Does venue shopping make anyone else want to pull their hair?

View quoted message Awe that’s amazing! Maybe that’s what it is, I’m slowly starting to figure out what kind of bride I am & so maybe I’ll find the perfect one soon! I have a couple picked out that I’m going to look at in a couple weeks so fingers crossed! Let me know how your viewing goes!

I’ve been finding it really hard as when I started planning it as I didn’t know what type of bride I was. I was looking at all these stunning venues but I couldn’t see myself getting married there!
I was spending hours and hours looking and it felt really forced!
I stumbled upon one venue which was out of the area I was looking at but still really accessible from where I live. I’m going to see it in a couple of months! When I saw the photos of this venue, I finally found what type of bride I am! It was me and I didn’t even know it existed! Good luck in your search!

Lol I couldn’t stand the people giving tours of places. I found it really stressful. And we brought my in laws because they are excited about our wedding and we love them and want to include them. Most of the time the venue people would barely talk to my fiancé and I and just be focusing all their attention on my in laws which was really frustrating because I had a lot of questions. (We actually had one lady giving us a tour tell us to go look around while they handled money info - she just assumed they are paying for everything? They are helping out and my parents are too and we are paying for our wedding too so I was very thrown off by that.) Our venue choice is actually very much so based on the fact that the manager listened to my questions and to my fiancé’s questions. She was very clearly a pro at answering questions in such a way that you felt heard.


You will find your venue!! It’s such a relief when that happens

View quoted message I looked at cornerstone, so gorgeous but out of my budget. I can’t WAIT to see Stewart creek! It looks so beautiful in pictures!

View quoted message Stewart Creek was actually the first venue we went and checked out! GORGEOUS view from inside where the dinner would be held. We ended up checking out Cornerstone Theatre last year and booked it right away since it's a fairly popular venue. Wedding is set for September 3rd this year 😄

View quoted message Stewart Creek & Canmore Golf & Curling so far! We were also going to check out Bill Warren but they no longer have our date available. Do you have your eye on any yet?

View quoted message I'm also getting married in Canmore in September and I swear they have some of the most gorgeous venues. The scenery helps too, of course. Can I ask which venues you plan on seeing?

View quoted message Good to know!! I’ll get googling tonight after work to see what else is out there! Thank you so much!

View quoted message No, at this time we aren’t willing to change our date as the date we have picked is our ten year anniversary.

View quoted message For 2022 yes! Maybe it’s because I’m working with a small budget that’s the problem. But I’m starting to look at other spots outside the city and have a couple more I’m interested in!

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Definitely use Google and other event site listings. We were open to all kinds of venues and we found Weddingwire's list to be fairly limited in terms of the number of possibilities we were willing to explore.

I personally found venue shopping to be the most exciting and fun of all vendors but we looked before covid so I'm sure that makes a difference haha. To me the venue really sets the tone for the entire day and I think is the most important vendor. We were also planning to have a very DIY wedding though and didn't want an all inclusive venue so I also needed them sorted to book all of our other vendors. I was way more stressed out trying to find a photographer and caterer.

Are you willing to change your date to go with your number one venue? We went venue hunting with a date in mind but we were flexible in case they weren't available. I'd much rather change the date to have the venue I want then choose a venue I'm not as happy with.

View quoted message I’m getting married in Canmore in July - but outdoor ceremony. There’s so many places to choose from ! I’m sure you will find something that works for you. Are you looking for 2022 ?

I had a really fun time looking at venues! I wish we got to go look at more! But the 3rd one we looked at fit ALL of our needs and more and it was the cheapest!

View quoted message Yes we also don’t want a hotel wedding and you’re right, it does greatly limit your options! I also working with a small budget so I feel like that makes it a bit harder as well haha. Hopefully we fall in love with one of the two we are going to look at in Canmore in March 😬

I was a bit stressed/worried when I was venue shopping. I had picked out 3 venues that I liked, I had a pretty set vision and didnt want a hotel wedding so that limited my options greatly.


I went to the first 2 and while they were okay, they just didnt spark that “This is where I want to het married feeling”. Before seeing the 3rd venue I started panicking and thinking, “what if we dont like the 3rd venue?! What are we going to do then?!”.
Thank god the 3rd venue was a dream and the one we ended up going with but I was definitely nervous that I wasnt going to find the right venue.

View quoted message Well we want to get married in Canmore. So that narrows it down to 17 (on wedding wire, there may be more if I do a google search) we have a small budget & are set on our date as it is our ten year anniversary, so that narrowed it down to 3. We haven’t looked at any yet as our schedules make it hard to get to canmore. We are going on March to look at them. I’ve opened up my search to include kananaskis & cochrane which I’ve found two more venues and am currently waiting to hear back from them. I am pretty against actually getting married in the city (calgary) because I find it very hard to find something I love within my budget. We have looked at a few in the city & the ones we loved we couldn’t afford and the ones we could afford I hated. We also want an indoor ceremony & reception so are looking for something with big windows & lots of natural light which we are also having a hard time finding in the city.


Like I said, we’ve found a couple we love, have all the notes & price breakdowns. Done all the catering research etc. Just need to get down there to see them! Haha

Personally I loved visiting venues. That was "the fun stuff" for me lol. I had a spreadsheet with all kinds of formulas punching in different options the venue offered, comparing everything so I could figure out how to reduce costs and get as much as we can based on what we're willing to spend.

How many venues did you visit before narrowing down to 3? We contacted 25, physically visited 12 before picking the one we wanted.