Booking your wedding venue is a task that sits very near the highest of every engaged couple’s to-do list, and it’s actually one among the best elements of your wedding to go astray on. We’re seeing increasingly that couples consider they need to search out their wedding venue and then book a marriage planner, when in actual fact it’s far more savvy to do it the opposite way around. Whether you select to work with a planner or not, we’ve broken down the commonest mistakes you would possibly make when booking your wedding venue – bookmark this page and have it available whenever you start your search.
Why do you have to book your wedding planner before your venue?
So often a pair falls in love with a marriage venue, signs on the dotted line, after which brings their planner on board – only to search out that they start pinpointing things they hadn’t even considered before, introducing recent logistical challenges or making things they really want at their wedding very difficult. I promise you that it’s not that we like doing this – it’s just that we now have many more years of experience planning weddings than you, so we all know the entire potential pitfalls and may see issues before they arise.
Booking your wedding planner before your venue means they’ll be in your team whenever you select it, and may foresee all of this and ensure that you don’t overlook anything essential. Our job is as much about protecting against and putting out planning fires because it is about aesthetics, designing, and selecting the proper suppliers.
For those who’re reading this and pondering ‘oops, we already booked our venue’ and a twinge of hysteria is creeping into your stomach, don’t worry. The next best time to bring your planner on board is now – they’ll look over what you will have booked and ensure that your wedding is the very best it might possibly be. Every memorable, talk-of-the-town wedding starts with the boring bits – preparation is polish and logistics are luxury.
Specific Problems You Might Encounter When Booking Your Venue
These scenarios are based on real life examples of couples who booked their wedding venue before their planner, and what the particular problem turned out to be. You’ll see that in every case the issue was solved (planner magic exists!), so use this as a guide to provide help to avoid similar situations.
Music is absolutely essential to you, but you only came upon your venue doesn’t allow subwoofers.
Every couple’s priorities are different, and where some place huge emphasis on having a tremendous, curated menu for his or her guests to enjoy, others can’t imagine a marriage without incredible entertainment. This was the case with our couple A, who booked their (beautiful) wedding venue before coming to us for planning support. Once we reviewed all the pieces, we found that within the small print of the contract it states that subwoofers aren’t allowed. It might be that you simply, like couple A, don’t even really know what subwoofers are or what difference it makes, so this is able to be an easily ignored detail for people without specialist knowledge.
In actual fact, this makes an enormous difference to the sound quality of your music, and we found that bands we were contacting to work on this wedding were put out by this enforcement. It’s absolutely to not say that we couldn’t still have amazing musicians and entertain their guests in a very fabulous, memorable way, nevertheless it is something that we’d have ideally been aware of before signing on the dotted line. Knowing and advocating on your priorities is a serious a part of my job as a marriage planner, and I do know all of the inquiries to ask to make sure we don’t trip over issues like these as we go.
You’ve booked your dream venue which you can technically afford, nevertheless it’s eaten up the vast majority of your budget.
Your wedding budget is a fragile creature which we take great care in managing for you, and over a decade of wedding planning experience means I do know what form of wedding you may get in a particular place for a particular cost. Having the ability to afford something at face value doesn’t at all times mean it’s inside budget, and a completely incredible venue that leaves you no wiggle room for that band you really need to book, those extra flowers you’ve fallen in love with, and your favourite photographer to capture all of it on camera is definitely just bad value.
That is where it’s helpful to have your wedding planner on board before signing up for that venue. We already know your budget, and what else needs to suit into it after you book the venue. Within the case of couple B, who had chosen a really lovely but very expensive venue, we could see right away that the unique budget that they had given us was going to be very, very tight. Had we been of their corner beforehand, we’d never have shown them this venue – or if we had, it will have been with the caveat that it ticked all their boxes but was massively above budget. Deciding how much you ought to pay on your wedding can already feel like an emotional and sensitive process, and there’s nothing worse than checking out you really want extra money than you’d planned for since you’re already locked right into a venue that eats up a overwhelming majority of your budget.
The venue you’ve chosen is in a stunning, rural location – nevertheless it’s a logistical nightmare.
