Listen to the Podcast About Kingsmill Resort
Podcast Summary
In a riveting episode of Eventful Endeavors, Nate from Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos hosts Danielle Miller, the charismatic Head Events Guru at Kingsmill Resort. Nestled in the picturesque locale of Williamsburg, Virginia, Kingsmill Resort is widely renowned for its exceptional events. During their conversation, Danielle takes the audience through the busy winter season at the resort, sharing how the team is excitedly preparing for a plethora of holiday parties and weddings.
Miller candidly describes her journey in the hospitality industry, which incidentally started under the influence of her father who was a hospitality veteran. She recounts her transition from the education field to hospitality, her initial experiences working at the front desk of a hotel, and becoming a GM at the tender age of 21. Danielle divulged that she always had a penchant for the sales field but eventually found her calling in the catering segment of the industry.
An interesting turning point in Danielle’s career was her stint at ESPN as the travel and events coordinator. However, her love for the hospitality industry lured her back. Her professional journey took another interesting turn when she decided to return to the wedding industry after a brief hiatus in 2016. Reminiscing about her professional journey, Danielle acknowledges that the hectic events industry, especially wedding events, contain a unique blend of madness and magic that makes her job at Kingsmill Resort exhilarating.
In conclusion, this enlightening conversation with Danielle Miller showcases the dedication, excitement, and passion that goes into making Kingsmill Resort a top destination for events year-round.
Learn more about Kingsmill Resort
This interview was provided by Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos
Podcast Transcript
Nate (00:25)
Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us at Eventful Endeavors. My name is Nate. I’m with Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos. I am here with the amazing Danielle Miller, who is the Head Events Guru at Kingsmill Resort, which if you haven’t checked it out is an amazing property in Williamsburg, Virginia. Thank you for joining me, Danielle. Absolutely. I’m so excited to talk to you about stuff. We’ve been to Kingsmill a number of times and it’s always been so much fun.
Danielle Miller (00:44)
Thank you for having me.
Nate (00:54)
Let’s dive in. So first of all, how is the winter season going?
Danielle Miller (00:58)
It’s busy. Believe it or not, we are very, very busy gearing up for the holidays, a lot of weddings, a lot of holiday parties. The resort has been transformed almost fully to Christmas and it’s just, it’s awesome. So we’re really excited.
Nate (01:00)
Hahaha!
bet that’s spectacular. Yeah, we love doing Winter Wonderland weddings. This time of year for us though is mainly, you know, company holiday parties, which I know you probably do your fair share of as well.
Danielle Miller (01:26)
Absolutely, ton, a ton of them.
Nate (01:29)
So I wanted to talk a little bit about the events world. I know that you have a kind of unique history from where you came from to coming on with the events team and heading up the events team at Kingsmill. Do you mind sharing with us a little bit about kind of your backstory and what led you on the path to working in events and working at Kingsmill?
Danielle Miller (01:49)
Yeah, definitely. So it’s funny, I grew up with a dad who was in the hospitality industry. Kind of followed a little bit in his footsteps, said, I want you to be a special ed teacher.
That lasted all of one year in my freshman year and decided, nope, I’m moving to hospitality. My dad asked me if I was crazy. I told him no. Many years later, I have told him yes. And I started off.
Nate (02:10)
Ha ha.
Ha ha ha ha!
Danielle Miller (02:22)
you know, at the front desk, working banquets, working, I was a GM at 21 for a small hotel, and yeah, for a small hotel where I went to school for about six months. And then I knew I always wanted to be in the sales field. I never thought I wanted to be in the catering field. So fast forward, I graduate, I get my first big girl job.
Nate (02:26)
Mm-hmm.
Understood, okay.
Hahaha!
Danielle Miller (02:52)
And I’m a catering manager at a conference center in Connecticut that’s no longer around.
And I had some great mentors who taught me both the selling and catering aspect. So I’ve always been in both sides. I, yep. So I’ve always, as they call it, booked and cooked. So started there, had my boys, headed over to ESPN. I was travel and events coordinator for them on and off for about eight years. Handled a lot of their, helped manage from the travel department, like rooming lists. I would go on site.
Nate (03:05)
Mm-hmm.
okay.
