Wedding Venue

All of the above but my biggest factor was wanting to get married in a hotel where all the events were in the same place and the guests could stay right there with us!

I looked at other locations but ultimately that was my biggest factor.

For us it was if they allow outside food were diying our wedding food and it had to be outside so were doing a park wedding. it will be 40 bucks for the pavilion then 65 for the liability insurance

My biggest factor was being able to go there for anniversaries and such- so a hotel or public location vs. a made-for-events place.
There was one location I loved but I just couldn’t get my guest list small enough. That worked out, though, because then FH encouraged me to look in to my current venue- a place I knew I loved but assumed would be too expensive.

I think the amenities included were a huge factor for us. Our venue included a kitchen and all the dishes included. Coffee machines, tables, chairs, getting ready areas for the girls and guys and sooo much space to take photos or options on where stuff went. We fell in love with an outdoor only venue but 2 things made us say no number 1) there were sooo many added fees to everything that it made it quite a bit more expensive

2) We live in Washington State and a fall outdoor only wedding would’ve been sooo horrible for our friends and family!

All of the above, but I eventually went with someone who I felt comfortable working with. There was another vendor, but I felt like it was more corporate and I wanted something more family-friendly who I know will be there if I have any questions. They were also more accommodating who were willing to let me pick and choose what I wanted to include in our package, while the other vendor didn't let me. Bonus, the option I went with was cheaper too!

View Quoted Comment

In your situation specifically, did you find out about the added fees at the time of inquiry or was it something where you began planning to have your wedding there and then more things came to light?

View Quoted Comment It was when we went to tour and we’re going over the contract but their venue rental price on their website was reasonable but it was without all the extra fees like probably $2,000 extra in random fees. The venue we picked ended up being perfect!

Definitely budget, availability, and overall look. We only went to two venues, ours and another one. We went to ours first, loved it, the budget was great, and we loved the look. The second we went to we also loved, but it was more complicated than the first, more expensive, and it was too fancy for us. So we went with the first

Our biggest "must have" was the location. We are getting married in Colorado so we wanted a venue that had the "Colorado feel" with the mountains, trees, and outdoorsy appeal. It was the hardest part of our planning process because 95% of mountain wedding venues in Colorado cost all four limbs. Luckily, we found the perfect one that was well within our budget and is everything we've ever dreamed of.

We had to say "no" to our original favors because they had an indoor reception limit of 85 (with tables having to be moved in order to dance) and we had 80 guests without accounting or plus ones. On top of that, it was a castle which gave tours during cocktail hour and we realized how hectic it would be having 80+ guests trying to make it around the castle whose spiraling staircase could only fit 1 person width wise.

No worries though because the venue we picked was 1000x more incredible than the castle!

I had several factors in choosing my venues and location.

1. Ease of planning. I initially thought I'd do a destination wedding at Disney World, but seeing that I'm doing a Catholic wedding and I live all the way near SF, the sheer amount of planning and paperwork needed to pull it off was just overwhelming. So I opted to do a local wedding in SF.

2. I still wanted a vacation-esque feeling though, so I purposely chose a church, restaurant, and hotels all within walking distance near Union Square. Most guests will have to travel from out of state.

3. I'm a foodie, so choosing a great restaurant that would hold 200+ guests was the #1 priority. I also didn't really want to deal with venue rentals, so a restaurant that could handle all of those things for me was important. Turns out, there aren't too many of those. My first choice was too small. My second choice was too expensive. Our third choice, in the end, worked out perfectly for us.

Our biggest thing was finding a venue that was easy. We knew we would likely be having the ceremony and reception in the same space (February wedding do outdoors wasn’t an option). I needed to love the indoor setup and wanted them to have people to flip the space.

we actually went with my second choice venue. My fiancé didn’t like my favorite because it didn’t have a grooms room for him to get ready in.

Our important factor was location. I've known for a while that I wanted to have my wedding on a lake near my hometown that my family grew up boating on. So as soon as we got engaged we knew exactly which venue we wanted and booked it without even looking elsewhere. Luckily for us it was incredibly affordable and while it would be nice if it could hold like 15 more people it's close enough that we should be able to cut our guest list down a little to fit.

Definitely budget, then location, and if it felt right. There were gorgeous venues that were more pricey and the cheaper ones were like an hour away. We didn’t want guests to drive too far. We opted for a venue all inclusive about 20-30 minutes away, and when we visited in person it just felt right.

We fell in love with the look and feel of our venue. Our requirement was a wine cave for our reception. It had the best cave in Napa we saw, and it had restrooms inside the cave (important because my dad is partially disabled), and it was the only venue with a gorgeous hotel which was icing on our wedding cake.

I was looking moreso for budget and food. There's very specific cultural/ethnic food I wanted and so I could only go to do many places. We actually didn't even end up choosing the cheapest place aha. So the other factor was the ambience.

We weren't super picky about venue or the specs really. We picked a venue because it was available on the same day as the pastor, music director we wanted, one of the churches we looked at, and my MOH (lives overseas) could be there. My thought was that we can make any venue work and look nice the few we looked at were all relatively similar in price) - but it was most important to us to have those other people available.

Honestly it was the venue, the ora, the moodiness of the ballroom, the outside ceremony spaces windy walkway covered in flowers. I had to have a beautiful venue more than anything.

The biggest factor for me in the beginning was price. When we found a venue that I thought I loved, I realized that it's a pretty dead city and a lot of our guests have families, kids. We ended up changing venues and ended up booking with my dream venue from way back when! It's in a great, super active and family oriented city and it's only 30 mins away from Disneyland!

Luckily, my venue holds up way more than we could ever imagine inviting. We still have a budget to maintain which, without a doubt, I'm sure we've already gone over so now we're on super saving mode lol.

Budget has made the biggest factor. We've had to scrub our guest list. Makes me sad we can't invite more friends (we both have huge families) but regardless we're going to have a lot of fun and the friends who are genuinely most important to us will be there and that's what matters!

Thankfully our guest list isn't a crazy high number (hovering around 180ish which is typical around here) so we haven't run into issues with the cap.

There was one venue we both loved (it was a huge banquet hall at the bottom of a ski hill so in March it would be all snowy and sooo pretty) that we had to turn down because they wouldn't be open on our wedding day and we didn't want to change our date!

For us it was about location and being able to do everything in one place. We had a DW and wanted our friends and family to come and enjoy the weekend in a beautiful location.