I got married back in September, and while I enjoyed wedding planning I am so glad all the stress is over! My wedding was a great day, but this day would not have been possible without allll the planning that went into the day, and that can be overwhelming!
One of the most important and first decisions you make when planning your wedding is picking a wedding venue! Since it is such a big decision, I thought I would share the 5 things I learned from picking my wedding venue.
The one thing that needs to be done before picking a wedding venue is picking a date. Read all about that here.
Contents
1. You need to have an idea on what your wedding style is going to be
Wedding style is one of those phrases that gets tossed around all the time in the wedding world, but very few things actually help you figure out your wedding style! Your wedding style is the overall feel of your wedding. It includes the decorations, colors, venue, environment, along with everything else that goes into your wedding to make it “look like you.”
Pinterest is one of the best ways to get ideas for what style you want for your wedding! If you haven’t already started pinning wedding inspiration I suggest you start now! Personally, I loved having five boards divided into ceremony, reception, invitations, flowers, and details. This helped when I went to different vendors and didn’t have to scroll through a bunch of irrelevant pins to get to my ideas for that specific vendor.
The Knot also has a lot of inspiration ideas, posts, and quizzes that can help you when you haven’t quite figured out what you are looking for. If you are struggling with what your style is, know you can always tweak it! There are so many decisions that are not made until the last month, the only big style thing at the beginning is your venue. So if you are overwhelmed, focus on finding a venue that you could see yourself dancing with your new husband all night long and go from there!
2. You need to have a rough estimate of how many people you are inviting before you search for venues
This is something that is often over looked! Venues have limits on their sizes for a reason. For starters, they physically can’t hold an unlimited number of people (unless its outside), but also the fire marshal will not let it be overcrowded! Go ahead and have an idea of how many people you want to invite to the wedding before you start looking at venues. It would be such a bummer to fall in love with a venue only to find out you are going to have 200 people at your wedding and your favorite venue only holds 100.
You can have a rough idea of how many people you want to invite, but it is a good idea to actually list out the people you want to invite before really looking at venues. This will be a very rough draft guest list, but some people are very surprised when they list out their “must invite” people and its 50-100 people over what they were expecting it to be. You want to make sure your number is accurate before you put down that deposit on a venue!
It is also important to know that everyone you invite will not be able to come to your wedding. Sure, they will all WANT to be there, but sometimes life just gets in the way. Take this into consideration when you are thinking about total number for the reception and know it will be less than total number invited.
3. You should have your budget set before picking a venue
Yes you could go find your dream venue and book it, but what if that is 70% of your budget and now you don’t have money for anything else you want? Make sure you know what your total budget is, as well as what your most important items are. If you know you want to splurge on your dress or photographer, you might pick a venue that is a little less expensive so that you can get those photos you always wanted. The average venue costs around 20% of a bride’s budget, so keep that in mind when you are looking for venues.
4. Know what you want to be included with your venue
Every venue is unique in what they offer for your wedding. Some venues provide tables, chairs, linens, and food. While other venues provide none of that, and other venues are somewhere in the middle. My venue provided me with tables and chairs but no linens or food. This was perfect for me because I could style the room however I wanted! It did require quite a bit of extra work to figure out what linens and set up I wanted though. If you want to avoid the extra effort, then a venue that provides all of the linens might be better for you.
I also loved that I could pick my caterer! Being allergic to gluten, it allowed me to find a caterer that was aware of food allergies, and was in my price range. I have friends whose catering had to be from the venue, and they loved how simple the process was as well!
Bottom line, what you want included in your venue changes a lot from person to person. It all depends on which things you want to have more control over and what items you want to be taken care of. Just make sure you know what YOUR checklist of must have items includes.
5. When you go to tour the venue, you need to come prepared with a list of questions to ask
There are so many questions that you need to make sure you get answered before you book a venue. I used The Knot’s list of venue questions when I was touring venues. I would suggest using The Knot’s list as well as thinking through any questions you have about each specific venue to come up with a list that is unique to your needs. When you leave your venue tour, make sure you have a full understanding of what is included with each wedding package, what the requirements are for vendors (do they have to come from a specific list), the time you can get into the building in the morning, and how many hours you have the venue for.
Picking a wedding venue is one of the biggest parts of the wedding. It can be a lot of fun to tour different venues and imagine your wedding there, so don’t let all the information overwhelm you and have a little fun! Once the venue is booked, you can then move on to booking your other vendors for the big day! Check back soon for more information on each vendor.
