WEDDING QUESTIONS

Couples should bring anyone who has a role in making the venue decision to the tour. Brides should bring the groom. This also often includes parents, but can include a sibling or friend who was recently married and has the definitive list of questions to ask. Many venues only allow one visit before booking. Some couples have a culling process that involves multiple visits with different decision makers. This is not an respectful or effective use of the venue's or the couple's time. If couples research their venues and reduce their list of tours to no more than 5, the decision makers should be able to make all of these visits.

Ideally, you should tour wedding venues in the same season as the wedding itself if the outdoors play a factor in the wedding. This will allow you to see the state of the landscaping and general weather that may be expected. But this is a luxury most couples can't enjoy. You should tour venues as soon as you are engaged in order to secure the venue of choice.

We also recommend seeing the venue during the time of day you will have your wedding, so generally in the early evening. If natural light and/or lighting systems, both inside and outside, play a key factor in the look of the venue (and they should), you can only appreciate this lighting during the evening.

These are the steps we would recommend you take when making a venue decision:

1. Location - Determine your wedding ceremony and reception location and concentrate the search here, using a simple web search. Avoid third party websites as paid placement sites skew your search results. Ex: Nashville wedding venue

2. Type - Type of venue refers to how the venue is commonly described. It can be an independent venue, hotel, country club, museum, civic property, farm, manor home or historic property, etc. Usually, one or two categories will emerge as your preferred choice.

A general type of venue may be considered an "all-inclusive" venue (there is really no such thing and we discuss that in a blog post). Hotels and country clubs, for instance will usually provide tables and chairs, food and beverage. The restrictive choices, prices and rules should be considered at one end of the venue spectrum. At the other would be bare-bone facilities which often grant tremendous freedom, but are often more difficult to plan given the larger number of vendors involved.

3. Size - Once the type of venue in your preferred location is determined, make sure that your guest count can be accommodated at the venue. We offer three notes of caution. First, venues often have a stated capacity far higher than we would recommend going at the venue. Second, your seating arrangement (fully seated versus mix and mingle) will vastly change your space requirements with fully seated events often requiring twice the size. Third, if you intend to have a ceremony and reception at the same venue, there must be enough guaranteed usable space to enable any needed room flip.

4. Design - With the list of venues shrinking, apply a subjective visual test to those that remain. Certainly not every hotel on the list is your style. Since venue photographs are often more attractive than you will find in person, discard from consideration any venue that isn't appealing visually.

5. Miscellaneous Features - Couples always have requirements of their venue that are objective and can be evaluated in advance of a tour. This could be a requirement for outdoor space, a certain number of dressing rooms, a parking lot, or even the ability to bring in your dog. Venues should publish answers to all of these questions online. If not, well that's another matter and perhaps they just want people to come visit them!

6. Cost - We all have a budget, and that may be a good thing. Know it and look at venues that are generally 20-40% of your overall budget (depending upon what is included).

7. Culture - No, we're not new age-y, but you'll know what we're talking about after you read a venue's website and visit with them.

This list should get a couple to no more than 5 venues to visit.

If the main room exceeds 2,000 sf, we strongly suggest a stage. If the room exceeds 2,500 sf a second stage is advantageous.

A stage is important in a larger room as it enables guests to see what is on it, which assumedly has some importance. Most couples think of a stage for use during a wedding ceremony or by a band or DJ. These are common uses, but others include a head table, speeches, bar, lounge furniture or wedding cake. In short, in a large room multiple stages serve many purposes.

Of course there are many, and why wouldn't there be since most couples don't have wedding planning experience.

On the financial side, the biggest mistake couples make is not accounting for all costs before committing to a venue. Venues are notorious for hidden costs and line items, some of which can be quite large. We tend to focus of two of the biggest culprits, alcohol and audio/lighting, which can individually exceed the venue's rental cost.

With respect to the type of venue they select, couples need to carefully consider what normally comes with a certain type of venue. Institutional venues (museums, municipal properties), for instance, tend to be rule bound and restrictive. Hotels and country clubs tend to be only semi private, costly, restrictive and cookie-cutter. Farms tend to be far removed from hotels and require transportation. Urban locations often entail costly parking for guests. Outside locations are subject to the weather.