And eventually let’s discuss couple C, who booked a completely wonderful venue in a small town in rural Italy. It feels like a dream location, utterly authentic with beautiful views and a real Italian experience for his or her family members. We’ll never try to discourage you from a venue in case you’ve absolutely fallen for it, and we love the Italian countryside as much as you do, but it is advisable to bear in mind that venues like this do pose certain logistical challenges.
For instance, in case your venue just isn’t near to a serious airport your guests’ travel days shall be longer and more complex, and taxi transfers in rural Italy will be very expensive. In small towns you’ll often have your guests staying in multiple smaller hotels fairly than across 2-3 greater ones, so people have to travel to your wedding venue from a lot of different places. This will all mean you’re feeling obligated to placed on transport and go the additional mile (metaphorically and physically) on your family members, all of which has a knock-on effect on costs – and may even be a think about guests deciding whether to attend or not.
That is to say nothing of the logistical challenges of bringing suppliers in, all of whom should be transported to the marriage venue and most of whom would require overnight accommodation – which could also be limited in selection and price range.
Let’s pause for a moment, because nobody likes a Negative Nancy…
It looks like an opportune moment to indicate that, in not one of the above scenarios, do we now have anything near a disaster on our hands. Couples A, B and C will all still have beautiful stories to inform of their weddings, and look back on them, glowing with joy, as weekends they enjoyed to the fullest. Their guests will discuss their weddings for months and years to return, because they’ll be memorable for all the precise reasons.
Largely that is because of the incontrovertible fact that that they had a planner on board, in a position to retroactively problem-solve and ensure they still had a marriage every bit as wonderful as they dreamed. Our intention here just isn’t to fearmonger, but simply to be very transparent in regards to the incontrovertible fact that wedding planning comes with quite a bit more decisions and considerations than you first imagine.
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Things You Have to Look Out For/Ask/Consider When Booking Your Wedding Venue
This bit is the nitty gritty – no gatekeeping, no withholding essential information, only a comprehensive list of things it is advisable to take into account when booking your wedding venue. Throw away the ‘wedding venue’ checklist you downloaded online, and replace it with this one. You may open this list in a separate file and reserve it for later by clicking the button at the underside of this checklist.
Before the search starts:
Before you even start googling, scrolling Instagram or browsing that venue directory, there are just a few things it is advisable to have clear in your heads. There are a mind-boggling amount of wedding venues within the UK and Europe, so starting without these key things is like searching for a needle in a haystack. We call this your Priorities Powwow, and also you shouldn’t skip it – spending intentional time on this may make all the pieces that comes afterwards easier. We at all times undergo this checklist with our couples, so we’re working from one shared vision for the marriage.
1. Narrow down your country and region. Your search will be in two stages, first determining which destination you ought to have your wedding in after which honing in on venues
2. List the important thing things which can be essential to you so as of priority – e.g. music, food, the view…
3. What form of venue do you want? Contemporary, industrial, historical, ballroom, something with beautiful gardens or a lake, a villa or borgo or vineyard…?
4. What number of guests are you inviting? Remember one among the quickest ways to cut back your wedding costs is by cutting your guest list
5. Do you wish everybody to remain together on-site, or select a standalone venue where you travel guests in for the marriage?
6. Your anti-priorities – what do you actually not want at your wedding?
7. Do you ought to marry within the countryside or an enormous city, and what are the implications of this?
8. Are you completely happy to go together with a venue’s in-house catering, or would you fairly have more selection and produce someone in?
Every thing to take into account when venues:
1. What are their catering and bar service arrangements, and what do these cost? Is wait staff, bartenders and cleardown included? Who’s accountable for bringing in plates, cutlery, glassware?
2. Is there a vendor list and are you obligated to make use of their suppliers, or do you will have free reign to decide on your personal?
3. Are there music restrictions? Is there a sound limiter, what’s the decibel limit, and the way is it controlled (automatic or monitored)? At some venues your sound will routinely shut off if it gets too loud, and that may really disrupt a celebration.
