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Writer's pictureLISA LANGSFORD

Selecting Your Dream Wedding Venue

Updated: Aug 21

Arguably, selecting your dream wedding venue is one of the biggest decisions you will make as part of the planning process. This is because it will have a significant impact on your wedding spend, a significant impact on the look and feel of the day, and a significant impact on your overall experience in the leadup and on the big day.  


To ensure you don’t fall into the trap of making emotionally driven decisions, we highly recommend that you take a planned approach and consider the bigger picture before jumping into your search. Below we outline a few key items that you and your partner may like to reflect on together as a first step.



Things to consider before searching for your dream wedding venue:


  • Create a rough guest list: Start by outlining a draft guest list to give you a feel for how many people your venue will need to accommodate. It’s easy to say you would like a small wedding, but once you start putting names on paper, it tends to add up quickly. This way, you are unlikely to waste any time visiting venues that are simply too small (or perhaps too large) for your group.

 

  • Consider budget: The wedding budget can easily blow out if you haven’t created initial parameters around what you can / would like to spend on your wedding. Once you start exploring venue options, you can decide how much of your wedding budget needs to be allocated to your venue and what is actually included in that fee.

 

  • Discuss ideal season and year: It’s a good idea to determine what time of year you would ideally get married – perhaps you love the idea of a hot summer wedding, or prefer go in a more cost effective direction by choosing a winter or a mid-week option. Once you have a better idea of this, you will be able to narrow down venues based on their availability, weather contingency options, and price point.

 

  • Determine whether singular or multiple locations are ideal for you: Is it important for you to host the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception within the same location? Or do you prefer to have multiple venues? Whatever the answer, it’s a good idea to discuss your preferences before you jump into the search.  

 

  • Will it be a sit down event or a casual affair? Having clarity around your style of wedding meal will also help to determine which venues are most suitable. For example, a venue that can accommodate 150 people cocktail style, may not be able to accommodate 150 people for a sit-down dinner.  

 

  • What locations would you consider? Consider how far you’re happy to travel and how far you are happy to ask your guests to travel (if any). If a destination wedding is on the cards, consider whether those locations are accessible and what options are available in terms of accommodation and transport. Are those locations also within close proximity to cities or towns that wedding vendors would travel from? If the location is extremely remote, you may end up paying a little bit more for your wedding vendors to travel and perhaps stay overnight.

 

  • Looking through Pinterest, what kind of aesthetic are you drawn to? Your wedding venue will play a solid role in the look and feel of your day. Are you looking for garden venue, a beachy vibe, an elegant clear marquee, or something with a little bit of European charm? Whatever it is, consider what you are both drawn to and from there, which venues may suit the bill.  

 

  • What are your non negotiables? Discuss and decide on the 3 most important things for the day – is it having an incredible menu or the ability to have a 5 piece band playing through till 2 in the morning? Is it the fact you want to be completely hands off come wedding week? Whatever the non-negotiables are, identify them and ensure your preferred venues can tick those boxes.


Once you have clarity regarding the above, you will be in a much better place to start the process of finding your dream venue.


If we are working alongside you to plan your special day, we would present you with a range of venue options, source all the info you need, join you on site visits, and help you to make educated decisions through the provision of full budget break downs for your preferred venue(s).  


Hopefully these tips are helpful as you get the ball rolling on your own wedding planning journey – feel free to get in touch if you would like to learn more about how we can help!


With Love, Lisa xx

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