How to choose your wedding venue
Budget, guest count, what the fee actually includes, and whether you are the only wedding there that day. The questions to ask before you fall in love with a place.
The venue is the first thing to settle after the date, and the thing couples spend the longest on. It is also where the money quietly goes: a place can look perfect and still leave the caterer, the parking, the linens and the dance floor outside the rental fee.
Here is the order we would work in.
Draft a budget before you visit anything
By the tenth or fifteenth place, every option sounds good and every price sounds reasonable. Decide beforehand what you can spend, leave a margin for the unforeseen, and work out for each venue what the fee actually covers, because whatever it does not cover, you will be sourcing yourself.
Know your guest count
A room that is too large leaves people rattling around it; one that is too small leaves nowhere to dance. Ask the capacity of every place you look at, and be specific about how you intend to use it, a seated dinner and a standing party are different numbers in the same room.
Ask whether a virtual tour is possible. It is a good way to picture a place early, though it is not a substitute for standing in it.
Decide what you want before you see what exists
Plenty of wedding photographs look like paradise, and being popular is not a reason to copy one. Work out what the two of you actually want, and what you do not want at all, before the options start deciding for you.
Ask exactly what is included
Be precise about what "all inclusive" means at each place, and where it does not stretch, ask for approved vendors rather than starting from nothing. The list worth checking: rentals, decor, flowers, audio and lighting, photography and video, open bar, catering, music, hair and make-up, rooms to get ready in, service staff, parking, security, time and noise restrictions, power, acoustics, bathrooms, somewhere for children, access by car, and a plan for bad weather.
Privacy, and availability
Are you the only event there that day? In hotels, venues sit close together, sound carries, and common areas let curious strangers wander past. If privacy matters, visit when the place is busy and see for yourself.
On dates: choose several you could live with rather than one. Venues book up, and a single fixed date is how couples lose the place they loved.
Natural setting, or blank canvas?
A beach brings its own light and its own backdrop, and needs very little added to it. A ballroom is a blank canvas where everything has to be created, which is freedom, and it is also a decorating budget. Neither is better; they are different jobs.