Danielle Miller (03:28)
did some really cool events but I always came back to hospitality so fast forward to 2016 I was going through a divorce and I decided I needed to get out of the house I couldn’t work from home anymore I left ESPN and I went back into weddings swore I would never ever go back into that and
Nate (03:31)
Mm-hmm.
It is madness.
Danielle Miller (03:55)
Yeah, took a little hiatus, got transferred from California back east in 2022. And I took a brief year and a half, no weddings. I’m just going to sell. Bored out of my mind. Loved the job. Loved the job, but was extremely, it just, there was something missing and I got approached to come here and I’ve been here since April and it’s been feet to the fire, boots on the ground.
insane since the day I walked through the door. But it’s great. It’s fun.
Nate (04:26)
Yeah, there’s something special about the kind of events that we do and especially when it comes to weddings, it’s madness and magic. So it’s, yeah, that’s awesome.
Danielle Miller (04:35)
Yeah.
any event, it’s, you know, seeing it from, you know, the start when you’re first booking the piece to the actual fruition. And I think that’s why I could just never do one. I tried. It doesn’t work for me. I like being hands on from the A to Z through process. Yeah, I’ll pick it up at, you know, B or C if I need to, which I do a lot here, but I really enjoy the A through Z. And I think that’s why I enjoy events and weddings and all of
Nate (04:51)
Ha ha ha ha!
Danielle Miller (05:08)
things so much.
Nate (05:09)
Absolutely. Okay. So, you know, I’m glad you kind of shared some of your backstory because I had a couple of questions. You know, you talked about like doing working in special education, you talked about working for ESPN and kind of being on that side where you were actually working with folks like yourself to do things like room blocks, book spaces and put on events. So I wanted to ask specifically, what
sort of lessons or skills carry over for you from working in special education and then working on, know, what sort of insight do you have coming from the folks that being one of those people that reaches out to a space like Kingsmill that you’re in now.
Danielle Miller (05:50)
So for special ed, I only made it through freshman year of college. me, and I was like, I did an after school program with some children, which was fantastic. There was a lot of, I’m a very, I wear my heart on my sleeve. Sometimes I can’t hide my emotions. And so I noticed that for me, it was just not one of those, I’m not built to be that type of, I’m not built to be a teacher.
Nate (05:54)
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (06:20)
in that capacity. So in this capacity, yes, you my dream is to be a professor at
Nate (06:21)
Got it.
Danielle Miller (06:28)
a college for hospitality. anyways, but yeah, so being on both sides of it, I think is a great, is great, because I can see it, I can see it when I’m talking to a client that’s not necessarily a wedding, and or it’s a meeting planner, I can see it from their side and what they’re looking for and why they’re asking the questions they’re asking. But then I have this side and I know that, you know, over here, I have to have these certain things to be able to achieve what
essentially my job is. So I think it’s great because I can balance it. You know, one of the things I loved was when I was on this side of things, know, booking with the King’s Mills and the Holiday Inn’s and Hilton’s and all of those things is they would try to say, well, we can’t do that. Yeah, you can.
Nate (07:11)
Mm-hmm.
Hahaha!
Danielle Miller (07:16)
we don’t have extra rooms or we don’t hold. It was great because I could definitely use my knowledge in both skill sets saying, well, yeah, I know you can. And so it was great. I’m still friends with a lot of those hoteliers to this day because.
They knew that, we can’t pull a fast one on her, you know? But I think it’s great too because then when I’m on this side of things and I’m trying to work with a client, I can really understand what they’re looking for and go to bat a little bit more because I can break it all the way down of why they’re asking these certain questions versus they’re just being difficult.
Nate (07:36)
Ha
Uh-huh.
Danielle Miller (07:56)
No, there’s a reason. There’s a reason. I had to push hotels to work with me in a certain capacity when I was at ESPN. You had to. You had to use a certain thing. But it’s all about creating those relationships. So I think being able to be that, can see it from both sides, glass empty, glass full.
Nate (07:57)
Right. Right.
Right.
Right.
Absolutely. that’s, you know, that’s one of the reasons I was so excited to talk with you all is because just from the times that we’ve worked with you, I can tell that you guys are sort of, your mentality is very much the same as ours, which is, you know, trying to always understand the need behind the ask. It’s especially easy to think like when folks ask for something that’s a little stranger off the beaten path that they just, they don’t know what they.
