In my defense, I've had a very unexpectedly busy summer, with a trip to New York, adopting a puppy, moving Chris to Texas, moving myself into a new apartment, rehearsing a show, and...uh...planning wedding! But I digress. Those are events and excuses for another blog post that, frankly, will probably never happen. Let's get to the good stuff!
When we last left off, I was writing up a question work sheet that Chris and I could fill out as we called potential venues. This ended up working out really well because it gave us a sort of script to follow so we didn't forget any important questions and an organized place to write down information. Newly engaged B2Bs ("Brides to Be...Am I clever or what?!), I would highly recommend doing something like this when interviewing potential venues. Here's the one that we used:
I got some of these questions from the internet, but a lot of them I just based off of what Chris and I knew was important to us. For example, we included questions about bars and alcohol because we knew that we wanted an open bar, so a venue that didn't allow alcohol or limited what alcohol could be served wasn't ideal. And we asked questions about parking because we have older family members that have trouble walking long distances, so a venue that didn't have parking (such as a downtown venue) was going to present some problems. Feel free to use our questionnaire as a guide or template for when you interview your potential venues. But I definitely encourage you to personalize it for what you want in a venue! What Chris and I wanted in a venue is not going to match what every other B2B wants, so our questionnaire is not going to be identical to yours.
Once we made our calls, we narrowed our venues down to our top three and called them back to make appointments to visit. Narrowing down was a lot easier than I anticipated, partly because these three had almost everything they wanted, and partly because some venues eliminated themselves with the way they treated us. ***
***Note to wedding venues: I am planning my wedding, a very sentimental and emotionally charged event. So (and shouldn't this be common sense?) don't be rude or dismissive to me on the phone! If my calling you to inquire about giving you my money to host my event is an inconvenience to you, then you leave me no choice but to assume that my event itself is going to be just as much of an inconvenience to you. Some of the ladies answering the phones at these places seemed so frustrated that they had to talk to me and just wanted to send me straight to their website (which I had already been to and had questions about). I had one venue's representative even refuse to answer any of my questions, instead insisting that all of my questions would be answered in an e-mail she was going to send me—an e-mail that we never received.
Not to discourage you or make you afraid of calling your venues! We had two, maybe three, unpleasant experiences out of the 15 or so venues we called. And for every rude person we encountered, we had at least 2 other venues bending over backwards to answer our questions and make us feel excited about our wedding!
The next step was visiting the venues. Chris and I visited our top 3 venues over the course of two days. I brought along the sheets I filled out on the phone so I could write more information down and get more details about what we spoke about on the phone. Luckily, we knew once we left our final venue exactly which one we wanted to go with and were able to bring my parents in to see it. They were also immediately sold and we signed a contract then and there!
I am so absolutely in love with my venue and know we are going to have a magical reception. I'm going to keep the venue name private, but I will tell you why we chose it:
- They take care of food, tables, chairs, linens, china, silverware, set up, and clean up. Basically, we bring the stuff we want set up a day or two before and then we just have to show up! Other venues were going to require us to set-up our own centerpieces and even tie our own bows on the chairs! The fact that were weren't responsible for any day-of prep was huge!
- The venue is owned by a well-known and respected chef in the South, so we know the food is going to be delicious! His reputation kind of depends on it.
- Speaking of food, the buffet will have attendants serving the food to keep the lines from backing up.
- The venue is already beautiful sans decoration. We don't have to spend a lot of time or money figuring out how to completely transform a plain space.
- Our guests will not be confined to a single ball room with a loud DJ. There are several areas, both indoor and outdoor, for our guests to relax and take some time away from the noise of the ballroom.
- They provide a day of wedding coordinator, so I don't have to worry about phone calls from vendors as I'm walking the aisle.
- They also will have a personal waiter for Chris and I, as well as each set of parents for the entire night.
There are more reasons, but those were our big selling points for the venue we chose. And I'm sure I'm leaving out something.
My final piece of advice for B2Bs when venue shopping is to take full advantage of your venue visits and the time you have with the venue representative. Of course, ask all of your questions about the venue and services, but also pick their brain about other aspects of your wedding. If you have vendors you're considering, ask for their opinions on them. If you have an idea but aren't sure how it will play out, ask them what they think. These people have seen EVERYTHING, both good and bad, in the wedding world. We got some wonderful suggestions and ideas from the venue representatives we spoke to and were even steered away from some vendors we were considering because they had bad reputations that only wedding industry insiders really know about.
Enjoy your venue visits, Brides to Be! Visiting venues was the first time I was able truly visualize my wedding and it was really exciting! And if you still have trouble narrowing down after your visits, go with your gut! Just close your eyes and imagine your wedding. Whichever venue you imagine it in is the one!
