One of the biggest decisions to make in the wedding planning process is the venue. There are a lot of ways to approach this and we wanted to do a little ‘this or that’ with key things to keep in mind.
One or two locations
This mostly applies for those who might have a religious ceremony, but we have also been to weddings with a ceremony in a park or meaningful location and then a reception somewhere else. It’s common enough that people aren’t really bothered either way, but you need to be sure to account for this in your timeline. Also consider how people might get to the second location and whether you want to offer shuttle services to more remote locations. We also suggest hiring wedding day coordinators that come in a pair so they can be in two places at once ;)
Near or far
Setting aside a true destination wedding (with potential flying, overnight stays and multiple days guests might need to plan for), it’s worth considering how far everyone will need to drive, at what time of day and what day of the week (a Friday afternoon is going to face some traffic). Of course you open up a lot of different aesthetics and options by getting further from the city, but even semi-destination weddings will bring up challenges for some guests.
Big or small
This one is pretty obvious, but it’s important to pay attention to the numbers here. You can try to estimate if you think some guests won’t be coming (for example one side of the family lives far away), but you never know really who will make the trip. And if you really love that small venue, then be sure to take another look at the invite list.
Together or separate
Some venues are going to be ‘all inclusive’, like a hotel which has staff, food, tables, linens etc. Depending on the venue, they may price out all those items separately, but for the most part you won’t need to coordinate as many separate vendors. Alternatively you could rent a space and bring in everything yourself by way of hiring vendors for each of those pieces. This is great if you want to customize all the parts yourself, you might be able to lower the overall cost and you can use some unique venues that don’t offer those other services. We recommend having a coordinator either way, but especially in the case where a lot more coordinating needs to happen!
Of course we also have to go back to our best wedding planning advice and remind couples to think about what they ultimately want for the day. This is a big check on the wedding planning to do list and can be stressful, but is exciting when the right thing works out!
