It’s time to find the wedding venue of your dreams… no pressure, right? With all the incredible venue choices, it can feel a little overwhelming to think about how you will go about finding your perfect dream space. And you are not alone in those feelings.

 

We work with our couples to navigate the sometimes murky waters of finding a perfect venue, and today we thought we’d share with you a few things to consider when getting started with researching and nailing your perfect venue! 

 

While venue-hunting should not be the first thing you do (see what we recommend doing before starting your venue research here!), it’s one of the first steps in the planning process after nailing down our top three decisions before getting started!  

 

Here are a three things to consider when you begin looking for a venue: 

Time might be a deciding factor. Depending on when you get engaged – and your preferences/priorities – some venues will book out as far as 18 – 24 months in advance! For this reason you may decide to extend your engagement, compromise on date or compromise on venue. As you are working through your research, you will start to identify whether timing will be a factor in your final date selection. 

Don’t select a date first. Selecting a single date first can prove to be challenging if you have a venue with limited availability. We suggest having date ranges (ones that work and ones that don’t work). You can use those to guide your venue choice and (hopefully) marry your preferred venue with the date range you have. 

Venue budgeting can vary dramatically. One of our most frequently asked questions is the average cost of Average venue fee. You might be surprised to learn that the range is anywhere from $2,500 – $30,000. While that’s a big range, the better way to plan is for 10-15% of overall wedding cost (upwards of 20%). If the venue package is all inclusive, it can be 40-50% of the overall budget. Keep this in mind when beginning your venue planning so that you aren’t going over budget right away! 

 

With these three important considerations, you may be wondering how to get started with the actual research that goes into finding your dream venue. Maybe you are eager for a tool to keep track of each venue you love. Maybe you want a system to help you identify the perfect venue! We’ve got the perfect resource to help guide you through every step of the planning process – grab our free checklist before to get all the details when doors open late summer/early fall! 

 

Looking for more wedding planning tips, tricks, advice and guidance? We’ve created just the resource! The Modern Wedding Planner! We’ve taken our signature planning approach used with hundreds of clients and channeled it into a comprehensive, step-by-step, results driven resource that empowers you with the tools, the strategy, the industry based secrets, and the assurance/confidence to make your dream wedding a reality! CLICK HERE to watch a lesson completely free, our gift to you!