Think Outside The Chocolate Box!

Kristina Stubblefield  0:00 

In this vendor spotlight, we have a tasty treat for you. One of the most loved people in the wedding industry, not just because she brings the goodies, but because she is one of the sweetest people in the business.

Michael Gaddie  0:12 

As owner of the local chocolate fountain, she can help you get something delightful splash case so on something delicious, or just spend a minute listening with her huge heart,

Sharon Rumsey  0:22 

the bartender of the chocolate world.

Kristina Stubblefield  0:25 

Let's welcome our friend and hope you got engaged. Now what? Happy? Yes, joyful time, of course, stressed and overwhelmed. 100% Don't worry, you're in the right place. Welcome to the ring, the blink and all the things where we will get you from down on one knee to down the aisle. We'll cover all things from yes to I do's and all that happens in between. Hi, I'm Kristina Stubblefield, one of your hosts, along with my two good friends Michael Gaddie, and Sharon Rumsey. With over 50 years of wedding experience between us. We have seen it, heard it, done it and found a way around it. So buckle up and enjoy the journey. Now, let's get started with this episode.

Now for those who know me, they might know that one of my favorite things is chocolate. So today's guest fits right into that. But unfortunately, Sharon is really asked to do the intro. And I know I don't let him speak that much. So I'm gonna go ahead and let her introduce this person. Sharon, can you take it away from here?

Sharon Rumsey  1:50 

Kristina, thank you for letting me do this one because our guest today is one of my dear, dear friends who I love with my whole heart. When I started in the wedding business, the first thing I found out was that the wedding business can be at cliquey crew. And when you first start out sometimes it's kind of hard to feel like you fit in. And our guest today and hope from the chocolate fountain made me feel 100% welcome and accepted. And she's been in the business so long that when I don't know what to do, she's usually my first phone call and owns the Louisville chocolate fountain here in Louisville, Kentucky. And she's a specialty wedding vendor. And we're excited to have her on today because she's going to share all kinds of tips and tricks, and how to bring the fun to your reception.

Kristina Stubblefield  2:40 

Yay. And thanks for joining us.

Anne Hogue 2:42 

Hey, thanks for having me.

Michael Gaddie  2:43 

I'm so glad you're here.

Anne Hogue 2:44 

I What a fun crew. I mean, I

Michael Gaddie  2:47 

just wake up cuz it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Kristina Stubblefield  2:53 

Mike, I kind of feel like we might need to excuse

Sharon Rumsey  2:58 

me, we'd be all right. All right.

Kristina Stubblefield  3:01 

Anne, thank you for joining us. So for having me. Tell us a little bit about your wedding background and how much you enjoy the wedding business.

Anne Hogue 3:09 

I Well, I found out I enjoy it. When that quarantine hit back in March in April and everything came to a cease. I miss being at a happy occasion with happy people feeding them. Chocolate. I mean, I really miss seeing those smiles. As far as how long I've been in the business started in 2004. I had a business partner then, which later I bought her out because she was widowed and moved on. We have grown substantially since then. And you think back 2004 I remember trying to come up with a name for Louisville chocolate fountain. And one of our husbands is like name it Louisville chocolate found because then if you think about Google, I mean, Google was so new if you put in two chicks and some chocolate or something. No, it's not gonna pull you up. If you put in chocolate fountain if you put in Louisville fountain. We come right up tomorrow. Yeah, I mean, that was just you're like, Okay, well, let's see, oh my gosh, it saved us a lot of AdWords.

Kristina Stubblefield  4:13 

Well, and a lot of people know and in the wedding industry, and but you bring the fun whether you realize it or not. It's a party right around you at the event

Anne Hogue 4:24 

I do. I feel like a bartender sometimes because I hear it all. I hear everything up there. It's fun.

Kristina Stubblefield  4:30 

And that's really Sharon was talking about, you know, specialty vendors and those unique vendors that can just give that extra experience to your event. And Sharon, I know you've got some things on that. So I'll let you talk

Sharon Rumsey  4:44 

and brings not just the fun but it's such an elegant added touch to have something like a chocolate fountain at your reception. And tell us a little bit about what role the fountain plays in Reception. When do you think it's the best time to use the chocolate fountain? What do you recommend people do.