Danielle Miller (08:34)
Mm-hmm.
Nate (08:45)
what they’re asking. But a lot of times that that’s driven from a place of, you know, having a very specific need that they really don’t understand how to accomplish what they’re trying to setting out to do. And so it’s, you know, one of the reasons I was so excited to talk with Kingsmill is because I’ve gotten a sense that you all understand how to kind of get to the heart of what they’re really their vision is what they’re trying to accomplish by understanding the unique ways that folks might ask us for certain things and understanding like
Danielle Miller (08:46)
Yeah.
on.
Nate (09:13)
that unique question may actually be something that we absolutely can do. They just don’t know what they don’t know. So it’s something that, you know, I’ve seen you all go kind of above and beyond for folks. And that’s one of the reasons I was really excited to talk with you all. So let’s talk about after the booking process. You know, one of the things that a lot of folks watch our podcast for is to hear a little bit about other events that have happened at spaces like Kingsmill maybe kind of relate them to their own events.
Danielle Miller (09:27)
Thank you.
Nate (09:42)
So I’m going to ask you one question. That’s going to be an absolute delight. And I’m going to ask you another question after that. That’s going to be a little trickier. but I think that, you know, just knowing you, I, I’m very excited for the responses. So, my first question is actually tell me a story about an event that a couple or a client brought an event in and did something really unique and special. everything went off perfectly, especially if there’s some.
something that they did that you’d like love to see more folks bring into Kingsmill.
Danielle Miller (10:13)
You know, I think I would love to see whether it’s a corporate group or a social group, meeting, any of that. I would love to see them. I don’t want to use the word decor, but.
Nate (10:29)
Yeah
Danielle Miller (10:30)
You know, there’s a lot of, I’m seeing, especially here, lot of associations, corporate groups that are bringing in that third party or working with us to find a third party to bring in and elevate the space, elevate the breakouts, elevate this, elevate that. And I think I would love for everyone to put a budget in place when they’re planning to do that. Because I think that, that,
Nate (10:42)
Mm-hmm.
okay.
Danielle Miller (10:55)
creates a lasting experience, not only for the attendees, but it also creates a lasting experience for the staff here. remember, I think that when you add those extra little bits of special touches.
Nate (10:58)
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (11:11)
It just creates a different experience versus, okay, we’re gonna go sit in a classroom, watch video all day, take notes, get up, have a 15 minute break, sit down, have a lunch. I think just creating different experiences and I’ve seen it recently a lot. had one corporate group that we had a hot air balloon here and they were doing hot air balloon rides.
Nate (11:12)
Mm-hmm.
that’s so cool.
Danielle Miller (11:34)
Yeah, and that was back in October. I’m not gonna share who it was, but they did a whole, and if they’re listening, they’ll know who it is.
Nate (11:38)
Okay.
Danielle Miller (11:42)
the whole pre-function space of our James River Grant ballroom was a tour of Virginia and they had all different areas. They had the beach, they had the mountains, they had this and it really just brought you through and then the meeting itself was all themed that way and I know as being in the hotel world and going to the wedding pro conferences that are in, god.
Nate (11:53)
need.
Danielle Miller (12:10)
can’t think of wedding MBA and going to companies that I’ve worked for, their big sales trainings. Putting all that little bit of extra effort goes a long way and you can do a lot for a little.
Nate (12:25)
Yeah.
Danielle Miller (12:26)
So I wanna say that’s what I wanna see more of. Even if it’s five people, five person meeting, you can even do that. There’s always a way to elevate and create an amazing experience that’s gonna leave either your clients or your staff, employees wanting more.
Nate (12:42)
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely. Yeah, that’s that actually, I love that you said that, like putting in a little bit of like variance and making each moment for an event kind of an experience. That’s something that is very close to my heart as well. You know, we’re our company, we’re dueling pianos. So we’re already wildly different from any other type of live entertainment that folks have. But we’re always looking for ways to sort of
Danielle Miller (13:01)
Yeah.
But I love it.
