How to decide which venue?

I focused on price. I wanted an outdoor wedding but there were so many variables that go with that. And the outdoor venue I wanted to go with was one of those base price plus rentals and everything else. The venue we went with covered everything under a blanket price. That was really appealing to me so I decided it was worth it to go indoor wedding. And I'm glad I made the decision because our jack and jill was outside and it threatened to thunderstorm all week and then the day of barely sprinkled for 5 minutes.

We got “the one” feeling as soon as we arrived at our venue! It had a little bit of what we both wanted! He wanted the castle look while I wanted to have the forest ceremony. We both had a budget in mind and stuck to it while looking at venues as we didn’t want to go above and beyond our price range.

My fiancé and I knew pretty much right away we wanted to get married at one of our local wineries, but that’s because it’s special to us. That’s really the best way to pick a venue, in my opinion. Pick a spot that means something to you or that you both enjoy visiting together!

Looking at what was included helped give a clear cost comparison as well as an idea of an extra work needed. I would start with that if you have a top three narrowed down. You can find some strange stuff in the details.

One of our top three originally looked to be the most inexpensive, until they revealed you had to rent every chair for the reception and ceremony through them at $5 per chair! That same place down didn't allow fake flowers and didn't have any sort of sound system.

Another wouldn't make any concessions or special arrangements for allergies in the menu.

We focused on food (flexibility...there are a lot of allergies in our family), simplicity (not having to drag or rent a million things at a million different places), and final total cost.

I'm getting married in September of next year, like many others ours was budget. Our wedding is on a Sunday of a long weekend, keep in mind that doing it on a Saturday prices are a little higher because everyone wants Saturdays.

For example; our ceremony space was $500 cheaper because it's on a Sunday. BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET is the key for sure. Our ceremony space includes, set up and take out, benches and she makes the decoration which are beautiful.

Choosing a venue can be a challenge when looking at plated meals vs. buffet style, open bar and extras they provide. Compare all venues you visit and which ones really you liked most of 3. Then the one you two can afford will be that choice.

We picked our venue based on everything being offered that another venue walking distance wanted twice the amount for. If that wasn't bad enough, they were misleading the information of a 4 course meal stating the main course was to be paid for. Based on adult, child and less than 3 age kids, pricing was varied for open bar.

We were offered:

Seating for the wedding ceremony

5 choices of h'ouvres to serve

4 course plated meal for Vegetarians, Non-Vegetarian an Kids

Open bar except for dinner time having the staff offering going around the tables.

Late night buffet of our choices

A dance floor that wasn't offered towards the main day.

We sort of knew we were picking our venue regardless because we had already fallen in love with it previously. If I was going into it blind not seeing it before, I would definitely focus on:

1. Budget! If you have budget definitely stick with it. Some venues try to be sneaky and give X amount as the cost but then have different “add ons” which you may want but end up costing more money. Definitely ask lots of those questions because it’ll give you a more realistic sense of cost.

2. All inclusive! Check to see if your venue allows outside catering (it might be a bit cheaper) ours didn’t except for extra things like poutine station for the evening or burger places. The actual dinner is done in house.

3. Alcohol! For us this is huge because both our families enjoy a drink or two. Our venue gave us stellar bar packages which is included in our overall price. Check to see if your bar package is included and whether or not they serve liquors or beverages you like.

4. Decor! Is the decor included? For example, our venue provides no decor except tables, chairs, plain ivory napkins and table cloths. The napkins and table linens didn’t go with our theme so we are getting our own. If your venue provides decor and works with your theme, that’s a bonus!

5. Ceremony and reception! If you’re interested in doing both at one venue check to make sure they allow it. This was not on our radar since we are having a church ceremony but they did have a ceremony area if we wanted (it was just small).

6. Travel! Is it easy for guests to get to? Taxi and Uber exist in the area? We were worried taxis and Uber wouldn’t go to where our reception was but I did some research and they do. I think it’s important to give guests alternatives to driving if they’ve been drinking, I.e. taxi and Uber.

thats what I could come up with at the top of my head!

We got down to what checked off the most on our lists and who (our contact at the venue) we felt most comfortable with. Sometimes you also need to go with your gut and where you can imagine yourself celebrating your wedding.

Focus on what you and your FH want for sure. Do you want your venue to be close to where you guys live, are you willing to travel. Do you want somewhere that you can hold both ceremony and reception. These are the first questions you need to figure out. Then narrowing down to theme, cost, availability.