Anne Hogue 5:07 

So it is up to the couple, when you want us to serve. So a lot, if you just want us as a dessert, that's great, we would come in the morning or in the afternoon and set up before the reception. We'd set up the table display the fountains, you know everything out except the food and the chocolate, we come back then, say 730 if we're serving eight to 11, put the chocolate in, put the food out, we're ready to roll. But most of our couples I would say a good 90% have a start serving. When they're getting their pictures done. After the ceremony, people are arriving getting a drink a plate of chocolate, a kebab, that kind of cocktail hour cocktail hour, but we serve three hours gives them plenty of time to come back. Formal introductions, open the food, people will go towards that. But then we see them again and again. So it's not like a one time Piece of cake sit and let's eat a piece of cake. I see it all the time. I call it stab and move. You got it. You got a drink with a plate on top and a kebab and they're walking around talking. And that's what you want.

Kristina Stubblefield  6:07 

Well, and we're filming or we're recording filming. We're recording here in the Louisville, Kentucky area. So and for those, you know, that could be listening to us from anywhere. What would be recommendations that you would have people ask yourself or if they're located someone else, a chocolate fountain vendor?

Anne Hogue 6:27 

You mean like number one if if they have an attendant with it, because there we have outlived so many in this area, because there were so many people's like, you know, they rent it solely for the money. I is I had one lady Tell me one time, there's a lot of love on that table. They can tell I like what I do. And and the girls who are working for me too, they really enjoy it. But there's been a lot that just say, oh, we'll run out the fountain. Go sit in a corner and we'll come back and get it. Okay, you're you're talking disaster because you think about a nice venue with nice carpet. People lose their mind if they see a chocolate fountain and they're gonna dip it 10 foot away, where's that stream of chocolate going as you're putting it on a plate is.

Michael Gaddie  7:08 

So basically you stay with a fountain

Sharon Rumsey  7:10 

the whole time. So time I actually did a bridal show one time, I think we might have talked about this, where the producer of the show lost or damaged deposit for the venue. Because the chocolate fountain they had at the show, he did not stay with the fountain, and chocolate got all into their carpet. And they couldn't get it out. So they lost their entire damage deposit.

Anne Hogue 7:33 

I believe it and there's some that just think it's so easy. They're not insured, we're fully insured. And that's just the way to be.

Kristina Stubblefield  7:41 

So do you say that's a recommendation as well? Absolutely. Making sure it's fully they're fully insured

Anne Hogue 7:46 

most of your venues if they hear any vendor for any any more that they need a certificate of insurance from them, which is just normal.

Michael Gaddie  7:55 

So I know you do your main thing is chocolate, but I know you offer other things. And I know other venues or other vendors. What you've got cheese, you've got salsa you got tell us some other things that you have.

Anne Hogue 8:11 

So the big hot thing right now is Mexican stations or Mexican, like a Nacho bar or taco bar burrito bar. We work with any caterer. It's really a nice little addition. So they will have a say come set up again. While they're getting our pictures done. We start serving nachos, just kaiso and chips. And then when the food opens up, people will go towards that and it's funny you can watch how it just happens. I just saw this on at a wedding on Halloween. One guy came and he went right over to us said can you ladle some kaiso on my whole plate. So we did we ladle it on there. He went back and sat down and it was like communion. All sudden people rose up and came to us and it's like can you do the same? I mean it just it works really well.

Sharon Rumsey  9:01 

stations are really becoming popular now. It's probably I would say in 2021 going to be a really really big trend. We're kind of getting away from traditional buffets and going more to stations. And the case was always a huge hit. They love those Mexican stations where they can love cheese on it all. Yeah, give me the cheese. They

Michael Gaddie  9:24 

can also have you know you've got your case Oh station but you've also got your dessert station too. So can you work two different fountains at one time? Absolutely.

Anne Hogue 9:32 

We do it all the time. We have plenty of workers like I said they're all we all have the gifts gift of gab in common so we talked me and talk to the devil if we need to. So we just enjoy what we do. So yeah, we at my daughter's wedding actually we had a case Oh fountain on a Mexican bar and then also we had a white chocolate and dark chocolate for that for the dessert.

