How did you sort through the vendors you wanted

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I literally for each vendor had their own table in Excel and I compared them all to each other.

Say VENUE had it's own tab and each Vendor was a column and I had rows and each row was a specific item: what's included and it's cost. Ease of something. Flexibility. Parking. Time available to us. Taxes/Gratuities specified. Etc. ANYTHING that would help us decide and then we would list the information and rate them GOOD, OK, BAD etc and it made it easier to compare each venue.

We repeated this for each vendor with different items. Photographer we compared things like delivery timeline, engagement shoot included and length, hours offered with package, how many shooters, how is it delivered, cost etc.

@VC can you show that to me somehow your excel sheet?

Meet with each vendor individually, ask them questions, and then choose whichever one you liked the most.

I did the same as VC, but I am old school and write things down, lol. It drives FH crazy. Anyway, I basically looked up reviews and only reached out to ones with great reviews. Then I based whether or not we set up a meeting on my interaction with them after I reach out. Finally, we made a decision based on our feelings after meeting. (Price was a factor in the beginning as well).

I made an excel spreadsheet with the companies name, what I was getting for the price and of course the price. I then narrowed it down to 2 to contact again for more detailed information.

Something like this...

Contacted 15-20, narrowed down to those available on my date (with a 6 month engagement and a peak Saturday wedding, my choices were limited) and those clearly out of my budget. Of the remaining, narrowed it to favorite 3 without looking at price. Of the 3 remaining I looked at prices and asked whether the expensive ones were worth the extra cost

Omw, this was such a nightmare for me!

I basically wanted 2 things: the most inclusive venue possible (i.e., tables, chairs, glassware, ceremony area, staff, catering). If the venue didn't offer all those things, they were out (the fewer things I had to organise myself, the better). I decided I could handle decor, dj, photographer, but didn't want to deal with finding caterers, hiring chairs, etc.

Then from there, had a spreadsheet similar to VC (although I wish mine looked as nice as that), and then visited the venues. It took us 8 months to find a venue we liked in our price range. Actually, it was slightly above our price range, so we had to cut 20 guests. Worth it though.

We sat down and picked must haves and if the vendor didn't do at least 3 of the 4 must haves we moved on. If they did then we reached out.

Mine was a castle. I was looking and when I saw it I cried. Absolutely no logic

We started with which venue was decently close to the church (within 30 minutes) then we eliminated places by how many we hold (we have a guest list of 250) then we broke it down by which was our favorite. We eventually ended up between two places and the deciding factors for us were parking (one place had more parking and it was free), and catering (the venue we chose provided all the catering and servers and bartenders). From our point of view, it was cheaper and less stressful if we went with a place that did their own catering and alcogol

I also did a spreadsheet like VC.

I also had price breakdowns on the spreadsheet, especially for venue, so I could easily compare the cost of each venue with different guests amounts (50, 75, 100), so I could get a better idea of the price range while also looking at what was included with each.

The deciding factor for us ended up being the "ala carte" option at one venue which really allowed us to customize our day. We're not paying for things we wouldn't use, and that made the price more reasonable than some of the totally all inclusive places.

After my google search, I emailed everyone I liked just to ask them if my date was available (7 month engagement and a very popular date narrowed it down for me). When I got positive responses, I further researched them and narrowed it down by price, look, and location. I had four at this point. We visited all four, and I made a massive excel spreadsheet to compare them, similar to others on here. I built in formulas so I could change things (like ages and numbers of guests to compare prices. One of the four venues just "felt right" when we were there, and after looking at it on the spreadsheet, we decided on it!

I used a comparison chart I modified from Off Beat Bride and then a made a copy of that and modified it again so I could do an individual one for each venue I looked at. It's helpful to be able to mark off whats included for each venue and the cost. So you can see Venue X includes catering but but not linens, Venue Y includes everything but Catering, Venue Z only charges a small fee to rent but you have to bring everything in ETC. plus it adds all those things up so you can see what the estimate total cost would be. I suggest using their template or do what I did and modify it to suit your needs. plus its free

http://offbeatbride.com/wedding-venue-comparison-chart/