-time staffer, revamping branding to increase the venue‘s perceived value, creating a new website, designing a logo and possibly expanding capacity with the use of tents.
Allard, whose firm has worked on branding the Greenwich Town Party, said that her group works to “uncover and articulate brand DNA and strategic guidelines” to drive engagement to the community and ultimately produce a greater return on investment.
She showed a chart that compared ten wedding venues, mostly in Fairfield and Westchester counties, with capacities between 150 to 400 people and starting prices ranging from $3,200, for Waveny House, to $17,995 for Whitby Castle in Rye, NY.
Murphy, who helped collect the data for the chart, pointed out that the survey may not be comparing “apples to apples,” since some of the venues, such as Whitby Castle, include an entire package with food. However, a venue such as Lounsbury House, a private mansion on Main Street in Ridgefield with a capacity for 150 people, charges $4,500 to $7,000 without food. Waveny House is also considered an outlier as being one of the few wedding venues that does not have air conditioning.
Moynihan explained that he has put together a group to develop a business model for Waveny House as he wants the Board of Finance “to understand why we spend millions of dollars.”
The first selectman reasoned that “in order to charge more to be competitive,” the town needs to provide a “first class product.” In order to do that “the house needs to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act,” which is “expensive in terms of the bathrooms and the elevator.” In addition, “we really could do further beautification of the interior of the house itself,” Moynihan said.
Allard explained the changes she was recommending.
“There are some significant challenges we’re experiencing right now that, if not addressed, really limits our ability to be a premier wedding destination” while maintaining “this really valuable asset for the town,” she said.
The plan recommends hiring someone who would be the “first touch point for the bride or party planner,” Allard explained. That staffer would know the history of the building, give tours of the house, share testimonials and photos, offer contacts for vendors and hand out floor plans.
She also suggested creating a dedicated website with elegant photos from the house and prior events instead of making potential clients navigate through the Parks and Recreation Department on the town website, which “doesn’t feel glamorous,” Allard explained.
Another item on the to-do list would be creating a logo for the house that would be used on monogrammed napkins, champagne bottles, dishware and anything that “really customizes the venue and make it feel special,” Allard said.
Moynihan added that he wants to look into the possibility of using a tent for “a larger wedding, which could accommodate 250 or 300 people in attendance.”
“We can invest time, money and resources to preserve and celebrate this landmark and preserve and celebrate the history of the house,” Allard said.