Kristina Stubblefield  9:54 

So for people out there that might be considering doing a chocolate fountain you just mentioned flavors. What is something you recommend? Go with their own personal thing that they like whether it's milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, should they consider anything about their guests that are attending the event? Well, we

Anne Hogue 10:14 

kind of took that guesswork out of them as far as Okay, milk chocolate and dark chocolate, white chocolate, we can't do anything with it's just white chocolate. It's one of my favorites because it's so sweet. And it's really good on the fruit. But dark chocolate, we get it in we buy our chocolate from a candy distributor and it is about an 80 cent or 80% 80% cocoa. So there's only a little bit of sugar in there. Well 10 people out of 100 are gonna like that dark, dark, bitter chocolate. So we call it consumer friendly dark, we dial it down to about a 70% people love it. It's really rich. It's got it takes that bitterness out you can still tell it's dark, there is a difference. Same with the milk chocolate 34% kid 12 year old friendly, you know really sweet. We we blend it. So there's three different kinds of chocolate in that one of them being a dark dark chocolate.

Kristina Stubblefield  11:09 

Well, and I know that I've been at different events, not even weddings, other events, that ranch fountains, like with vegetables and things like that. And it really just adds that flair that touch to it. A lot of people do vegetables and things at events. So I know you've also done some ranch fountains.

Anne Hogue 11:29 

Yeah. And it's nothing like you see on the internet that's plopping down ours. We have I think we have a picture of it on our website. But this bride I said, Are you sure you want to do that was the first one I did she goes and I put ranch on everything. I keep a bottle of ranch in my purse. So when. So when she says I know that when the people come to my wedding, and they go over and see a ranch found let's say of course because it's Emily's wedding. And that's exactly what happened. gotta

Sharon Rumsey  11:57 

add those personal touch. Yes, yeah,

Michael Gaddie  12:00 

it will went over. So let me ask you this. So in trending is the fountain taking place, if anything else it's been at the wedding such as a cake or donut wall. I mean, there I know. There's lots of other things that you can have sweet at the wedding. But do you see that taking place of those or just adding to it.

Anne Hogue 12:18 

It's mostly taking place in those now. Some of the brides Yes, it's totally taking place of everything else. Sometimes they still want that picture of cutting the cake. So they'll do a little nine inch cake just to get the pictures. Some people think they have to have cupcakes along with it, you really don't. Because you'll end up you see I see it often where they're walking out of the venue. The guests are like here take a half a dozen cupcakes home because they've filled themselves up on chocolate fountain and as far as the donut wall, we offer Krispy Kreme doughnut holes as a dipping item. We also offer cake donuts that we get here at a local bakery. So they can have their cake donut you can get pumpkin spice, you know, blueberry, strawberry, you name it whatever you want. So if you want to use donut, or cake donut, so

Sharon Rumsey  13:11 

just a tip for everybody I know and did my son's wedding reception and we had like you go to cater for a tasting we had a chocolate fountain tasting at my house and gave us a sample of each type of the chocolate and she gave us a sample are telling me what to get for dipping delights them what you would dip in the chocolate. And we had our family over and we had my daughter in law's family over and we had a chocolate tasting party. I

Anne Hogue 13:39 

forgot about that. Yep,

Sharon Rumsey  13:40 

yeah. So because Can you share with them some there this lady will dip anything and chocolate so they're gonna try it. There's a ton of choices. I know what my favorite ice cream

Anne Hogue 13:50 

cream pie.

Sharon Rumsey  13:52 

I know what my favorite is. But tell us some of the things that you have available to dip in chocolate.

Anne Hogue 13:58 

Okay, so we offer about 30 different things. I'll tell you some of the most popular the cream puffs like Kristina just said we keep them froze cold and a cooler below and they usually go pretty quick so it stays froze and it tastes like ice cream because that chocolate is a little warm. So you get that warm with the cold sensation. People just really like those. Another big thing peanut butter balls. We will make our bucks guys naked. But guys, yeah, eldest

Sharon Rumsey  14:24 

son's favorite. Oh, yeah.

Anne Hogue 14:25 

So those are always really popular. cheesecake squares. I'm not a cheesecake fan, but everybody else says they love those. And I mean, I think they're rich enough by themselves. But that skewer goes right in there through the crust and put it in there. And it freezes. Like it makes the chocolate hard because it's so cold.

Michael Gaddie  14:43 

So did you bring samples? This is our

Anne Hogue 14:45 

where's our Sorry, sorry.

Kristina Stubblefield  14:48 

I just want to make sure I didn't miss it. Okay, I love chocolate. Okay, but can we just pause for a minute to talk about her Carmel,

Michael Gaddie  14:57 

Carmel this channel

Anne Hogue 15:00 

Not come from not liking so we had

Sharon Rumsey  15:01 

that at my son's reception to we had a Carmel Apple bar and people are still talking about it.

Kristina Stubblefield  15:07 

Your husband loves it. Oh, we don't even need to talk about that. Do my

Sharon Rumsey  15:10 

like I said as a friend of ours and my husband for his birthday this year. I said, you know, what, Do you want anything? Just give me some ideas. Tell me what you want. He goes, I want to go out to dinner. And then I want a vat of Anne's Carmel. And that's what he got.

Anne Hogue 15:27 

Yeah, I trucked it over. She

Kristina Stubblefield  15:30 

did. My goodness. I know. It's very popular at the apples. I've had that before. Yeah, apple slices with the Carmel

Sharon Rumsey  15:38 

It was a big hit at my son's rosette. Yeah,

Anne Hogue 15:40 

I booked a couple so we do a whole Carmel Apple bar. So it's you when you buy that you get five court court of homemade at Carmel. It comes with the sliced apples. We give you like six toppings you pick three crushed Oreos crushed peanuts. And

Kristina Stubblefield  15:58 

he brought he brought us a sample of this. Yeah.

Anne Hogue 16:00 

Oh, yeah. Okay, good here. And then you can have some.

Kristina Stubblefield  16:07 

We messed that up before we started recording.

Sharon Rumsey  16:10 

My son's favorite in the chocolate. And it was it was hilarious to me because I wouldn't have even thought of it was potato chips. So he asked me if he could have potato chips. And she she brought the wavy potato chips. And he had a dinner plate full.

Anne Hogue 16:27 

Yeah. Sometimes if they're really up like three or four times they said, Do you want me to put a handful on there? And then I'll just drizzle some chocolate on because it hardens on there.

Sharon Rumsey  16:34 

tell everybody what you say about

Anne Hogue 16:36 

the pineapple and white chocolate? Oh, yeah, it is. It's just decadent. And people never put those two together. But I'll tell you the story. So I was at an event downtown. And this lady was not sold on the white chocolate. It was an aunt of the groom. And like her third time through the line. She's like, what goes good on this white chocolate. And I said you need to try. It's a game changer. Try that fresh pineapple. So then she came to her again. And she's like running four and five underscores like, this is like better than sex. And then. And then I was at a pineapple in an hour

Sharon Rumsey  17:08 

and told me that and I tried it and I looked at Ron and I said she's right. Yeah, it's so

Kristina Stubblefield  17:16 

Sharon is in the sharing. Here we go. Okay, so let's get back brace for I'm on wheels, right? I'm not sure what I'm gonna

Michael Gaddie  17:32 

change the subject.

Sharon Rumsey  17:34 

Are we making you nervous? Yes.

Kristina Stubblefield  17:36 

I'm over here by Mike. I'm just he can't get it together.

Anne Hogue 17:41 

Well, at the end of that story, is I always there No, but it's good. It's all nice and clean. So I always reach out a couple weeks later and just thank them for having me. And you know, it was a joy. And I shoot them a picture. And I told him that story. It was a groom who I worked with. So I emailed him. And I told him that story and he calls me it wasn't 15 minutes he goes, Okay, so tell me Did she have really short here with little glitch and it was like, that was her and he says my aunt Paula. He goes can't take her anywhere.

Kristina Stubblefield  18:15 

We better not mentioned any more about

Anne Hogue 18:18 

we're gonna trace it back. Right?

Kristina Stubblefield  18:19 

No more names. We better be careful there. Just in case, but Okay, we're gonna wind it back around. At the time. We're recording this. We're in the midst of COVID. Yeah. So one of the things that's a fun sucker, I'm sorry. But one of the things that the some coming back around, just give me a minute. The one of the things that I've really always enjoyed about Anne and being at her events, weddings, and such, is about the cleanliness about making sure people don't dip and all of that stuff. She'll

Sharon Rumsey  18:50 

smack your hand.

