CHOOSING YOUR WEDDING VENUE
Choosing your wedding venue is one of the biggest decisions you will make regarding your special day. It is also likely to be one of your most expensive decisions, as most couples spend about 50% of their entire wedding budget on venue, food, and beverage. Because we realize how important this piece of your wedding puzzle is, we wanted to share with you a few tips and tricks for picking the perfect venue, and give you a few sneak peeks of some of our dazzling locales for this year’s FFP couples!
TIPS & TRICKS
If you’ve ever experienced shopping for a bridal gown with a friend and her bridal party (or maybe you’ve already shopped for yours), you know how too many opinions aren’t always a good thing. Too many cooks in the kitchen can completely overwhelm the bride and she often ends up leaving either in tears (not the happy kind) or with a gown she doesn’t love. The same rules should apply when you search for your venue. You, your fiancé, maybe mom and dad, and a close friend (and, of course, your planner) is all that’s really needed to help find the place. If mom and dad are paying for your wedding, their opinion might matter a little more to you, but at the end of the day, you have to step back and ask yourself, “Can I imagine getting married here?”
RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!
It’s not very often that we get a couple that don’t understand the necessity of a rain plan, but every once in a while we get a bride who is insistent on having her wedding outdoors at the family farm without any cover. This is when we bring out the big guns and explain that while the Farmer’s Almanac didn’t predict rain for July 17th and it hasn’t rained in July since 1992, a rain plan is a must, must, must. When searching for your venue, keep this in mind: if it does rain and you have no back up plan, all of the hard work, time and money you’ve put into your event will be down the drain, literally. We advise our couple to love the Plan B as much as, or nearly as much as, Plan A. That way, if the skies do open up on the day of, there will be dry eyes form the bridge and groom (even if everything else is not, in fact, dry.)
WHAT’S INCLUDED?
One of the most exciting parts about choosing your venue is the moment you realize you’ve stepped into the place you’re going to marry the love of your life. You start to envision where you’ll have flowers, décor, and personal touches. It truly is a magical moment. That being said, for some it can also be very mindboggling, which is where we come in! If you decide to bring us in after you’ve gotten the venue, however, remember these few things. A raw space (think: old warehouse or exposed-beam barn) is going to include different things than a country club might. Be sure to read the contract start to finish before signing to make sure you know exactly what you’re paying for an what you’ll need help with along the way!