Nate (13:11)
elevate the experience from moment to moment. You know, that’s why our performers are cross-trained and DJing and MCing and that’s why we booked by the event. yeah, that’s again, this is, this is why I was so excited to talk to you because I feel like it just lines up so well. Okay. Now I have to ask you the trickier question. a lot of times folks watch our podcast because they want to hear, I don’t want to say they want to share the tea.
But to some extent they do. A lot of folks don’t realize just how much goes on behind the scenes with event professionals, how much we will put in extra work, extra thought, extra hours to make sure that from the client’s or the couple’s perspective, everything’s going perfectly while something is on fire in the background. That’s a big part of our job and the reason why people book.
true professionals for their events is because we’re able to We have a sixth sense for when things are happening and we’re able to manage those things without it ever truly affecting the client so My question is can you give me an example of a recent or long time ago event where that? Has happened and you were able to and what that solution was and how it was managed before it really became a we’ll say a client acknowledged issue
Danielle Miller (14:10)
No.
Nate (14:32)
Haha!
Danielle Miller (14:33)
So the most recent experience, unfortunately, it was all client acknowledged. can’t, I can’t, I’m not gonna sugar coat that. So we had a little bit of a system and network outage for about three and a half weeks this past fall. Yeah. So not only were we dealing with that, it was busy season. It was just me and my, one of the girls on my team.
Nate (14:42)
huh.
my goodness. my goodness, okay.
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (14:57)
doing all of the events. And I think that even with all of that going on, and they were aware of it, the one thing that was a consistent remark from the clients was, you’re here. Did you go home? You seem so happy. You know, and I think that…
just being that forefront of positivity and happiness and making sure that every other little thing that they had happening was perfect helped lessen the blow on everything else that was going on even though everything else that was going on was incredibly insane is the old is yeah
Nate (15:20)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Yeah. And that’s, that’s just something you can’t even truly control. So, you know, being that positive steady influence can turn an event that may not be perfect into something that’s still special, remarkable and incredible. yeah, no, that’s awesome.
Danielle Miller (15:44)
Yeah, but there’s…
Yeah. And also too, we’ve had a little bit of turnover, you know, in taking over clients that literally, I talked to them on a Tuesday and a week later they were in and I had to try to figure everything out because nothing was.
documented and had a great successful event. No one on the other side knew and I was like, I got you, got you, know, hugging the planners before we were leaving, know, checking in each other. So I think just, I like to pride myself on being authentic. I’m never gonna promise you something that I can’t fulfill.
Nate (16:25)
Hahaha
Danielle Miller (16:35)
I tell everyone, there’s black and white, I live in the gray. I will gray as much as I possibly can until I can’t gray no more.
Nate (16:42)
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (16:43)
And I’m going to tell you. But I have I learned that a very long time ago from a very young age, one through my dad, but also through my very first catering job, seeing and watching and all of the expectations. You know, you always have to plan just like Covid. I had A, B, C, D options for weddings in 2020. We we rolled with Plan A. We had Plan B.
We had plan C and we had plan D. And I think it’s always anticipating what could potentially go wrong and be 12 steps ahead of it. And I pride myself. I’m pretty good about doing that. Yes, I’m human. We all make mistakes, but I think trying to anticipate, if they want it this way, okay, we’ll do it this way, but what if it doesn’t work? How can we pivot?
Nate (17:21)
Right.
Right. Absolutely. yeah, that’s that’s talking back to that sixth sense. You know, it’s it looks effortless. But the truth is, you know, us, them professionals, we are always looking what not what’s happening next, but what’s happening after that. So
Danielle Miller (17:55)
Correct, correct. Absolutely. I’m already thinking about my wedding in two weeks and about the weather and I’m like, huh, what am I gonna do? It’s a crazy busy day. Okay, you know, I’m already there.
Nate (18:06)
Right, right. So another big reason why folks, you know, watch Eventful Endeavors is, you know, I always ask for a little advice. So I’m going to, again, I’m going to ask two questions. I’m going to ask a little bit about weddings because they’re such a unique type of event. And then I’m going to ask more generally about events. If you could offer one piece of advice to couples that are currently planning their wedding, what would that advice be?
Danielle Miller (18:33)
Be realistic on your budget.
Nate (18:36)
Really? Okay. Yeah.
