What do I ask wedding venues??

How much?

How many people can you hold?

Do I have to use your vendors (catering, bar, DJ, etc.)?

Check out the parking situation too.

Welcome to WW!

Welcome to WW, Adriana! Ask about everything -- what specific things are included in the price (chairs, tables, linens), when can you get in to decorate, when do you need to be out, who takes out the trash, can you pin things on the wall, can you have open flames if you want to use candles, are there fees for bartenders, cake cutting, etc.

Someone had a SUPER long, all inclusive lists of questions a while back, hopefully someone can find it and post it here to help you.

I hope you'll stick around and update that avatar (the rings) to ANY unique picture from Google we can remember you by. This post tells you how and more: https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/welcome-to-the-weddingwire-forums-please-read-if-you-are-new/b433c40c1a62b96a.html

If you look on Pinterest, there is actually a list on there of what questions to ask your venue, along with other vendors, as well!

Found Shannon's list, though more are out there. This is REALLY detailed and some questions may not be necessary for you, and many may be answered on vendor websites, so you can kinda highlight what you still want/need to ask vs what you already have answers for. Hope it helps!

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/venue-catering-questions/5ed79d1ff4e92456.html

Double post.

Well, it really depends on the type of venue you think you are going to be interested in. Have you started looking at venues, just to look? That's what I did. I started by talking to FI about what we wanted, and then looking for venues like that in the areas we're considering getting married in. Once I compiled a list, we looked at the venues' photos together, and threw out all but our top ten or fifteen. THEN we started reading up on them. We found that, in our case, most also provided the catering.

This meant that we asked not only about venue (do they provide tables and chairs, how many hours are each block, etc.) but also about catering (do you require your catering, is there a cake-cutting fee, do you provide linens and china as well, etc.)

If you tell us what kind of venue you're going for, we will be able to give you more detailed questions that you may want to consider asking.

This is a great help! I'll be using this advice too!

Thanks Reenski! I was about to go pull that out. A lot of people thought it was too many questions. I didn't ask every question to every venue when I did my visits and many are answered in the packets they give you. I can be a little OCD with planning stuff.

Thanks girls! This was very helpful! Im sure I will be back on here as I continue the planning!

Oh my goodness, as a florist (and more especially for you if you are DIYing things), is, will they be booking a wedding before your wedding? If they say no, GET IT IN WRITING!!!! If there is a wedding prior to yours, get your start time in writing.

Craziness and sweaty DIY guests result if they go back on their verbal word, or, the florist has to basically lean on the venue to get the prior wedding guests out so that the venue can flip the tables and put clean linens on, so the florist can work.

If you have friends DIYing for you, it is REALLY tough if you only have an hour (sometimes even two hours) to set up. For instance, you may think submerged flowers in cylinders with floating candles are easy...BUT...they are VERY time consuming to set up and take much longer than you think.

I'm always happy for my brides that are doing a lot of great DIY touches is they have the place for all day or all weekend, which is what a lot of our rural venues do to allow the DIY.

Oh - and parking. Downtown venues are great, but the added expenses of parking and/or bridge tolls does not make for happy guests (or vendors that have to set up there - many vendors will take access/lack of access into consideration when pricing for you, as it takes much more labor if it is hard or far away to park, or to get equipment in).

Also - do you have to use their caterer, or list, or can you choose your own?