Finding Your Wedding Venue

First off if you found this blog because you are planning your most special day,

CONGRATULATIONS! I loved planning my wedding! 4 years later and I am still picking up my wedding binder just to flip through the pages. Maybe one day wedding coordinator will be added to my resume but for now I will stick with sharing some tips I learned in my process of wedding planning.

This post is going to focus on some of my own experience and general information about venues that I have learned. The wedding venue business is booming! Seriously these beautiful venues are everywhere and cater to a whole variety of brides and their wedding vision.

We found our venue by going to a family friends wedding, we weren't even engaged yet and I knew I wanted to be married there.

My husband proposed mid-December and we booked our venue by the end of January!

Why? Our date November 18th was already booked! Yes we chose a different day which turned out to be cheaper because it was a Sunday!

*Quick Tip: Did you know some venues are cheaper on Friday or Sunday? Saturday is always to ideal day for a wedding but if your looking to save some money look into those other dates!*

Book as early as possible! I know some people will make comments about how eager you are and how your jumping into the game super early but trust me you are not to eager you are planning the right way! Ideal planning time is a year all from engagement if not more. The time it takes to book everything, order your dress, find vendors, it is a timely process.

Let me share some of my experiences with my wedding.

1. We didn't want a DJ we figured that our friend could hit play on all of our songs and then just put on a play list for the reception. That was a "No Go", our venue had a policy that a licensed DJ with equipment would be the one controlling the audio set up for the wedding. We were able to ask this during our initial tour and plan to budget for a DJ.

2. Our wedding cake came from a friend of a friend, she did beautiful cakes but she wasn't professional baker nor did she have a contract for us to sign, etc. We were going to be married in November and early September the venue asked for all of our vendors and their insurance. Ummmm what? I was panicked (It was an easy fix but still not planned), we had to purchase liability insurance for our wedding cakes! I found a company online that day and $100 later had insurance on the cake. But trust me, as a bride two months out from her wedding date I was freaked out.

3. TWO WORDS "Extra charges". Ask about everything! That sign on the bridge? Those drapes at the alter? Those rustic barrels you loved so much? ASK! When you tour a venue it is of course set to look appealing and beautiful so that you will pick this place to marry the love of your life. You will spend the rest of your lives with wedding photos with this venue as the back ground. Certain items that were set up turned out to be pieces to rent, which is fine I get that it is a business, and of course I understand that some items are a hassle to be set up or taken down. I am just including this for YOU so that you are prepared! I would of been heart broken if the barrels I wanted to use as aisle markers weren't there the day of the wedding or the white drapes were suddenly out of my vision for my special day.

If you have a venue in mind or you are shopping around I made a Wedding Venue Questionnaire here for you to use. It includes all of the questions I asked or learned the hard way that I should of asked. I printed this out and wrote down all of the answers the venue manager gave us.

I hope this finds you a little less stressed and prepared to take on your next venue tour!

Wedding Venue Questionnaire.pdf

Download PDF • 106KB