Kristina Stubblefield  18:51 

Yeah, I get used in a clean like you're in that is one of the things that really stands out that the safety aspect and the cleanliness can happen, even though it's a chocolate fountain.

Anne Hogue 19:02 

Yeah. And we've done a few weddings here and there. I mean, most of them have postponed and moved to next year. But they'll ask what have you been doing? Okay, we've done 90% right from the beginning, as far as we always wear gloves, we always attend to the fountain. We kept it clean. We always tell people once that score hits your mouth, get a new score. We've just added a mask. And then we move to the front of the table now and just they tell us what we want. And I make kababs form and send them on their way. So

Anne Hogue 19:29 

you actually do it for them. Yeah,

Anne Hogue 19:31 

yeah, that's Yep. Right now. Yes. We'll go back to the other way. It'll mean just when everybody else does, we are doing what the caterers have had to start doing they serve everything where before they had their their self serve. Yeah, self serve buffets. That's not

Kristina Stubblefield  19:48 

why we're talking about COVID. Let's also talk about what all else and does because I know I've had some of that recently. The other stuff We're not getting thrown out the window before we started recording but and the other thing that you do but you wish you did this before I did

Anne Hogue 20:08 

and it just wasn't a pivot this way you'd always done this I've always done this but I never had time this time of year to do it all the time because I did corporate events, weddings, corporate events are non existent period this year. So it's like I'm bored stiff, so let's make some of my mom's toffee peanut brittle fudge.

Anne Hogue 20:28 

I mean, can't get away from the chalk. I know. And that's the Carmel kimchi

Anne Hogue 20:32 

no so and I could I make homemade caramels too. I just haven't went down that road yet. So did you all know this?

Sharon Rumsey  20:39 

I'm not I don't want can we edit that out? Because I do not want my husband to know that.

Anne Hogue 20:44 

I got I went as far as bought the little wax papers No, no and I just have too many orders for toffee so

Kristina Stubblefield  20:52 

Sharon's over here like she really wants this edited out Sharon I'm sorry. No, we've got a Rolly

Anne Hogue 20:56 

hopefully Ron won't won't listen, when

Kristina Stubblefield  20:58 

he founds out that you're on a podcast talking about a chocolate or karma.

Michael Gaddie  21:03 

This is the one that I will listen to right. He'll

Sharon Rumsey  21:05 

go right to the to this

Kristina Stubblefield  21:06 

episode. And I'm sorry, Sharon, but you've just kind of tried to suck the fun out of it for him. I

Sharon Rumsey  21:12 

did. I did. Well, and I know there are a lot of specialty vendors that we can have. I've done cigar rollers and painters. And there's all different things that you can do to add a personal special touch. But as far as the chocolate fountain what other events I know you said corporate what other events do you participate in besides weddings?

Anne Hogue 21:41 

I think we've hit both the high and lows of life. Seriously, obviously weddings, baby showers we've done gender reveals with pink chocolate.

Michael Gaddie  21:50 

Oh, that chocolate graduation

Anne Hogue 21:54 

parties. We did Mike's son's graduation barn. Yeah, it is.

Kristina Stubblefield  21:58 

Mike, what did you have there? We need to know the detail of where your

Michael Gaddie  22:02 

car we had chocolate.

Anne Hogue 22:05 

Yes.

Kristina Stubblefield  22:05 

Should we edit that out? So Ron doesn't hear that either?

Anne Hogue 22:08 

Yes. Okay. But I've given up we do bar and bar mitzvahs. We do and I tell you to read we've done two weeks and it. It sounds really odd. But the one sticks out my mind. They had a pink chocolate fountain because this aunt had struggled with breast cancer for years. And she just had you know, she was strong in her faith. And she just said when I die. I want to be buried in Hershey, Pennsylvania because she loved chocolate. So they she, I think it was like three weeks after she passed. It was like it was it was it was just perfect. The family was all you know, she they were glad that she was out of her pain. They had like pictures all over. It was the it was right. I mean, and then they had like, someone catered it. I was I

Sharon Rumsey  22:52 

love that. I think it should be a celebration of life.

