The Wedding Series: How to Choose a Wedding Venue

Choosing a wedding venue is so much fun and it’s a great first item to book when planning a wedding! Last spring I booked my wedding venue and somehow I ended up being able to choose the venue of my dreams, but there were trade offs that I had to make.

The first step in choosing a venue is knowing your budget.

Refer to my post about wedding budgeting for more details.

After you know how much money you have in your total budget, and you’ve estimated how much each item will cost, you will be able to see how much you have in your budget specifically for your venue. Then once your have your budget for your venue set, it is a lot easier to slim down your list of potential venues.

I started by searching on google for venues closest to home then broadened my search to look at many different venues throughout the state. Each venue has a different location and vibe and there are so many cool options to choose from.

Pick out your top venues that you like online and schedule a tour to visit them in person. You can ask them questions about how they run their weddings, if they have hidden costs, and this is a great to where you can see and feel the actual vibe of the place. This is also a great time to see what dates they have available. I toured my venue over a year and a half before the wedding and their were only a couple Saturday’s left for the summer!

Write down any notes or information you want to remember so it is easier to choose between the venues after you’ve looked at more.

After you look at your favorite venues you can decide which one is the best fit for you and your fiance based on the vibe you like and the cost.

The venue is super smart to book first because:

1. They get booked out very early

2. It will most likely determine your wedding date and location

3. If you choose an expensive venue like I did, you can choose to spend less in other areas.

After choosing my venue I could then begin searching for a more affordable DJ, caterer, photo booth, florist, etc. This was a trade off I was more than willing to make because of how much I loved my venue, but some people love having a backyard wedding and splurging in other areas. Decide what’s most important for you and what things you want to splurge or save on BEFORE booking anything.

I’m so happy I got to have my wedding at the Hutton House and it was a total dream come true!

Sincerely, Ava Rains

The Wedding Series: Creating a Budget

If you read my last blog post, you know the first steps of planning a wedding. Creating a budget is the second step. It is so important to do this before booking anything.

First you’ll want to figure out who is paying for the wedding and how much each person is paying. This may be the couple getting married, parents, other family members, or a combination. Each party involved should decide on an exact number that they are willing to spend. Adding these together creates your total overall wedding budget. This number will be divided by each venue, vendor, and wedding item that you purchase.

Next, sit down with your fiance and create two lists. Make one list of your top priorities for your wedding day, and the things you will want to spend more money on. Make a second list of the things that aren’t as important to you both. These will be items that you will find for a low cost, or may be willing to sacrifice on your wedding day. Make sure that you and your fiance come to an agreement on these lists. No matter how big your budget is, you will still have to pick and choose your top priorities, and sacrifice your lower priorities.

Then, I recommend doing some research on where you want your ceremony and rehearsal. You can search online and email different venues for an estimated price quote. They will email you the price estimates and what they include in that price. I would then recommend touring venues and narrowing down to your top 2-3 choices.

After that, reach out to other vendors for price quote. You should look for a photographer, videographer, a caterer, florist, DJ or band, transportation, a photo booth, and a wedding coordinator. You should keep track of these price quotes in one organized document.

Based on the quotes you received, you should create one large estimated budget. This way, you can see everyone laid out together and you can see the total.

Make sure to also include in your budget, the cost of your wedding dress, alterations, shoes, accessories, save the dates, invitations, decorations, wedding favors, and anything extra that you want. This may also include gifts for your wedding party, wedding party proposal gifts, and a wedding gift for your fiance. (Please keep in mind that you do not have to have all of these things at your wedding, make your wedding exactly how YOU want it.)

After you have a full budget put together, your total may be much higher than the money you have available in your budget. If this is the case, it is time to look at your list of low-priorities. Start searching for more budget-friendly versions of these services or items. If your budget is still too high, consider removing some items on your low-priority list, or you may have start looking for more budget-friendly items from you top-priority list.

If after you have put you budget together, you are lower than your overall budget (which seems impossible to me lol), you can look into items that you want to add or splurge on.

Either way, I recommend having quite a bit of wiggle room in your first rough draft budgets. It can be easy to forget about things that you really want, or your vendors may have hidden costs that you weren’t expecting.

If doing all of this work and creating a budget sounds like a nightmare to you, consider hiring a wedding planner to do all of the work for you. This will cost more money to have someone do everything for you, but it might be worth it for you if it’s something you don’t enjoy, or something you don’t have the time for. I will write a blog soon about hiring a wedding planner and different packages you can buy!

Sincerely, Ava Rains

Introducing... Sincerely, Ava Rains

My name is Ava Simat and I guess I decided to start a lifestyle blog today.

Here on my blog I will write about a lot of topics. I hope to talk about any of my travel experiences, wedding planning, food, fashion, and whatever I feel like.

I am going into my Junior year of college and am looking for ways to make money on the side (we’ll see if this goes anywhere).

I recently got engaged so wedding planning is a huge topic of interest for me at the moment. Luckily I love planning and organizing just about anything. After college I hope to become an event planner and continue with my obsessive organizational skills.

My goal for this blog is just to keep it fun and maybe give you all some useful ideas. I don’t expect to inspire or impress you here, just here for a good time. Hope you’ll enjoy this as much as I do!

Sincerely, Ava Rains