Danielle Miller (18:38)
Yeah, I think, you know, I was actually talking to a couple this morning and I was saying, you know, the trend since early 2000s to now, it’s been in the early 2000s, everyone wanted to spend the money and have these big, elaborate weddings and hundreds of thousands. And then we saw a different, you know, type of wedding start where it was, okay, well, I want to travel. And so I’m going to do these small like elopement style weddings. And then we saw, all right, I’m to buy a house and do all these things first. And maybe
I’m gonna go to the courthouse and then in a year do like a reception and then we had COVID and we saw that. I was a COVID bride so I get it. And now we’re trending again, seeing people want these champagne weddings on a beer budget.
Nate (19:14)
All that.
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (19:26)
And I think that’s the one thing that if I could give any advice is before you even start looking, yes, it’s so exciting. You get engaged, you want, you want to find the venue, you want to pick out the dress, you want to do this, you Pinterest board, you look at all this stuff, you need to set a realistic budget. I was, my first wedding, I wanted it all and I spent six years paying it off.
Nate (19:36)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Danielle Miller (19:51)
And I would never wish that on anyone where when I got remarried, we sat down, we did a budget and I had a best case and a worst case scenario budget and I came right in between and we left and we were paid in full. Like nothing else. I think the only thing we had to pay was for the car rental. sit down and create your budget. Find out what’s most important.
Nate (19:54)
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
Okay
Danielle Miller (20:18)
Food, music, booze are typically the top three.
Nate (20:22)
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (20:23)
Then decide, do you wanna DIY all yourself or do you wanna pay someone to do it? Planners are fantastic, wedding planners, day of planners are fantastic, but I don’t think anyone realizes how expensive they are and they should be because of the work that they put in. So you need to budget for that. Do you want fresh flowers? There’s so many companies out there now that fake flowers.
Nate (20:29)
Over.
Right.
Danielle Miller (20:49)
There’s companies that you can rent fake flower arrangements and bouquets and all this and save a third. However, are flowers. So you have to decide what’s important. Set that budget ahead of time and be realistic. There is nothing worse than getting an inquiry and a call. I have 250 people, my budget’s 5,000.
Nate (21:00)
Right.
Danielle Miller (21:11)
Okay, that’s not gonna happen. Maybe in your backyard, you know? And of course I’m a lot nicer, but yeah, think set your expectations, set your budget, and do your research. Because I can tell you, when I was looking for my venue, I found it sight unseen on the internet.
Nate (21:21)
Hahaha fair enough, yeah
Right.
Absolutely.
Danielle Miller (21:36)
and I loved what I saw, got there in person, loved what I saw, but it didn’t have some of the greatest reviews. So I always say take everything with a grain of salt and form your own opinion. So budget, inform your own opinion. Budget, budget, budget.
Nate (21:36)
Uh-huh.
Right. Okay.
Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, and I would agree with that. I love that you kind of talked a little bit about prioritizing. I actually just got married in August, so we had our own prioritizing to do. I will say, our wedding was 18 people, very small wedding. We started out with a, you I won’t say the numbers, but we wound up about double our budget.
Danielle Miller (22:07)
love it.
Nate (22:13)
But we also, you know, we leaned in really hard on the things that were very important to us. So, yeah, as far as, you know, doing that research, would you, are there places like online or is there places you would recommend that are kind of accurate? Because I do know, like for example, with planning my own wedding, the average cost or what to expect as far as each piece was wildly everywhere.
Danielle Miller (22:39)
Yeah.
Nate (22:39)
for each piece. There were some folks that were saying, like, yeah, a great venue on a weekend is going to be $3,000 plus catering. And then there’s other places that are like, no, it’s definitely on a weekend in the fall is going to be $10,000. And then you might get some catering with that. it’s all over the place. Is there one place that you would recommend folks go to kind of do their research?
Danielle Miller (23:04)
Yeah, I mean, I would look use the wedding wire and the knot. So I find them.
Nate (23:11)
Okay.
Danielle Miller (23:14)
find them actually really great. There’s also another one called Party Slate. Those are great platforms, but you really need to tone down what you’re wanting. Don’t start looking at all-inclusive resorts, but then you decide to book a barn, because that’s completely different. A barn, you’re have to bring everything, and that’s the other thing. You have to decide, do you wanna bring in your own catering, your own chairs, your own linens, your da-da-da-da-da-da-da. So you really have to set up your expectations.
