How to Choose a Wedding Venue

Your wedding venue is the centre of your wedding universe. It provides the stable core around which everything wedding-related orbits. Your venue dictates many decisions besides the physical location of your big day: the date, how many guests you can invite, which vendors you can employ and so on. For this reason, how to find a wedding venue is an important question, and how you choose to answer it may change your day intrinsically, for better or for worse.

There are five essential things you must consider in your hunt to find a wedding venue and below is a breakdown of them all.

Capacity

This is the first step in your journey to find a wedding venue. Do you want a massive do, or a small intimate wedding with only family and a few friends? There would be no reason to hire out a massive ballroom for a wedding of only 30, even if you both fall in love with it on site. Don’t allow yourself to get carried away and lose sight of the wedding you’ve always wanted. The guest list is probably one of the most complicated (and diplomatically challenging) aspects of planning a wedding but your venue must align with the number of guests. Too small a venue will feel cramped, and an overly large venue can feel cold and uninviting. Either occurrence shows a lack of planning so make sure you think before you sign on the dotted line!

Weather

If you would like to have an outdoor wedding or one based in a rustic barn then the next natural step is to assume that your wedding will be in the spring or summer. While you may be running on adrenalin to keep you warm in the snowiest of blizzards on your big day, your guests, regardless of how much they love you, will not. Be kind to them and to yourself and make sure that when you find a wedding venue it is weather-appropriate!

Location

Consider whether it’s practical and if it will work with the theme. If your lifelong dream has always been to have a winter-themed wedding, full of rich colours and Christmas magic, then somewhere light and airy perhaps won’t work. Instead, focus your search on old, ornate buildings with lots of dark wood and maybe space for a Christmas tree! Additionally, many people dream of getting married on a beach in Hawaii at sunset, but is this feasible for the guests you want to invite? Walking in heels in the sand is virtually impossible, so if you plan to return home with both your ankles intact, consider leaving Hawaii for the honeymoon.

Price

The concept of location also links in with the price. We’ve all seen enough RomComs which involve beautiful weddings at The Plaza in New York City. But what those films don’t show is the whopping great price tag they come with. Yes, your venue is important – it’s going to form the backdrop to the photos you will have for years to come but don’t let these facts deplete your budget entirely. A wedding has many components, so if you spend your savings on the ideal venue, you may find that your wedding just involves a room. There will be plenty of gorgeous wedding venues within your price range, it’s just a matter of finding them.

The main piece of advice here is don’t rush the decision. It may get to a point where you believe you will never find a wedding venue that suits all your needs, but the chances are that it will be the place you least expected to like that you end up falling in love with.

 

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