You’re engaged, congratulations! Now you get to plan the biggest party of your life - your wedding day. It can be overwhelming all of the decision makings but there are loads of resources and tips out there for free to get you started. I’ve put together some tips on how to choose the best wedding venue as this is usually the first big decision to make.

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KNOW YOUR STYLE AND VISION

What is your decor style and aesthetic for your wedding? Are you leaning towards elegant and modern, traditional or relaxed, rustic and retro, outdoors or indoors etc? Perhaps start looking for inspiration on Pinterest and get a feel for the overall look you like. When you start to visit venues or look online you’ll begin to build a picture of whether or not your vision fits with the space.

BUDGET

First things first, let’s talk budget! For our wedding we originally wanted to make it happen with 20k, we quickly realised for what we wanted that wasn’t realistic and it ended up being 30k. Start with categorising the ‘must haves’ first and then work your way down the list. The most expensive things for our wedding were the venue, food, alcohol, photographer and wedding dress. They weren’t things we were willing to compromise on. When it comes to budgeting for your venue there may be extra costs like rubbish removal and waitress staff so make sure you do your research.

GUEST LIST/NUMBERS CAPACITY

Before you start looking at venues you’ll need to write a draft guest list so you have a rough idea of how many people will attend. When we started writing our guest list for our own wedding we aimed for 60 people, this quickly escalated to 80 people and unfortunately our booked venue usually only catered for 60-70 max (it was a tight squeeze during the reception, whoops). I definitely recommend sticking to the guideline that your venue provides otherwise it makes it really hard for waitress staff and guests to move around during the reception.

AVAILABILITY

What time of year do you want to get married, do you want a summer wedding or do you prefer cooler months? We decided on May for our wedding because we wanted our ceremony to be as close to sunset time as possible for the nice light in our photos. It was nice not standing outside on a hot summer’s day (being a photographer and working in the sun for hours on end is really challenging and also those wearing suits find it way too hot in jackets and pants).

Give yourself lots of time and pick a date that is 12-18 months away so you can ensure all of your favourite vendors are available.

ACCOMMODATION

Do you need to provide on-site accommodation or make this available for your VIP guests? Some couples like to make it easier for their guests traveling from afar to have accommodation included at the venue. This means that guests don’t need to worry about transport and can party without planning a sober driver.

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TRANSPORT

Is your venue easy to get to and order taxi’s from, or do you need to pre-book a bus to make sure guests get home safely. If there is alcohol at your wedding this is an important thing to factor in. For our wedding, we prebooked a large bus which did one trip from the accommodation our guests booked and then one trip back in the evening for about $900 NZD. Make sure you add this into your budget so it’s not a surprise when you start to look at booking transport. We also booked some earlier taxis in the night for children and grandparents.

WEEKEND HIRE

Find out when you have access to the venue. Some questions to ask before you book are: can you set up your decorations the day beforehand, or do you only have access the morning of the wedding (which means hiring a team to make this happen since you’ll be getting ready)? And when do you need to have the venue cleaned and cleared by the next day?

CATERING AND BYO ALCOHOL

Some venues will have specific caterers that they work with or allow into their kitchen only. Find out what the catering options are and if the kitchen is fully equipped for an offsite company to use. You’ll need to choose between plated meals or a buffet-style, we picked a buffet style because we wanted larger portions and simple options.

Not all venues allow BYO alcohol due to licensing reasons so you may need to budget more for your venue’s drink prices. Find out if you can purchase wine by the bottle for your tables which will help slow down the bar tab. Don’t be afraid to be specific about what spirits your guests can drink to keep costs down (some weddings will even do spirits for bridal parties only for example).

SOUND LIMIT AND LIVE MUSIC

Check with your venue if there are any restrictions on noise for your reception party. Live music is great but it can be louder. Most venues will have a bar cut-off time which is often when the music gets turned down.

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COVID19 POLICY

It’s a strange time we are living in so make sure you find out what your venue’s policies are around covid19 and if you have the flexibility to reschedule without penalty fees if needed. There is always the possibility of an outbreak, talk about the options and have a backup plan.