For us, I created a chart with every venue that I was interested in. Looked into the price per plate, and what was included. Then narrowed it down to 2 venues. These were the only 2 that we went to see, and after seeing the first one I almost wanted to cancel my appointment for the second one on the spot!

We ended up finding a venue that is really a one stop shop! Ceremony and reception on the same site. All the food included, open bar, ceremony and reception decor included.

Stick to what you and your FH want, and what is in your budget. Keep in mind the amount of people you have to accommodate as well.

Determining the budget, needs/wants prior to visiting the venues was pretty helpful, as it helped us weed out some that didn't fit the bill.

After visiting venues, we sat down and looked at the value of what we were getting for the price of the venue. That brought it down to two venues, which we just picked the one we liked better as "the one".

Like many others, we had a list of needs/wants for venues. We struggled more with which city to have it in, but once we narrowed it down, we consulted our list:

- FH wanted a chocolate fountain so either the venue would have to provide for us, or we'd have to be allowed to bring one in

- Space either outdoors or with lots of plants (i.e. conservatory) for ceremony and photos

- Preferably a hotel so we could get a room block for out-of-town guests (75% of guest list is out-of-town and using the block)

- Ceremony and Reception in one venue (can be different areas)

- Able to accommodate 100-150 guests (didn't have the actual guest list when venue hunting)

- All-inclusive (planning out of town so helpful to deal with less vendors)

I'd sit down with your FH and make a list of needs/wants. Then weigh each venue against your list.

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It defiantly makes a difference- Our fee was $900 to rent for the three days, we then rented the wine glasses/water glasses for hardly anything, we also rented the kitchen which was $200 for the three days.

For us it was very much first and foremost about looking for a smaller venue that we loved as we didn't want a huge wedding. Having selected a venue that holds less than 90 people gave us the perfect reason as to why extended family and others weren't given invitations to the wedding. Once we saw the venue in person we knew that it was the perfect spot for us! We are so in love with the center fire pit and the whole rustic charm of the place.

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It was for overall but the venues we were looking at were including supper from their "executive chef" and a host bar which made it $30,000. We also have heavy drinkers in our family so host bar is basically we pay per drink and that is going to add up real fast when drinks are starting at $5 each.

Where we are currently that is what we will be paying though

Venue = $4,500 Booze = $5,000 Food = $4,000 ($13,500/$20,000)

It would be just over half the budget for us but we have heavy drinkers and 250 people at that.

For us we made a list of priorities we were looking for. And an ideal budget.

So first establish what is important to you and your partner. And what you would like to spend and the amount of guests. From there ....

Is it aesthetic?

Bringing in own catering or booze?

Location?

Whether you want most stuff included or separate

etc...

For us we wanted a place where we could have ceremony and reception in one place.

We really wanted to be able to bring in our own catering and liquor. And the look that I wanted.

Then it came down to looking at a few, and I fell in love with our venue and couldn't beat the price.

Once you establish what is most important it will help you to narrow options. Pick your top few and go see them in person and meet with the people in charge and that will help you decide as well.

View quoted message Thanks Becky! That’s exactly what my current strategy has been and I have a few vendors that seem to include a lot or offer a lot on site, while other cheaper options would require more outside vendors. Your comment was helpful though!

View quoted message Thanks Tori! Was your budgeted amount for the venue alone? Our total wedding budget is $30K, and I had heard that your venue, catering and bar should be just over half - so about $15-20K

We picked a venue based on how close it was to our ceremony location, if they had accommodations on site for out of town guests and ourselves, if we could hire our own catering company, if they included tables & chairs or if had to rent.

The venue we chose was closest to the ceremony location, included chairs, tables, cultery, plates -everything in kitchen. They also rented it based on either two days or 3 days. We did three so we can set up on Friday, then we can take down Sunday. It also worked better for local companies we rented from as they wanted to drop off on Thursday's (they new the owners and they allowed this). The price was also a factor as it included a lot and was little more expensive all together however, if we would have rented from any other place every little thing we would have had to rent and would of costed more in end.

Our big thing was max. capacity, outside catering, and price.

First thing you should do is figure out a budget if you haven't already done so. Since ours is $20,000-$25,000 we had to rule out all the venues inside the city as they all started at $30,000 and this did not include the dress, cake, decor, etc.

Then from the venues located outside the city we got rid of the ones who could only fit 100 people. (we ended at a place that fits up to 250)

Last we needed a venue that didn't charge us $80/plate for food so this meant they either had to have cheap food or allow outside caterers which we found!