Wedding[Expert]advice{insight}

How to select your venue

Greetings! I am coming to you from an earlier than normal engagment season (which is typically November-January because of the obvious holidays) with brides who have booked our services looking for venues. How and where do you start? Google??? HA! Try it! You’ll be pulling out your hair and your eyes will go dry from looking at all of the selections!

Right now I am going through this process with one of my personal brides, Carmen, and we are looking for her November 2012 wedding. Notice something about the date? I did not add the actual date. While Carmen would ideally like to have the 10th she is very smart and is open to the 9th or the 11th as well. What this does is a few things:

1. Let’s the venue know she is flexible. 2.Could possibly get her some sort of discounted pricing for an “off date” and 3. Gives her a wider selection. Carmen is a dream client and listens to good advice (mine). 🙂

When I first started speaking to Carmen through email and before I even met her- I asked her to be sure to have a pinterest.com. This is a website where brides (and everyone else) can start choosing things off of the internet and find ideas and inspirations for their big day. I can then view it and after speaking with her I can pin point exactly what type of wedding = venue would fit her best. I can also send it to her future florists to make sure they are getting the right inspirations for her colors/themes.

Here is just a taste of Carmen’s pinterest board:

Once we were able to figure out what type of event she would like- we started with looking at venue’s photos and pricing. ***Establish a budget so you do not fall deeply in love with a venue that will eat your entire wedding fund! Carmen’s feel is very romatic and chic. Here is where the finace comes in and likes the more edgy- modern places. Carmen is a very Ballroom at Church Street or Lake Nona CC while Fiance is a Mezz or Heaven Event Center type. Check your options!

What are you looking at when you go to a venue and they give you a pricing list? Here is a place to start:

You will find that some venues like: the Hisotry Center, the Orlando Museum of Art, the Winter Park Farmer’s market or The Abbey all let you bring in your own caterer (off a pre-approved list of course).

While others like: The Grand Bohemian Hotel, Citrus Club, Isleworth Country Club, Buena Vista Palace, The Hilton Orlando handle all catering in house..

You still need to compare what the facility fees are. Do they include ceremony, cocktail and reception? Does it include tables? Chairs? Linens?

What is the parking like for your guests? Do your guests have to pay for self parking/valet? Can you pick up the tab? Is it an open parking lot? Is parking included?

Does the venue require a minimum no matter how many guests you actually have? Or is the minimum per person?

These are just a few of the questions we know to ask. Once you establish an idea of what you want your wedding to be like (even if you don’t- we can help with that!) and your budget needs, save yourself the stress and let us guide you.