When I fell in love with wedding and event planning, I never thought I’d be lucky enough to help plan a close friend’s wedding. I thought I would only be able to live this dream vicariously when watching bridal shows on The Learning Channel (TLC) and imagining what I would do differently. So, when my friend mentioned that he and his fiancée were looking for the perfect venue to fit their vibe and timeline, I had my chance! For my first soiree into wedding planning I needed to find a venue for my friends that fit their logistical needs, their vision, and their budget.
The tactics I used to find potential venues for my friends are applicable to anyone planning an event and I’ll take you through them step by step: ask, search, reach out.
Ask yourself the right questions to narrow down the list of potential venues to ones that fit your needs.
- Big Picture
- Where do you want to get married?
- What is your maximum budget?
- How many guests will you have?
- Do you want to have your ceremony and reception in the same space?
- Does the venue have mandatory or preferred vendors?
- Do you want a venue that provides food, or do you want to cater yourself?
- How early can you come in and set up?
- Will the venue negotiate with you and let you set up the day/night before? (This will make your life so much easier!)
- Coordinating the Big Day
- Who will be your contact person at the venue in the time leading to your wedding?
- Will anyone from the venue be on-site to handle issues during the event? If not, who is the contact person off-site?
- [If applicable] is there staff to help with the transition from ceremony to reception or are you supposed to do that yourself?
- Dining
- Does the venue come with serving staff?
- If you’re self-catering the event or hiring caterers, is there a kitchen available?
- Are tables and chairs provided? What kind?
- Are linens provided?
- Are chair covers provided?
- Music
- Is there room for a dance floor?
- Does the venue have a sound system?
- Do they provide microphones for speeches?
- Cleaning
- Does the venue clean the event space for you, or do you clean it yourself?
- Is there an additional fee if the room isn’t cleaned to a certain standard?
- If you have to clean up, who will be in charge of this (so the bride and groom can head off to their honeymoon)?
- Who will oversee taking gifts and cards home for the bride and groom?
Determine the right search terms/buzz words that result in a short enough list of venues to reasonably research and contact.
- If you want an industrial space with a largely blank canvas, use loft; if you want a catering hall so you don’t have to worry about the food or waitstaff, narrow it to your preferred area by including the zip code and search catering hall 12345; if you want to keep it general within a specific area and figure out what you want by what is available, search wedding venue 12345. And don’t forget about search terms like all inclusive, lighting, and service entrance.
Finally, reach out and see if the venues that looked good on paper can actually meet your needs and see if they’re willing to negotiate to meet your needs.
- I recommend setting up a wedding email for this purpose, so your main email doesn’t get spammed with wedding planning related emails.
Leave comments and questions about your own venue search below, and if you want someone else to do the search for you, I’m available for event planning and event consulting 😊
Good luck planning!
-Beulah
Bridal by Beulah 