Who should I book first...the church or the reception venue?

I would personally try to do both to make sure the day is available with both of the places . at least call and see if they are available for a date you have in mind. I called my reception venue and told them the date I wanted. The held if for me and told me of someone else wanted it they would let me know and give me 24 hours to put a deposit down on the place .

Basically what Amanda said. You need to make sure both venues are available for that day before you do any booking. Most venues will write you down as someone interested in that date and they'll notify you if another inquirer comes.

LMac is on point.

I think this just depends on what is more important to you! Hopefully it's a seamless process where they are both available for the same date, but otherwise I'd pick the venue that is a less of a negotiable for you! If you are planning on getting married this year I would look at reception venues ASAP!! October is one of the busiest wedding months of the year and reception venues are booking up earlier and earlier!

I'd start with the church if you're set on one, and do it soon. Church calendars fill up fast.

My venue gave us a handful of dates they marked us down as interested for two and we called the church to see if they had those dates available. Fortunately they had both available. But my church was rather strict about calling and setting a date so we had to set up a meeting before we could even consider a date. So I would recommend meeting with the church prior as soon as possible to get that step out of the way!

October is a super busy time in the wedding world. I would assume you have your guest list and budget figured out before you contact venues. I would call both the church and venue and ask what dates they have available and hopefully they are both available. Most places are booking 2 years out for busy months. I booked my venue 22 months out-- Sept 2015 for July 2017 and July is considered non-busy time to get married. Call ASAP!

I made sure to find a venue that fit our needs, and contacted the church during the process to make sure that they had the dates we were looking at available. We were able to reserve both venues on the same day (for the same day in the future). Church calendars do fill up quickly- I was looking about 20 months in advance and two of the weekends we were considering were already booked.

I agree and would go with booking the Church first. I kind of did both at the same time, but I'm getting married in a Catholic Church. And you absolutely have to talk to the priest first before booking a reception venue.