Anne Hogue 22:55 

Yeah. especially strong in her faith. She was happy that she had all of them were very happy. She's strong. If

Sharon Rumsey  23:00 

there is anything that would comfort my family. Yeah, it would be terrible. Yeah.

Kristina Stubblefield  23:04 

I was gonna say you're gonna leave caramel. Oh,

Anne Hogue 23:07 

yeah, I didn't make that then. So that was a while ago. So. Right.

Kristina Stubblefield  23:12 

Well, and I think what you've said Sharon is, you know, we've labeled and as a specialty vendor, but it's really just bringing out people's personalities, things that they really enjoy that flair, just that stand out. And there's so many ways to utilize a fountain. And I love the idea about guests, you know, being part of cocktail hour or something like that. They have something to talk. It's a conversation. It's

Anne Hogue 23:36 

a great icebreaker.

Anne Hogue 23:37 

Mm hmm, absolutely. I

Sharon Rumsey  23:38 

had the honor of actually being Anne's daughter's wedding planner. Which really, I was just Mandy's assistant, because Mandy had her wedding in her mind and knew exactly what she wanted. Mike knows. Yeah.

Michael Gaddie  23:52 

And one little detail. Talking about you being detail. She was detail.

Sharon Rumsey  23:57 

But one of the things that she did that I'm now trying to encourage other brides to do something I learned from Mandy is she had a pre ceremony celebration. So you literally could could have, you know, the chocolate fountain and that, but people were able to come in get a drink, there was popcorn, there was a snack snack mix bar,

Anne Hogue 24:21 

Evan like that

Sharon Rumsey  24:22 

the marshmallows that you can only get in Lucky Charms, but you don't really want the Lucky Charms you just want the marshmallows there was a whole bin of just the marshmallows. And you could make a snack cup and get a drink and actually take it she didn't care if they took it to the ceremony with them. So it was just so much fun for me. There are so many things that you can do to get outside of the typical wedding box. And I love it when a bride will go that route with me and let's make it a little bit different. And I love the idea of having something like the chocolate fan and pre ceremony even and let people get some snacks and

Kristina Stubblefield  24:59 

so one of the things You mentioned the groom. This was something that kind of leaned his way.

Anne Hogue 25:06 

So he loves trail mix and Oreos and Oreos so that his groom's cake was an orange. I remember the rehearsal dinner, but Mandy, she did she Incorporated, obviously the groom and it but sometimes, you know, they get left in the dust. But he she did she

Kristina Stubblefield  25:23 

just kind of like we do with Mike.

Anne Hogue 25:26 

Yeah, she had a trail mix bar for him and had her like seven things out there. And then she had a popcorn bar. Cuz, right. I mean, well, I

Michael Gaddie  25:33 

thought it was fun, too, because it was almost like a little Carnival thing. Yeah. And they got married on 711. So they had the big 711 theme. That was really cool. Yeah,

Sharon Rumsey  25:43 

we had a ball. Yeah, it was fun. She didn't wanna once again, just taking it outside that typical, this is what a wedding has to be, this is what I have to do. You don't have to do anything on your wedding day. And I love when brides can add something like a specialty vendor and make it their own.

Kristina Stubblefield  26:00 

And I think that's something that we've just talked about personalities, incorporating the date, all that kind of stuff together. That's what makes it your own unique event. And what people are going to remember from that and take away from it is one thing, but at the end of the day, you always say it's their day to enjoy. And to be able to have those special touches, I think, can really make it stand out

Sharon Rumsey  26:25 

well and vendors like and like the chocolate fountain. They really can pull that in because there are so many ways to personalize what they do.

Kristina Stubblefield  26:34 

And if it was up to run, Sharon's husband, you might need to drop the word chocolate and just be called the fountain.

Anne Hogue 26:39 

Yeah, the fountain Yeah. Period.

Sharon Rumsey  26:42 

out of there, he would be happy with.

