How I chose my wedding venue

How I chose my wedding venue

I spend a lot of time looking up various wedding tips online and thought it would be good for me to share any useful advice I have gained along the way with others, in the hope that it helps someone who is as clueless as when I started. Getting the venue sorted is probably the most important aspect of the wedding, as it’s not worth doing everything else until you have that date and place confirmed.

It’s been a long slog, I’m not going to lie. Scott proposed in May last year and whilst I’ve always had an idea of what I’ve wanted for my wedding, turning thoughts into reality is quite a challenge. Initially I wanted a wedding that was a) not going to cost a lot, b) was not like everyone else’s and c) completely my own vision. But that’s what everyone wants, right?

The original vision

I essentially wanted an outdoor wedding, and if I’d lived in the US, this probably would have been quite easy to plan. With a lack of relatives with the space we would need and open land quite difficult to hire, it wasn’t the walk in the (literal) park I thought it would be. I looked at several options, with some coming really close to being the one, however – the work involved was going to be insane. I’ve worked in events for the best part of a decade, yet the thought of actually having to do all the work was starting to scare me. Not only do I have a full time job but I also work crazy hours freelancing, so I barely have time for things I enjoy (like blogging), let alone plan a wedding of epic proportions. Whilst it would have been nice for it to come together, we thought it best to bide our time and see what happened.

We also temporarily considered getting married abroad – but with elderly relatives and a number of other weddings already 

What we went for

Photo Credit: Pure Creations Photography 

Thanks to a message from a friend (shoutout to Gwawr, who planned her own wedding in around 4 months!), our dream wedding venue was brought to us – somewhere we see every day and is literally a 5-minute walk from our flat! I’d automatically dismissed hotel weddings, but our chosen venue is now going to be offering outdoor ceremonies which was what sealed it for us. It’s actually quite difficult to find somewhere that does an outdoor wedding and the backdrop will be so beautiful, I’m super excited.

The price was really reasonable and I know people who got married there and said that it was amazing, the staff have been great to us so far and that’s definitely a sign of things to come. I know I can let them take care of all the little details and I just get to focus on the fun stuff.

Tips on choosing your wedding venue

  • Think about what you want and where you see yourself getting married in your dream scenario. Can you make it happen in real life? If you can – great, if you can’t – how close can you get to what you want?
  • If you can’t have what you want – are there elements you can take that will give you your dream wedding? For us, it was being outdoors.
  • Having a realistic budget is also important – what can the venue offer for that price. If they seem to be charging over the odds for things you know you could save money on, it might be worth looking elsewhere.
  • Does it have any meaning for the two of you? For us, where we’ve chosen actually means more to us than we thought. It’s in the place we had our first home and looks over where we hope to have our second (and forever).
  • Don’t feel like you have to rush into it. It took us 11 months after getting engaged to decide on what we wanted. Yes it was frustrating at times but we got there in the end. There’s no rush. 

 

Are you married or getting married? How did you choose your venue? I’d love to hear what helped you make the decision!

Siân

xx

 

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