Help!! No venue places here have our date open!!

Have you lconsidered or looked into a Sunday or midweek wedding? Most venues are booked into 2023 due to Covid postponements.

View Quoted Comment Our entire wedding guest and wedding party have to fly in so we thought that a Friday or Sunday wedding would be asking too much. We thought about doing the ceremony during the rehearsal dinner then just have the reception the next day. We vetoed that idea too because the rehearsal dinner became less intimate and felt more of a show.


In my side of the family, the tradition is any guest who has to fly or travel in to town for the wedding is invited to the rehearsal dinner. My fiancé’s side of the family traditionally only invites the immediate family and wedding party.
2023 is filling up fast, you’re right about that and the reason why!! If we have to wait till 2023 then we would elope in 2022 but celebrate/announce a wedding in 2023. (There aren’t many 17th’s that land on a Saturday in 2023…June 17th is the only option.)
Think waiting till 2023 is our best option?

Have you looked at the parks department website for venue rentals? Also eventective.com and peerspace.com

Does it have to be 9/17/22? That's the issue with picking a date before finding the venue. Typically, the venue's availability will inform the date. If you must have that date, then you need to get creative with venues such as the suggestestions Michelle gave.

Have you looked into private rooms in restaurants? I’m not sure what area you’re in, but where I live there are several restaurants that can accommodate parties of 100+ people.

Look into local parks but even those I'm finding are booked or have increased prices and fees for weddings to profit off of covid brides. I am eloping locally and have yet to find the outdoor location available that isn't a ridiculous amount for just the ceremony. We are then planning on having a dinner with grandparents, parents and siblings only to celebrate. Look at restaurants and community buildings. Some have great outdoor landscapes. I would also check golf courses. Sometimes they rent out the club houses.

Is there a reason it has to be 9/17/22? If you haven't booked anything yet I would try to be flexible with your date.

I'm assuming 17 is a sentimental number to you (I have sentimental numbers as well). Do you have any others? I was doing the same thing as you and had picked out dates with specific days of the month, but ended up going with a completely different day of the month when I saw what my venue had available for the months we were looking at. I absolutely love our date and ended up finding so much significance in it!

Call back every other day and ask for cancelations for these venues while also looking for a back up venue. You never know if something will open up last minute!

Are there any park pavilions or spaces where you could rent out the place for your day? That way you'll get a rustic feel and can still gather for your day. I found a park that had a building where you can hold wedding ceremonies and receptions. Good luck, keep us posted!!

I think you should decide what is most important to you! If you desperately want a particular date as well as a traditional wedding, and having it on a Saturday then I think you’re better off postponing for a year. I know it’s frustrating but in the grand scheme a year isn’t that long and it gives you time to save a bit more! If it’s more important to you to do it sooner and you’re happy to compromise on the date or day of the week or type of wedding then I think you can have a really lovely wedding next year. It’s mainly about what your priorities are and what is most important to you.

Our wedding is 9/8/22, 50 guests or less, ceremony and reception at Concord's Colonial Inn. It's a Thursday, had to have a "mid week" wedding to get almost any date in 2022. Try mid week, and be open and flexible to the date. As soon as you lock in the venue, I highly recommend looking for vendors, we are getting a lot of kickback on officiant, florist and cake.

If you want an outdoor ceremony, have you checked all the parks in your area? Are there any forest preserves or botanical gardens nearby? Those might not fill up as quickly, especially that late in the year. Then as others said, I would look at restaurants as opposed to banquet halls. Does it absolutely have to be that particular weekend? Were any of the places you looked at open for the weekend before or after? I'm just seeking out every option you may have.

Are you dead set on that date? There may be more availability if you search for venues with a few dates in mind, as opposed to that one specifically. COVID kind of pushed everything back and people started booking 2022 dates a while ago.

I don't understand. How can you have a date without a venue? You pick the venue, then that dictates the date. Are you saying you had one chosen but you didn't put money down in time and they booked your date? I think you need to pick a different venue and see what dates they have available. If you let your date dictate your venue, you'll either pay too much or have to settle for a place you don't love.

Look at any local places like my venue is the elk's lodge its cheap cheap and and beautiful all-in-one look for places like that I privately owned willing to work with you so long and so forth

View Quoted Comment We picked that day because it works with our anniversary. I guess there are other numbers in the date lol

View Quoted Comment The elks lodge is a really good idea!!! I hosted a few fundraisers there in college! Thanks!!

View Quoted Comment And they're so kind to work with and Best of luck and congratulations

View Quoted Comment I totally understand that one. We did it backwards in the order of picking. We had enough saved before we started looking for a venue but we under estimated the prices for a ceremony and a reception venue.


I just kept having issues with the red tape in the contracts for every place we looked at. By the time we (I) finally made a decision, based on prices and limited red tape, it was booked.