Wedspiration

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10 Tips To Help You Find And Choose A Wedding Venue

wedding venue

Engaged or have an inkling you might be heading down that path soon? Huzzah! Congrats. You’re seriously about to experience one of the best days of your life.

Weddings are awesome. At what other time do you get to gather all of your nearest and dearest, put on a massive party, and dance the night away? And it’s all in honour of the fact that you’ve partnered up with the most amazing person you know. It’s got to be the biggest win-win ever.

But. And we hate to have to mention a but.

Finding the place that all these celebrations are going to go down at can be seriously tricky. Trust us, we’ve been there. Hence why WedShed exists.

We decided to put together some tried-and-tested tips to help you find and choose your ideal wedding venue.

Photography by The Evoke Company, featuring WedShed venue Seacliff House Gerringong.

1. Set a tentative budget

Sorry to begin with a boring one but it has to be said. Your budget will probably shape the style of venue you’re working with. We use the word ‘tentative’ because as ladies who have gone down the wedding planning path before, we realise that despite all good intentions, wedding budgets have a tendency to stretch. Budget blow-out is apparently a contagious condition that affects 98% of couples, us included.

Nonetheless, it’s worth deciding what you’re happy to spend on a venue and trying to stick to it. When choosing a venue, keep in mind what’s included – do you still need to hire in tables and chairs? Extra portaloos? Don’t get caught out with surprise costs – ask the venue owner or manager exactly what additional items need to be brought to the venue to get a fully informed idea of the actual hire price.

2. Try to define where you want to get married

Keen to do a destination wedding? We don’t blame you. Plenty of couples are heading away for their nuptials and really giving the wedding thing a good nudge over a few days.

By narrowing down the regions that you’d be happy to get married at, you make the venue search much easier on yourself. Consider things like availability of accommodation, how far your guests will be willing to travel and how much it will cost them. Check on the region’s tourism website for major events that might mean there’s a shortage of beds for visitors and try avoid those dates.

Just remember, the more remote you are, the smaller the pool of local wedding vendors (e.g. celebrants, bands, florists, etc.) to choose from. That said, the majority of our amazing wedding vendors will happily travel to you, so no biggie.

3. Use Google creatively

A tip we use to dig up hard-to-find wedding venues is to enter a region name plus the word ‘wedding’ into Google (e.g. ‘Byron Bay + wedding’). Then, click on Google images and scroll through previous weddings that have taken place in the region. Often this will lead you to local wedding photographer’s blogs featuring celebrations held at exciting spaces you may never have found by doing a standard Google search.

4. Get pinning

Know exactly how you want your big day to look and have hundreds of pre-planned, amazing ideas ready to implement? Neither did we.

Get onto Pinterest, make yourself a ‘Wedding Planning’ board (set it to private if you’d prefer), and start searching for inspiration. Chances are you’ll stumble upon some cool venues along the way and help to define the type of venue you want. If you find yourself pinning hundreds of pictures of ocean-view ceremonies or barn-style receptions, listen to your subconscious and search for venues that fit these categories. Find and follow us on Pinterest while you’re at it.

5. Ask local wedding vendors for their advice

If you know where you want to get married but are struggling to find the right venue, why not ask some of the local wedding vendors? After all, they have first-hand experience working at many local wedding venues and might be able to suggest a few that you haven’t discovered.

(PS – you can find a bunch of wedding vendors Australia-wide here).

6. Get stalker-ish

Found a wedding venue you like? Let your inner-social-media-stalker out to play. Search online to find other weddings held at that venue – often these will link to the wedding photographer’s blog. Scroll through photos to see if there are any pictures showing a wedding hashtag that you can creep on via Instagram (often couples will chalk it onto a sign that ends up in the wedding photos). This way, you’ll get a more personal look at the venue through the eyes of a guest.

7. Be clear on what’s flexible at the venue

If you have your heart set on a particular caterer for your big day, there’s probably no point in viewing a venue that works with a preferred company only. Find out before you make time for a viewing what’s flexible. Are you allowed to work with your own vendors of choice? Can you DIY-style the venue space? Can you BYO alcohol or does it need to be purchased through the vendor? These are all things to consider when choosing your venue.

8. Prepare for your viewing

Chances are you’ll be viewing a few different venues before choosing ‘the one’. To avoid them all becoming one big blur, we’d suggest getting a little prepped before you go. We’ve put together a wedding viewings 101 guide with questions to consider and ask. Our biggest tip would be to take photos at the viewing – we sure wouldn’t be trusting our own memories to remember all the unique and beautiful elements of each venue.

9. *Self-promotion alert* Check out our collection of recommended WedShed venues

Ahem, we might be able to help too. Find unique wedding venues from right across Australia here on WedShed. Feel free to email us anytime too, as we might be able to make some extra suggestions if you had something specific in mind.

10. Join our exclusive, couples-only Facebook group, ‘Wedchat by WedShed’.

Find where hundreds of other couples have booked for their big day, in our exclusive, couples-only Facebook group called Wedchat by WedShed. Search it on Facebook or click here to join.

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Looking for more honest-to-goodness wedding advice? We’ve got stacks to share right here

17th January, 2020

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Comments

  1. Awesome information. i’ll surely mind these points for my wedding.

    Sruthi
    • So glad to hear you founds them helpful. All the best with your wedding planning.

      Amy Parfett
  2. Thanks for the tips and I agree with you in tip 8 I definitely not trust my memory – I would take photos of the venues.

  3. Great list! I love the point about checking wedding blogs because many bloggers avoid posting that. Probably because it would look too marketed, but I think people really need to Google and find what others say.

  4. This is such a helpful note to couples planning for their wedding. Thank you for sharing by the way.

  5. This is very helpful, thank you for sharing some tips on how to find and choose a wedding venue.

  6. Thanks for sharing the good information your information is really worth to read and shareable with others.

  7. I absolutely love the Get stalker-ish part. Choosing a wedding venue is super stressful and you do not want your efforts gone to waste. Thanks for these helpful tips you got here.

  8. Yes, that’s right! Setting the budget first should be decided before organizing a wedding plan. By this, we can know how much should be spent on the venue and inclusions.

    Bryan Clark
  9. Very Informative

    Amy Lai
  10. Thanks for pointing out that it’s worth deciding what you’re happy to spend on a venue, so you must consider setting your budget. This is something that I will consider because I am planning to help my sister find a wedding venue. Maybe, I should ask her for the number of people that she would invite so I could help her set a budget.

  11. This is quite beneficial! This would be extremely beneficial to couples who are intending to marry. I recommend that anyone planning a wedding who comes across this site seeks assistance from reputable wedding planners in order to make their wedding day memorable.

    Amelia Hunter
  12. Very Informative!!

  13. Great Tips!!
    Thanks for sharing!!

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