How To Choose the PERFECT Wedding Venue!
Transcript and Notes
Hey everyone I’m Bianca and you’re watching Bianca Renee today and today we’re talking about a very important detail to your wedding which is wedding venues.
How do you know which venue is right for you, and what questions do you ask to figure out if this venue is going to be perfect for your wedding, so I just recently got all of my wedding photos which I absolutely love!
If you guys want to see where I had my wedding. Make sure to follow me on Instagram, and Pinterest @msbianca Renee always posting most of my wedding photos there.
Choose Your Venue
Now a very important tip that I can give to all of my brides and Loki even to those of you that aren’t brides yet, is to always figure out your venue, first as soon as you get engaged. I want you to start looking at venues because that will get booked up really fast, if you think about it.
Most girls have a year engagement. So, that means everybody has a year engagement, which means if you’re in 2016, and you call your venue for a 2017 date, it could already be booked because all these brides that are looking a year out might be calling for the same dates as you.
So as soon as you’re getting gauge start looking at venues, start going on tours, and we can decide as soon as possible. I mean low key even if you’re not engaged might sound a little crazy but I would kind of just have a general idea of what you want. So in the big day does happen, you’re ready. They always think your Pinterest wedding photos crazy until you get engaged and you’re completely prepared.
Decide Locale
Now I would say the top three things that you’re going to have to figure out immediately before deciding a wedding is what state, your budget and your guests count. If you are married to someone and you guys are both from different states maybe your families are in different states, you’re going to have to decide if you want to pick a neutral location, if you’re gonna do a destination wedding, you’re gonna do her family state or his family state, wherever that may be, that’s the first thing you’re going to have to decide.
Now, even if you decide on what state you want you also have to figure out how far in the city, you want your guests to travel. I personally found a venue that I loved in Costa Mesa and Newport, but that was like an hour drive from where I lived without traffic so I knew that all of my guests would have been late and stuck in traffic especially if I did, it’s like on a Friday and low key in California we don’t really have traffic hours anymore.
There’s just always traffic so I didn’t want to risk, everyone having to drive, maybe two hours to get to my wedding. And if they’re going to be drinking I did have open bar. I did not want my guests to be drinking and then have to drive, two hours back home, nor pay for a two hour over. Everybody got money for that.
Budget
The second thing that was going to cut your options in half is going to be the budget, you might think you want the Ritz Carlton, but they want to get that price, you’re going to be like, Oh, I mean the Holiday Inn has very nice buffet package.
So figure out exactly how much you’re willing to spend on just the venue alone, that means for ceremony, and the reception, and you’re planning on having a very intimate wedding of a maybe about 50 people, your options are going to expand because you could do smaller type venues, but if you know you’re going to have 300 people.
Not all venues are going to be able to hold 300 guests. So you’re going to have to ask that first off because they can’t fit all your guests. It’s not an option. Once you figure out those three main things you are off to a good start, but I do want to backtrack a little and talk about price.
The price of your wedding venue could mean the price of just the property alone, nothing else is included but the fact that you get to be on the property and have an event there and they might have a flat fee, just for you to be on site.
Now, the better option would be to have a place that has a package, where you get the venue and it also includes their catering company and the essential type of rentals like your tables your chairs napkins sports plates. And then the catering that they have preferred catering list. If you kind of bulk all that together with the venue that might give you a discount and or the venue cost might be free. Now let’s get a little bit more specific as to your personal preference.
Style
What types of Look, do you want for your wedding. Do you want to be rustic Do you want to be modern Do you want it to be inside outdoor banquet hotel. Families backyard, whatever you envision your wedding to be if you could narrow that down it’s going to make it so much easier to decide on what you want.
And if you have a wedding planner it’s going to be easier for him or her to give you a list of exactly what you want, what do you start to narrow down the look of the day. Now let’s think about it you want it to be indoor or outdoor, it’s very common for people to have their ceremony outside and then everybody comes in for the reception, or you could do both outside, or both inside or maybe you want your ceremony to be at a church, and then you go to maybe a hall or some other place for the reception, all options depending on what you want.
You want to avoid family drama
Another very important thing to ask about is the time restriction. I personally found that they knew that I love and then I found out that all the music and or sound had to be over by 10pm. I know my friends and family I know we wanted to have a band and a lot of dancing, and I could not end the night at 10pm, and I could not cut off the DJ at 10pm. Because what are we going to do when the music stops like play Scrabble so I had to say no to that venue because I knew I wanted to go to at least midnight. So think about your guests are they going to want to party late, is it a week day work day weekend holiday. All these things are going to help you decide whether your guests are going to want to say so 10 midnight, or 2am.
DAY OF THE WEEK COST & SAVINGS
Weddings, like an event, are full of waste, from food to disposable dishes to paper products. An elopement eliminates a lot of that waste and allows you to reduce your carbon footprint and be a little kinder to the environment.
No matter what you choose to do, it’s important to plan a wedding day that reflects you and your partner and the love you share.
Perks & Upgrades
Now it’s time to see what type of perks, this specific venue has, I would ask to see if they offer you a complimentary hotel stay if your wedding is in a banquet hall at the hotel you’re most likely going to get a free room, free or suite for your honeymoon night for you to leave the wedding and go straight to your room.
Along with your room for the night You also want to make sure that there’s a place for your bridesmaids and the groomsmen to get ready the day of. Otherwise, you’re going to have to think about that additional cost of maybe getting a hotel room. So all your girls can get ready and then go to the venue if you don’t want to travel. Hopefully pick a venue that has a place for you guys to get ready on site.
If you don’t care, you could just get ready at your house, your girls can get ready at their homes you miss meet on time, but most brides like to have their bridesmaids around them, they all get ready together as a big girls like thing. In my experience, I found a venue that I absolutely love it was actually a garden, and because it was a garden, there wasn’t really a place for me and my girls to get ready.
They showed us the girls, giving ready room, and it was literally a motorhome like just an RV. That was where I was supposed to get ready and take pictures. Noooo, I had a bridesmaids than me, and then two moms, that’s a loving girls. There’s no way 11 girls can get ready and one motorhome didn’t even have, I thought the bathrooms were like a small door like one person airplane type bathroom like one mere probably two outlets. 11 girls. No, that wasn’t gonna work.
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