4. Is there a curfew for you and your guests being outdoors?
5. Is live music allowed outdoors or only background music?
6. What time can your party go on until?
7. What time is the hard finish when you will have to be out of the constructing?
8. How easy is it for people to get home at the top of the night? Are taxis available or do it is advisable to placed on transport?
What’s included and what do you will have to rearrange yourselves?
1. Is there in house lighting and is it sufficient, or do it is advisable to hire it in?
2. What does the dancefloor appear to be, is it large enough and do you prefer it?
3. Are there suitable power sources for your entire vendors?
4. Are tables and chairs included or do it is advisable to hire?
5. Are their toilets on site? Are there enough toilets on your guest numbers? Are they removed from where your event will happen, is there an attendant and are they cleaned? Do it is advisable to book portable toilets?
6. Is there parking on site for suppliers and guests?
7. What time can suppliers access your venue to load in and arrange?
8. Is loading in easy? Is there a variety of carrying and do we want cranes or porters?
9. Is there enough time for loading in or do it is advisable to hire extra people or ask about booking beyond regular time?
10. How long do suppliers should clear up and cargo out again at the top of the night? Do it is advisable to buy beyond regular time for this? The event doesn’t end whenever you leave!
All of this stuff affect each your budget, and the flow of your wedding day. It’s very essential that, whenever you visit a marriage venue, you imagine how all the pieces will work. Be very conscious that you simply keep your vision in mind and walk through the venue as you anticipate your guests will on the day. Do not forget that many venues have ways of doing things that they’re used to, but this will differ from how you wish to do things – advocate for yourself and be clear on whether things can occur the way in which you wish them to.
Envision every space you would like for the varied stages of your wedding day – welcome drinks, ceremony, drinks reception, dinner and dancing, afterparty…does the flow work, are there enough spaces, do spaces should be reused and the way will that work on the day? Do you want all of the spaces?
Think in regards to the periphery of your day too, beyond your guests’ experience. Is there a room for bridal prep or for each of you to prepare in, somewhere you may store things, a green room on your band and suppliers to be when not working?
And eventually, in case you’re planning to host your wedding outdoors as is usually the case with destination weddings, it is advisable to consider:
- What happens if it rains? Is there another indoor space that’s large enough and that you’re thinking that is just as nice?
- Is there still space for guests to maneuver out of your drinks reception to your ceremony to your dinner and party under cover, without feeling cramped or prefer it’s second-best?
- Are these indoor alternatives included in the price or will it is advisable to pay extra? How much extra, and when do it is advisable to resolve this?
- For those who need a marquee it’s possible you’ll have to allow extra days of hire to permit for it to be built, so are those days available?
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The Hidden Wedding Venue Costs Couples Often Trip Up On
All of this stuff can potentially incur extra fees, that will or will not be obvious and clearly stated. For those who’re working with a marriage planner (highly advisable, you most likely see by now!) they need to uncover all of this for you and advise on the way it suits into your budget. For those who’re viewing venues and not using a planner, ensure that you dig deep and discover exactly what all of those extras will cost before agreeing to any of them.
Venues are excellent at putting pricing somewhere within the small print, hidden away, and an ideal example of this is able to be a line that claims ‘all quotes exclude VAT’. VAT will be as high as 20-24% depending on the country, so to place it into perspective a venue that appears to cost £40,000 may very well find yourself closer to £50,000 by the point VAT is added on. Take into consideration all of the things you possibly can do with that extra £8000-10,000 in your budget.
Hire A Wedding Planner to Skip the Venue Stress
It probably all feels like quite a bit and as I discussed before I’m not on a fearmongering mission, but I do think there remains to be an absence of clarity around what’s involved in planning a marriage from a pair’s perspective. For those who resolve to plan on and not using a wedding planner, I wrote this within the hope that it will provide help to see through the fog and be less more likely to get caught up in any unexpected and unnecessary stresses while booking your venue.
For those who’re able to work with an experienced wedding planner who asks all of those questions for you (so that you don’t should), contact us using the button below for a friendly consultation – our planning approach could be very much hugs, not handshakes.
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For those who are a pair going it solo in your planning journey, you’re still very much in the precise place. You may also like a few of our other advice pieces, and our newly formed travel concierge services for destination weddings – email us for more information:
