Questions you wished you asked your venue prior

How long you have the venue for, how many times you can visit during planning, if they only allow certain vendors, alcohol policy, rehearsal policy, various policies regarding what you can use for wedding exits (sparklers, rice, confetti) or for your flower girls (real vs. fake petals). Just to name a few lol

View Quoted Comment I totally didn’t think of asking about wedding exits! Thank you! Our venue is just for the reception, the ceremony will be at a church. Thank you for the ideas!’

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No problem!!

If they provide the linens (napkins, tablecloths) ask if they steam them before the wedding. I never thought to ask this and I didn't realize until we got our pictures back that the table cloths weren't steamed. They also weren't floor length table cloths, which was also something I never thought to ask about.

View Quoted Comment Oh good idea. I would’ve never thought to ask that

I always came up with more questions after each visit aha. It's just things you don't always think of even if you had a list of questions prepared already. I asked stuff about parking such as if I can have a designated spot just for me so that I don't need to go looking for it and have the best spot

If people can leave their cars overnight if they end up needing to instead of driving after.

View Quoted Comment Great idea! Didn’t even think about that

Are there restrooms that the guests can use and what do they look like? How many? Do you allow live bands? Or does it have to be the DJ?

I always asked about parking, nearest bathrooms, how long we had the space for. When vendors can start set up, food? do they have food, do we provide food? do the have preferred vendors. I also asked about room blocks and nearest hotels to the venue. I also asked about drinks (we are having an open bar). Cancellation policies, back up ceremony spaces. How they typically set up ceremony spaces and receptions spaces.

Ask about lighting in the reception room! Ask if they have custom lights already or if lighting needs to be provided by the DJ. I didn't ask this as our venue was still being built but also nobody told us... We knew there were chandeliers but they have a whole lighting system already. We paid our DJ for uplights ($300) and we didn't even need to since the lights at the venue can change color. Because of this now we have to ask the venue to just keep them a neutral warm light so the uplighting shines through and we could've saved $300. Ask what all the ceremony fees include! We are also paying a ceremony fee that doesn't include chairs.. no the chairs are a separate cost cuz the chairs they have aren't for outdoors so they rent them for outdoor ceremonies. It's crap. So yeah, make sure there's no surprises basically.

View Quoted Comment Good idea on lighting, didn’t think about that! And luckily we are doing our ceremony at a church, so we only need the venue for the reception

My venue doesn't allow silk flower petals for the flower girl, no glitter(who wants to clean that up anyway), no taper candles, no confetti. All alcohol has to be purchased through them but non-alcoholic stuff we can bring in. Ask about outside catering, and cake. Check out the restrooms, where the caterers will setup, where the DJ can set up. And lighting, always check out the lighting.