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Finding your perfect wedding venue

Finding your Wedding Venue

Organising a wedding can seem daunting. Most people aren’t in the habit of organising large events for big groups of people and so it can be hard for you to know where to start. So we’ve given you a helping hand; a few questions and things to consider to get the ball rolling:

It isn’t just the big hotels that do weddings. Have a look at local stately homes, historical buildings, local society buildings and halls; these will often offer far more interesting and memorable surroundings than a hotel. Often you can hire these venues exclusively giving you a more intimate feel to the day. Many will be happy for you to erect a Marquee for your wedding breakfast, ensuring you can theme or dress your wedding exactly how you want it. Hotels can offer a wonderful solution to your wedding day dilemmas. You can often have your marriage ceremony and wedding breakfast in the same location, cutting out the need to give people maps or transport them from one place to another and many other such dilemmas, leaving you to relax and enjoy your day. Whichever type of wedding venue you look at just ask yourself 9 simple questions:

Firstly:

How many guests are coming to the marriage ceremony or wedding breakfast?

Will I and my guests enjoy their day here; can you picture everyone here with you?  

Is it accessible for everyone to get to?

Secondly:  

How much is the catering for the wedding breakfast?

How much are the drinks and the wine?  If you use your own wines, will the caterer charge a corkage fee?

How much does the venue hire cost?

Lastly: 

Can the venue accommodate the schedule you’d like for the day?

Will they let you have the entertainment you’d like?

Can they help you organise any of the other elements of the wedding day for you?

Weighing up the answers to these questions should help you to decide where you’re going and lead you to your prefect wedding venue. 

Get the venue booked as soon as you can, get your deposit paid and of course Wedding Insurance to cover it as soon as you can. 

There’s nothing worse than falling in love with your fairytale wedding venue, only to see someone else run off with your preferred dates because they were quicker off the mark. Before you go looking for your dream wedding venue get your finances in place so you can secure you’re your dream wedding venue as soon as you find it.  It's not unusual to be asked to pay a non-refundable deposit to secure (typically £500) with the balance paid in full up to a month in advance of the event.  Additional expenses incurred on the day (such as your bar tabs!) will be invoiced shortly after the big day itself.

 

Many wedding venues and caterers levy cancellation charges in the case of wedding cancellations - although they may waive the charge if they can re-hire the venue before the event, this "loss of profit" fee can be substantial, and all the more distressing if your reason for cancellation is illness, a family tragedy, or even that you have simply decided to postpone your wedding.  Some or all of these possibilities can be covered by a comprehensive wedding insurance policy.

 

Start the search for your dream venue online. There are loads of great websites that allow you to search for a wedding venue by area, by price or even by their popularity - and our own links section on ProtectYourWedding is not a bad place to start, either! 

 

Do read people's reviews of these venues as their insight can be invaluable; they've actually got married and spent the day there, they know what it's really like. In the same way take the time to look through some of the many wedding forums and community sites to get people's real opinions. A venue can very well put on 'a good show' when you go to have a look around, but it may be a very different story on your wedding day or vice-versa.

 

These websites can also show you wedding venues in your locality that you'd never heard of; little gems that can make your day truly unique. There are so many fantastic places full of character that host weddings that you'd never think of normally that you can find with a bit little bit of research on the internet, giving you a more unique and personal wedding day.

 

Your wedding venue is going to be the backdrop to the biggest day of your life, the stage on which you and your partner are going to show the world just how much you love each other, so take your time, follow your heart and make the choice that's right for you.