5 Top Tips for Choosing Your Perfect Wedding Venue
Your wedding venue can make or break the entire day, and there are some rules you need to think about to to ensure your venue is perfect for your vision and can offer you what you want. Choosing somewhere because you like it, a celebrity got married there, or someone else recommended it isn't always going to be the best way of choosing a wedding venue. These points, however, can help you in making sure you get the venue of your dreams for an amazing wedding day.
Capacity
The capacity of wedding venues is massively important, and it can be important in enabling you to create the guest list and accommodate everyone you want to celebrate with you. How many guests can the venue hold at most? And does it work with your guest list? For example, if you want an intimate wedding and the venue is set up for larger groups, it might make the venue feel empty, and with few attendees, while too small, a venue can be cramped and make the day feel stifled and overfilled.
Location
Your venue needs to be easily accessible for people to attend to and understand how the day will operate. For example, if you are not having the ceremony at the same place as the reception, how easy is it for you and your guests to get there? Or is the occasion not hard to find or take time to travel to? While it might look perfect, if it makes the day's logistics difficult or inaccessible for some members of the party, it might be best to reconsider.
Budget
Just like wedding dresses, you should never look at venues outside of your budget. There is a big chance you will fall in love, and anything in your price range won’t compare. You need to check out product packages and what the packages include, if anything, to make sure they fit within your budget. If its venue only, you need to work out costs for accessories, decorations, entertainment, etc., but if anything is included, e.g., food, then you need to look at how much of your budget you can allocate to this to make sure you can comfortably afford it, and you won't be stung for hidden extras or exclusions you need to pay for separately.
Theme
The theme of your wedding day needs to fit in with the venue's theme and style. Some vendors are set for specific themes and styles; others can be decorated to change their appearance to meet your vision of the day and what you want. You need to make sure that your theme for your wedding day can be easily accommodated and that you are happy with everything prior to booking it because it won't be easy to make changes down the line if you suddenly decide what you booked doesn’t work.
Restrictions
One big aspect of booking a wedding venue is understanding what you can and can't do during your wedding. Some wedding venues require you to use recommended suppliers and vendors only, while others might restrict the type of decor you can use, entertainment, or noise levels, for example. It might be there is an earlier curfew time in place, meaning you have to make the party short, or that you don't have exclusive use of the entire venue, so you have to expect others to be able to access your wedding celebrations. Knowing what is and isn't is included to make a better decision about whether a venue is right for you.