Questions to ask Venues

Questions are going to vary depending on your needs. For our wedding, we got married four hours from where we lived at the time and about two to two and half from where most of our guests lived so it was really important to us to pick a place that was either a hotel with accommodations on site or that could help with recommending the best hotels in the area. The place we picked was a hotel. One question looking back we should've asked was about handicap accessibility. My husband's cousin is in a wheelchair and neither one of us thought to ask about a handicap accessible room for him. I felt awful because there were none available when it came time for him to book. We offered to find out if another hotel in the area had a handicap room available, but he wanted to stay on site so he ended up just booking another room. So if you have anyone handicap make sure you pick a venue/hotel that can accommodate that individual.

I also wanted a place where my bridal party and I could get ready so each venue I asked if they had a bridal suite or space. The one I picked had a beautiful space with plenty of room.

Food options were another thing we asked about. Each venue standard packages which offered plated meals. We wanted to know if those could be customized and if plated was the only option. The venue we booked created a completely custom package for us which included a mix of buffet and stations. It turned out to be cheaper than their plated meal packages.

Another thing we asked if is they required us to use specific vendors or if they had a list of recommended vendors. Because we weren't in the area and didn't know anyone else that got married in that area we had to rely heavily on reviews and recommendations. They had a list that was categorized with different vendors that they highly recommended.

We also wanted a place that we could have the ceremony and reception at so we wanted to make sure they could accommodate that and what the fee was. I didn't want the room to have to be flipped so that was also something I checked with them about when it came to having the ceremony and reception at the same place. The venue we selected had a separate area for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and the reception so we didn't have to worry about any room flips. There were some venues that if we had to be inside due to weather where the rooms would've had to have been flipped.

If there's a food and beverage minimum that is required? We actually came in under it after we received all of our RSVP's and our venue was very helpful in guiding us through this. We ultimately decided to add a late night snack option as that worked out the best without putting us overbudget.

Those are all of the questions I can think of at the moment.

View Quoted Comment This is a great start! Thank you so much for your detailed response! All great things to consider

View Quoted Comment

You're welcome! Happy planning

You could ask about max capacity, cancellation or postponement policies, deposit information, payment schedule (accepted forms of payment and when final payments are due), hours you'll have access to the venue, what types of decor are permitted and/or not permitted, any extra fees or hidden fees (service fees, cake serving fee per guest, minimum number of guests you must pay for, etc), whether they require you to use their preferred vendors or not, whether you can host a rehearsal at the venue the day before, what specifically is all included for the price, backup plans for weather (if either your ceremony or reception would be held outside at that venue), whether your wedding would be the only one hosted on site that day, and whether they have a bridal suite for you to use for getting ready.

View Quoted Comment Perfect!! Thank you!!