Wedding Planning: Choosing Your Wedding Venue

Choosing a wedding venue should be at the very top of your wedding planning list because once you have that, everything else can fall into place. If you’re on the hunt for a wedding venue, there are specific things you are probably looking for. I want to help you cover all of your bases to make sure that you’re not missing anything or getting hit with additional costs that you weren’t expecting.

Visualize the space

Not only should you be visualizing how you’re going to utilize each area in the venue, but you should also be looking at the amount of backdrops. Can you easily utilize the space to take all of your wedding day photos? Or can we easily drive to a secondary location to take additional photos?

Some wedding venues have additional spaces specifically for wedding photos whereas others are more barebones. Barebone wedding venues aren’t bad if that’s what you’re looking for, but then you will need to think about a secondary location where you can take some additional wedding photos.

Additional Costs

There’s a lot more to just the photography when it comes to the wedding venue. Obviously cost will be a huge factor in your decision making process. Venues can sometimes have a lot of little fees that will add up if you’re not careful. So make sure you’re taking a deep look at the contract.

For example, do you need a security guard or someone else present to make sure it’s just your guests entering the venue? Or do you need a specific bartender? The contract may require these things at an additional cost to you. They may also require additional fees if you bring in your own outside vendors instead of using the vendors they usually provide.

As a South Florida bride, I had to make sure I budgeted for a tent in case of rain (which ended up happening).This was an additional cost at the venue. Make sure you’re breaking everything down so you know exactly what the venue is going to charge you.

Additional Spaces and Proximity 

Another factor you should consider is if there are additional spaces in the vendor. Does it have all the pieces you’re looking for at the venue? Maybe you want to have a bridal suite - a place where you can get ready and not have to worry about getting dressed somewhere else. Having a private room in the venue can be essential, especially if you need some time to yourself between the ceremony and reception.

You should also be thinking about proximity to hotels for your guests. Will they be able to easily uber back to the hotel after the reception? Or will you have to rent a shuttle service to bring guests to and from the hotel? Cell service is something you may not have thought about either. For my wedding, I thought I had the best venue. However, I ended up with 5 additional costs just to make sure my guests got there safe because there was no cell service.

Parking

If you’re not planning on having a shuttle for guests or maybe a lot of your guests want to drive because they don’t plan on drinking, you may also want to look at parking space for the venue. Some venues will have ample parking, but others may not have accessible parking. Maybe you’ll need to pay an attendant to transport people from the designated parking area to the venue. In that case, you’ll have to budget an additional fee for that and plan on extra time it’ll take for guests to get to the ceremony.

Matching Your Theme

I’ve talked about choosing a wedding theme in other blog posts and it’s something that will help you choose other pieces of your wedding. It may sound silly but making sure the color palette of the venue matches your theme. If your theme is magical fairytale and it’s all silver’s, white’s, and all elegant, you may not want to choose an industrial looking venue. You could try to blend them together or you could choose a different wedding theme that better fits the venue - just depends on what you like more.

Rainy Day Options

I touched on this a little already, but making sure you have a rainy day back up plan is important if you want to have an outdoor wedding. For me, this was just having a tent on standby for when the sky opened up. Some venues may have an additional space to relocate to if it does rain, or they may have the tent option that I had. If not, are you just prepared to take a chance that everyone and everything may get wet during your big day? Making sure you are prepared for any scenario is important when choosing a venue.

Bathrooms

The last and probably most important is making sure that there are enough bathrooms. I know there’s some crazy math out there that tells you what you should have for bathrooms per person, but it’s something you seriously think about depending on the amount of guests you have. If you know the venue doesn’t have a ton of bathrooms and you are planning on having a large wedding, do you want to rent a porta potty for an extra cost? Or are you okay with guests having to wait in line to use the bathroom? 

I know I gave you a lot more questions that you might need to ask you venue, but finding your perfect venue is one of the most important, if not the most important things you need to plan for your wedding day. I hope this helps you make sure you get your bases covered so you can lock in your venue.