Nate (23:19)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (23:43)
your wants versus needs, like you said as well. Like, what are your non-negotiables? I love that word. What are your non-negotiables? And you go from there. Yeah.
Nate (23:52)
Of course. let me actually, that’s weddings. Let me, before I, I’m gonna circle back on that because I have a related question. But first, is there a different piece of advice that you would give to just events in general, say corporate events, fundraisers, or social events?
Danielle Miller (23:56)
Okay.
I think during your pre-planning process when you’re trying to look for a venue, make sure you’re asking the right questions.
Nate (24:17)
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (24:18)
What’s the food and beverage minimum? Is there a site fee or a rental fee? What does that include? What does your cancellation look like? What if we need to change the date? What’s your max capacity? You know, all of those important questions versus, hey, I wanna do this event, okay? So then I need to know all of this so I can, because if I don’t have that information, I can’t give you the proper quote.
Nate (24:24)
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (24:43)
in the proper information and put you in the proper space. That’s huge thing. If you’re telling you have an event and then I’m looking and like, okay, I have that date open and then you come back and say, well, no, it’s for 250. I’m like, yeah, no, don’t have that anymore because I don’t have a space big enough. So during your pre-planning, give as much information as possible. You don’t have to pinpoint, well, I want breakfast at eight and this at the end. No, just do you need rooms?
how much meeting space, event space, as much information as possible. And if you’re working within a budget, be forthcoming about that. I know myself, I don’t take that for granted and say, yeah, I’m gonna take them for all their budget. No, that gives me, that helps me let you know if it’s actually realistic for you to do an event with me, no matter where I’ve been.
Nate (25:12)
Right.
Absolutely.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Right, I think there’s a couple of things there I wanted to speak to. one of the things, and I’ll talk about the last thing first. One of the things that I always try to convey when talking with folks, because something happened after the pandemic and we are getting a lot more folks that talk to us first, before they have a date or a venue or a planner or whatever, we’re the fun vendor to look for. So I think that’s part of why. But.
Danielle Miller (25:55)
Thank
Nate (25:57)
You know, I always try to convey it’s like with true wedding and event professionals. Most of the time, our prices are very standardized. Like no matter what you give us back as far as your budget, it’s not really going to affect our pricing, but it might help steer us. That might help us steer you in a direction that’s doable for you. And so I would absolutely double down on that. Just feel free to be transparent about your budget. You’re never going to insult us. We have seen.
every amount from way up high to way down low. you know, like that, it’s not going to cause us to change our prices. It’s not going to cause us to hang up on you. But what it will do is give us a chance to sort of find a solution that fits for you. You talked a little bit about, you know, asking the right questions of a venue. Is there like a top three questions that
Danielle Miller (26:36)
Yeah.
Nate (26:48)
they definitely should be asking. think you mentioned something about like, what’s cancellation policy look like? What is rescheduled policy look like? There was another question in there. wanted to, what’s included?
Danielle Miller (26:58)
what’s included. So if you’re paying a rental or a site fee, is anything included or is it just the space? So I know I make it a point to say our site fees include A, B, C, D, E, F, G, you know, and I’m like, really? I was like, yeah, that does. But there are times you pay $10,000 and it doesn’t include anything.
Nate (27:04)
Right.
Right.
Right? Boy, do I know that’s to be the Okay. So I wanted to circle back and, know, we’ve talked a little bit of a lot about with this advice, like honestly, like the booking process. So I wanted to learn a little bit. What does it look like? Like, let’s say I just go on King’s Mills website and I say, I submit a request for a proposal. I’ve got this event on this date. What does the process look like from, you know, initial conversations to having our
Danielle Miller (27:21)
Yeah.
Thank
Nate (27:48)
my event on the books. Are we working entirely with you? What offerings do we have? What do we discuss? Tell me a little bit about that process if I wanted to get started with Kingsmill.
Danielle Miller (27:59)
Okay, so when you submit an RFP here, or you call in, it’s going to be qualified.