Kristina Stubblefield  26:43 

I mean, the Carmel found that he might like that charmel bar person. Yeah, there you go. Well, and and this really provided some good information. I really like how you touched on the insurance part. Yeah, because no matter where you're located in your shopping, I think Sharon would say she's the planner here, you need to really pay close attention to your venues requirements. You know, we've had episodes before where we've talked about fenders, the the F word. But knowing that information for any kind of specialty vendor,

Sharon Rumsey  27:17 

well, especially something that's consumable. Most venues. Now any type of food or beverage has to be not only from a licensed and insured business, but they have to be prepared in a commercial kitchen, or that vendor has to show evidence of having a commercial kitchen space available to them. Yeah, so I've had a lot of family members that want to make the cake. And it just usually doesn't fly with the venue because they don't want the liability of someone getting sick or something afterwards. So I it's now in my contract that I won't work with a vendor that's not licensed and insured.

Michael Gaddie  27:55 

So and when you when you somebody rent your fountain, I mean insurance is covered with you, or do we have to take out our own personally personal policy to cover that.

Anne Hogue 28:05 

So our insurance is written so that if we are with the fountain, we're insured. So in other words, if I

Michael Gaddie  28:14 

don't have to go take another policy for you,

Anne Hogue 28:16 

if we're at a public venue, you're covered. It's the home, that we will go we have a little smaller fountain for like, say, 70 people, we'll go set it up in the home, make it look pretty Ron put all the fountains that put all the dipping delights out, and then we come back and get it in three hours, that's different. It's your home, you know, what's going on there? You know, we aren't fully insured there because we're not in a public venue.

Kristina Stubblefield  28:43 

And you're not there yet. We're not. It's just a drop off and a pickup. They know

Sharon Rumsey  28:48 

that being said though, a man has insurance that covers her, you know, when she's at a venue, but I still recommend that all my clients take out what we call invent event insurance. Because if you can't if you have an incident that occurs that you can't trace back to a particular vendor, you know, they didn't trip over the DJs cord or they didn't burn themselves on a chocolate fountain. That couple can still be held liable. So I highly, highly recommend getting event insurance. There was an event it was not my wedding, but there was a wedding a few years back where a groomsmen was over served. And he slit tried to slide down a banister and he actually fell and ended up having to have surgery. Oh my and that couple is held liable for that because that's not traceable to any particular vendor. Wow.

Kristina Stubblefield  29:42 

Well and Mike Sharon's trying to dive into another episode that we're going to carry but no you brought it brought up a thought you brought bring up a very good point of understanding the difference between vendor liability insurance versus actual event insurance to protect yourself and I think that's an important topic. And I know we're going to cover that in an episode.

Michael Gaddie  30:04 

So that could be another specialty person insurance

Kristina Stubblefield  30:08 

that just be one of your first calls. Right. Right. Well, okay, now and a couple things before we wrap this up, okay. We have something that we're gonna play. We're gonna do rapid fire questions. All right,

Sharon Rumsey  30:22 

first thing that comes to mind. Gosh, do

Kristina Stubblefield  30:24 

we know what's gonna come out? Do we know what she's gonna say? I could

Sharon Rumsey  30:27 

answer for her I think okay. All right.

Anne Hogue 30:30 

So is it timed? Okay, ready?

Kristina Stubblefield  30:32 

No, it's not time. Here we go. There's

Sharon Rumsey  30:34 

a buzzer Okay.

Kristina Stubblefield  30:37 

Do you run to the dance floor? Or do you run away from the dance floor?

Anne Hogue 30:42 

How many drinks are involved?

Michael Gaddie  30:44 

Well, that's the next question.

Anne Hogue 30:48 

You answered it right there. cheering you. You got the next one.

Sharon Rumsey  30:53 

You cannot answer your husband or your children or your dog. Okay, because that would be everyone's answer. Okay. Today, what do you love? Not who. What do you love? What can you not live without?

Anne Hogue 31:13 

I mean, seriously, like I said that quarantine made me I do love my business. I mean, that definitely brought it home.

Sharon Rumsey  31:21 

I love people.

Anne Hogue 31:22 

I love people. Yeah, I miss I definitely

Kristina Stubblefield  31:24 

answer. That's a good answer. Yeah, well, I've

Michael Gaddie  31:26 

had a few weddings and with you and you can tell you enjoy.

Anne Hogue 31:30 

Yeah, it's fun. I totally love it. Yeah, have

Michael Gaddie  31:32 

a one on one with almost everybody. Yeah, up there.

