Planner or Venue first?

Planner! If you want one of course. I did my venue first and as I've been speaking with planners they wondered why I didn't reach out to them before booking the venue lol.

We did venue first, and then chose our planner from the venue’s preferred vendor list.

I will to first know what kind of vision that your thinking of like romantic theme elegance etc. With floating candles. But I would say venue first because if you dont grab the one you want it can and will slip through your fingers just to have it locked in. Then create you theme around your theme. Then chosing your color scheme it's most most importants its can be a pleather of choice not enough. Because that matter for your bridesmaids etc and your dress

I did venue first and then ended up choosing someone off their suggested vendor list

Congratulations on your engagement! October is a popular wedding month. You don't have a wedding unless you have a date. Often this is dictated by the availability of the venue. Once you land this and put a soft hold (pre-contracts), you can find a full wedding planner who is available on this date. He/she is secondary in my opinion and does not need to be at your venue tours.

In preps for venue searches, it's great you know your overall vision. Discuss a general guest list range and budget with your partner. The larger the guestlist, the more costly. Then find ceremony and reception venues that can accomodate this capacity. Your planner doesn't need to tour this as long as you understand the general flow of ceremony to cocktail to reception, and bathroom access points among other imp. details. Your planner can review contracts and negotiate fine details. Best of luck.

I d do venue first, the venue actually determined what the date would be for us. Which ever you choose to do first you should start soon-ish, with covid it might be tricky to get the date you want. There have been a lot of postponements and many venues were pretty booked when we went looking. Happy planning and have fun with it!

Venue first. No venue, no date, no wedding. The "deals" your planner can get you are highly exaggerated

View Quoted Comment I’ve heard of this! Did they tell you why they’d prefer to be part of venue hunting?

View Quoted Comment For budget management!

I did the venue first. We hired a day-of planner only though.

I did venue first, then went with a planner who was on the preferred vendor list! I would say maybe get a planner first if you’re planning a destination wedding, but if you can visit the venues yourself then get a venue first!

Short answer: venue


Long answer: before you plan anything, sit down with fiancé and decide what your vision and priorities are. Where do you want to focus your money and attention? Many couples go for the guest experience (great food, free drinks, great dj) and photos for your memories. Cut out entirely anything you don’t care about. Then make your guest list. Decide who are your absolute must have people to attend. If you close your eyes and don’t picture someone in attendance, they don’t enhance the day for you by being there. Don’t invite anyone out of obligation to please others. Send announcements after the wedding to everyone else. Decide how much you are willing and able to spend without asking for help because money comes with strings. Once someone else contributes a dime, they get final say in decisions that you may not agree with. When you have all of that figured out, then you can start looking for a venue.

When you say a planner, are you looking for someone to find and book all your vendors and you show up as a guest? Or do you want someone to come in at the last month and tie up all the loose ends and make sure the wedding day runs smoothly behind the scenes? How much of a concern is price to you? Keep in mind that a full planner doesn’t always save you money and if you have a specific vision, you might be better off picking out a blank slate venue along with your own vendors and hiring a month of coordinator.

I genuinely wish I had picked my planner first. It would have made picking a venue so much easier especially for contract negotiation and helping to validate my concerns. But as is I picked my venue and date. I know everyone says this but really do what feels right for you.

Some venues will require you to have a coordinator, others won’t. Some will make you chose one from their required list and other will have a preferred list. I would recommend finding a venue or 2 that you really want, seeing if they require a coordinator and then going from there. I contracted my venue before my coordinator.

This is my 2nd comment I don't know if I mentioned this. We did this first we did date color schemes and then started hunting venues. And once we found the perfect space we hit the floor running. Now since then of last year we had to change our date because of covid battles and others financial issues. Now that it's now in the past now we have October date which gaves more times to pay things but trust me once that you go into contract some vendors are leant and flexibility if you had to move your date if they have it available if they start get alot more of booking. It maybe to late. Especially when you start ordering liens and etc. We change alot of thing but sometimes the extra charge hit our budget alot. So know your date and color scheme first

Which you pick first depends a lot on what your biggest priorities are. If the venue in question is one you have your heart set on, then pick that first. If you want a specific planner, pick that first. For us, our biggest priority was to make sure we could book our church and our favorite priest in October, so that was where we started.

I’d say Venue first. It’s best to lock down a venue than wait around for your planner. Then you can work around your budget a little more.

Venue first. I selected a planner that has coordinated events at that venue before. Looked up pictures of the venue on instagram and checked to see other vendors tagged in the photos I thought looked great. That's how I found my planner. I love her.

I hired our planner first after getting frustrated with trying to get in touch with venues. Places are crazy busy right now with 2022 weddings. Our planner has been in the business 20+ years so she already had contacts at all the venues we were considering and made booking tours and such SOO much smoother. She’s helped us prioritize what areas are important for budget and booking. She’s also been very helpful in directing us towards vendors that would be in our price range and provide us with the type of service we’re looking for (photographers that do documentary style, DJs that are fun but professional, etc.) without us having to waste a lot of time researching and vetting. I wouldn’t expect any deals or discounts from having a planner, they’re more there to help make sure you stay in budget and on track, get the look you want and things go smoothly.

We are planning everything ourselves. We started looking at venues shortly after setting a date. But, I'd look for a venue first.