wedding reception venue and table setting

Things to Consider When Choosing a Wedding Venue

Planning your wedding requires you to make tons of decisions to make it an ideal one for you and your partner. But there are some decisions that is so important that it makes a big impact to your follow-up decisions. That big decision is your Venue.

Choosing a venue is one of the most important decisions when it comes to wedding planning. It has to be done at a very early stage to avoid disappointment of not able to make it at your favourite place and early booking also makes the planning process easier.

Here’s a guide on what you should consider before choosing a venue.

Capacity

The first thing that you should know is the estimated number of guests that you are planning to invite. You do not want to overpay for a venue that fits 1,000 pax if you are inviting only 300 people. Or you do not want to miscalculate and booked a place of only 100 people if you have a list of 200 guests. Knowing the number of guests would help you to short list the initial options of venue.

You also need to make sure that your venue is not too cramped and make the guests uncomfortable or if its too empty that makes the atmosphere dull.

The biggest mistake we see couples make is picking an oversized venue, meaning they’ll have to spend a fortune to make it feel full and intimate.

Location

Can it be easily reached or is it far out of the town? Make sure the venue is convenient for your guests to attend. If you have significant number of guests who comes from other cities, you need to consider the options of accessibility for them; whether it is near to the airport, or is it easy to find transportation to get them to the location.

Accommodation is also a factor if they decide to stay for the night. The venue should not be too far away from the hotel, or you can have your wedding at a hotel’s ballroom instead.

This is also important if you have two venues for your wedding. Transportation from one venue to the other must be easily accessible.

Budget

You have got to ask yourself, “Can I afford this venue?” Having a large budget to do it in a luxurious place will definitely make your wedding looks good; but you must remind yourself that to make it meaningful, it is not necessary to spend a fortune on it. There is always many ways to make your wedding a blast by using a minimal budget. You do not want to book an expensive venue, and end up forgetting that you have other expenses to spend on.

Date

The availability of the venue have to be checked with the operators. That is why it is important to book early and if possible, pay a deposit to secure and lock the dates. Great and popular venues will get booked in months or maybe more than a year in advance. So if you have a popular place in mind, better make the reservation early.

You may also want to check for dates that might clash with huge events at nearby areas to your venue, so you can avoid traffic jams and road closures.

Packages

Certain venues have special packages for clients who are renting their space for wedding purposes. They would provide certain equipments, setup, decorations or a team dedicated to help you to organise your wedding. Or they also provide catering services especially hotels. You may be able to save a portion of your budget by taking up their packages, and it is also easier to deal with a team with experiences in wedding events.

For these type of venues, you also need to check with them if you decide to bring in your own choice of caterer and vendors. They might charge you a fee for not using their packages.

Wedding Theme

Most venues at hotels and conference halls are pretty flexible with wedding themes, but if you are choosing a unique venue, you might need to ensure it matches with your wedding theme. If you want to have a beach wedding theme, you definitely have to get a venue by the seaside to do it, and not places in the hills or garden. Or if you want to organise a formal type of wedding, then a beach venue might not be suitable.

Car Parks

Car parks are important, as most of your guests will be coming by cars. Not many people would take the public transportation when they are all dressed-up. If the venue that you select does not have plenty of car park space, maybe you can negotiate with nearby car parking facility and provide a shuttle service for your guests.

When there is really no option for car park spaces, perhaps you can deal with e-hailing companies to provide transportation services. You want your guests to attend your wedding with comfort.

Weather

This is extremely important if you are planning an outdoor wedding; you need to be sure the date that you have selected is not during a season when the weather is bad. Even if its during a nice season, you better be sure you have a contingency plan for it. Check the weather one day before your wedding day if you need to execute plan B.

With these factors in mind, short list your choice of wedding venues as little as possible, and if there is still a few more choices left, use your gut to pick your ideal one.

Check out what other decisions that you need to make in our ultimate wedding checklist.

The Vow is a wedding & love magazine focuses on stories, inspiration, ideas and listings of wedding vendors.

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