Anne Hogue 31:35 

Oh, thank you.

Michael Gaddie  31:36 

So the next question we have for you. Are we

Kristina Stubblefield  31:38 

really gonna let Mike wrap this up? Yes. I am panicking. You may turn her off. So she don't talk

Michael Gaddie  31:45 

please. Please just take it away from her. When you walk into the reception, and you head straight for the bar, what do you order?

Anne Hogue 31:54 

gin and tonic with a twist?

Kristina Stubblefield  31:57 

Good answer.

Sharon Rumsey  31:58 

Let's it let's do an extra one for

Anne Hogue 32:00 

an extra one. It's gotta be tanker agents. Sorry. Bar crap. Man. She's

Sharon Rumsey  32:05 

not kidding around.

Kristina Stubblefield  32:08 

let's not let's skip over that. I just don't even go there.

Michael Gaddie  32:13 

We should have had that before we started today.

Sharon Rumsey  32:18 

River river has it and that you do love to karaoke. Oh, Lord,

Anne Hogue 32:23 

yes.

Sharon Rumsey  32:24 

You know that. What's your go to karaoke song?

Anne Hogue 32:27 

If Mandy's there it's Yep. Goodbye Earl from the Dixie Chicks.

Sharon Rumsey  32:32 

So we surprised at her daughter's wedding. Mandy had contacted me beforehand and asked me if I would have the DJ play the karaoke version of goodbye URL. So with no warning and was called in the middle of the dance floor to karaoke and it literally is the best moment at a wedding I think I've ever had

Michael Gaddie  32:54 

was the video somewhere Yes. Oh, God

Sharon Rumsey  32:57 

was the bride singing karaoke to goodbye Earl it did scare the group a little bit I mean that's a great song.

Anne Hogue 33:03 

I Yeah, exactly. Yeah, john, I get back John's like what a great song.

Anne Hogue 33:10 

Well in the ends over here rolling her eyes. I'm trying to get a picture of it so we can show you everywhere.

Anne Hogue 33:15 

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we don't I don't need the machine.

Kristina Stubblefield  33:18 

Okay, but the question is if Mandy's not there, what's the go to song?

Anne Hogue 33:23 

Wait a minute. Party in the USA Miley Cyrus.

Kristina Stubblefield  33:27 

Good chore

Anne Hogue 33:28 

if you want to get I love.

Kristina Stubblefield  33:30 

I don't know do

Anne Hogue 33:33 

we love we got a big old system. Wait a minute. Carole King. You're so vain. Because it's my it's definitely my tone.

Kristina Stubblefield  33:42 

Oh, now you got me thinking it was a guy in 10 days. But I knew love that movie. Yeah, if you

Sharon Rumsey  33:51 

want to give us a few bars, I mean, no.

Anne Hogue 33:55 

tangri there should be gin and tonic. for that. We need gin and tonic.

Kristina Stubblefield  33:59 

Sorry, we didn't get the memo on that. That's okay. If you'll forgive us, we'll forgive you for the no samples on that. Or Yeah, okay. So and before we sign off, tell everyone how they can contact you. Whatever you want to share with them. Social media, website, anything. Let them know how they can reach out to you.

Anne Hogue 34:18 

So website is I mean, everything's very easy website is Louisville chocolate found com. Instagram. Louisville chocolate fountain. Facebook, Louisville chocolate fountain. Do it.

Kristina Stubblefield  34:31 

Are you the our listeners? Are you.

Michael Gaddie  34:35 

Chocolate found?

Anne Hogue 34:37 

Yes. Well, thanks for having me. It's been great.

Sharon Rumsey  34:40 

Thank you so much for coming today. This

Kristina Stubblefield  34:41 

has been a lot of fun. So and there was no alcohol involved. I'm

Sharon Rumsey  34:45 

telling you chocolate is a good time. Well,

Kristina Stubblefield  34:48 

Enron, horrible is a good time. Right. Okay, thanks. And we really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the ring, doubling and all the things. If you like what you heard, make sure to hit the subscribe button to get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website, the ring, the bling and all the things.com for past episodes, and make sure to connect with us on social media. If you would like to help us get the word out about this podcast, make sure to share with your family, your friends and anyone you know in the wedding business.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai