Committing to a venue is often the first and one of (if not THE) most important wedding-related decisions you will make. While the volume of options and varying offerings among each venue can feel daunting while you search, my hope is that this post will leave you with clarity and direction moving forward!
Start by creating a rough guestlist.
I recommend having a conversation with your partner and getting a rough guest list in place prior to starting your venue search to give you an idea of how many people your venue will need to be able to accommodate. If you find that you and your partner's guest lists combined add up to 250 people, again, this will greatly narrow down your options. Your guest count will trickle into and impact each of the following points (especially your overall budget!).
Outline your priorities and budget before you begin your search.
Start by determining an overall wedding budget and then dive into the specifics of what percentages you would like to allocate to each category (again, understanding that your guest count will drastically impact your catering, dessert and bar spend ). For your venue specifically, consider whether you prefer a space that is more of a "blank canvas" where you are responsible for hiring all of your own vendors and perhaps have more flexibility to DIY certain elements, or whether your venue would ideally be more of a "one stop shop" and include all food and beverage service. Your venue, catering, and bar service are going to be three of your highest spend categories so if you are hoping for a venue that is more inclusive, understand that it will be priced accordingly.
Consider whether there are any specific locations that have special meaning in your relationship or make the most sense for your plans.
It may be a top priority for your wedding ceremony to take place at your church; if this is the case, your scope of options for a reception venue greatly decreases as you will want to keep the two within as close of a radius to one another as possible (I suggest no more than a 20 minute drive from one another if possible, and the closer the better!). Perhaps there is a certain beach town an hour or two away where you had your first date and frequently revisit together. In contrast, you may also find that since both families live close to one another, it makes the most logistical sense to host your wedding within a certain radius so that travel/accommodations are as straightforward as possible for your loved ones. The goal here is to start by ideally narrowing down your venue search to a smaller scope of options.
Consider the day of the week and season that you prefer.
I recommend going in with a few ideal dates in mind and then see which/if any of these options the venues that have peaked your eye have available. Alternatively, if you have your heart set on one specific venue, you can choose your season and date based around that venue's availability as well - there is no right or wrong order!
Take advantage of social media and the weight of client reviews!
Word of mouth referrals from friends and family are a great way to source your venue (and wedding vendors in general!), however when taking all of the points above into consideration, understand that the stars may not always align in a way where it just so happens to be that what worked well for your cousin's intimate wedding five minutes down the road from their house also works well for your wedding years later to which you are inviting 230 people. Reading business' reviews and checking out their social media profiles are great ways to get a feel for their aesthetic and more importantly, the overall client experiences that they promote.
Featured venues: Venue 3 Two and Waldenwoods Resort & Conference Center
Photos by Sidney Bischer Photography and Stephen Norregaard
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