Nate (28:03)
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (28:07)
So is it just day catering, social, family reunion, something that myself and my team would handle, or is it corporate? And would it go to one of the sales managers? So we have three sales managers plus our EPF sales and marketing, and they’re all broken down by market.
Nate (28:19)
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (28:24)
Once that’s determined, we’re determined what that looks like. So with me, when it’s something social or day meeting, I ask the questions. If I don’t have them, what are you looking for?
Nate (28:29)
Mm-hmm.
Danielle Miller (28:38)
all of the things. I’ll invite you in for a tour, whether it’s virtually, do a lot of virtual tours via Zoom or FaceTime, as well as in person. And then from there, after that, we go to the contracting process. When you work with the other sales managers, you do all their negotiating through them. Once that event is booked, definite, it gets turned over. I look at it, I look at my girls and what they have on, you know, during that timeframe, or if
it’s something that myself would keep and I assign it to them and then there’s a formal introduction made and then we run from it with here’s you know the the highlights from your contract here’s when your rooming list is due deposit so on and so forth so it just really depends on what type of event you’re looking for
Nate (29:13)
Mm-hmm.
Okay. And if I’m not mistaken, if I heard you correctly, like one of the things that you guys offer that a lot of other places don’t is you actually have rooms and lodging on site. And so if I’m hearing you correctly, that’s one of the sort of divining rods. Like there’s another side of the team that sort of handles room blocks, things like that.
Danielle Miller (29:28)
Thank
Yes.
Correct, like I do wedding room blocks, I family reunions, social stuff, some smaller room blocks, but typically the larger golf groups or association corporate are handled by one of the other sales managers, yeah.
Nate (29:56)
Okay.
Okay, wonderful. But it sounds like there’s a big team, you know, if somebody works with Kingsmill, there’s a big team behind them to kind of help facilitate making a plan and making sure everything runs smoothly from from the beginning. What’s that? my goodness. Okay, wonderful. So, perfect. Danielle, this has just been a ton of fun. I before we we go.
Danielle Miller (30:05)
correct.
Yep, there’s eight of us. There’s eight of us. Yes.
Nate (30:22)
I wanted to give you kind of a chance to, and I’m gonna ask you on both sides. I’m gonna ask you once again about weddings, once again about corporate and social events. What is the one thing, like share with me like why folks should come out to Kingsmill, why they should talk to you and learn a little bit more about Kingsmill before they, when they’re looking for a venue in the Williamsburg area.
Danielle Miller (30:43)
Well, Kingsmill is very unique. I think that it’s been it’s been around for since the 80s, I want to say, when the Bush family, not George Bush, but Anheuser Bush owned the property. Yeah, owned the property, owned Bush Gardens, all of that. It has a lot of historicness to it. It’s gone through, obviously, an ownership change. The Bushes sold it.
Nate (30:50)
Ha
that bush, okay.
Danielle Miller (31:09)
Escalante Golf in Resorts bought it and we manage it. you drive in to Kingsmill, you come through the gate. And I hate to use this cliche, but it’s like a Hallmark movie when you’re driving in. Especially this time of year with the trees and even when I would drive through here in February and March, it’s beautiful.
There’s just so much to do and you can have everything here, whether it’s a ceremony, a reception, a rehearsal dinner, a meeting. We have a beautiful sports center, sports club that went through a huge renovation, multi-million dollar renovation this past year. You can do yoga, there’s the spa, you can go kayaking on the river, you wanna rent a.
Nate (31:44)
wow.
Danielle Miller (31:53)
You can rent a boat, you wanna go jet-skiing, you wanna play golf, tennis, pickleball. You wanna relax? Just relax because all of the rooms have balconies. I think that if you’re looking for one place to put all of your guests, whether it’s a meeting, a wedding, social event, you can do it all here because there’s so many different things and places on the property that we can make happen for you.
Nate (32:14)
awesome.
So cool. Amazing. Well, Danielle, I am looking forward to our next event together. I know we have another one coming up on the books, but thank you so much for taking a few minutes to chat with us here at Eventful Endeavors, and we’ll talk again soon.
Danielle Miller (32:30)
Yeah.
Definitely, thank you so much. You have a good day.
Nate (32:41)
You too.
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