Venue Questions?

MadHops21

I'm browsing venues for reception, and I found one that I already fell in love with online. I'm still in the looking mode, but I was wondering what types of questions to ask. The website goes into detail for prices, which is great, but is there anything else I need to know before going there?

pinkcow13

Confirm the actual price - sometimes places will include add-ons which can significantly impact the price.

What do they offer in terms of meals, drinks?

Do they have a bridal attendant? (not that it is necessary but a nice perk)

Do they have a bridal suite?

How early/late can you get there for any set up or breakdown?

Do they have required vendors that you must use, or can you bring in your own?

How much of a deposit do they require? By when?

What are their minimum/maximum guest requirements?

Do they offer signature his and her cocktails (this one is optional. FI and I found a few venues that offers this and we thought it was cool)

How much extra is it to have the ceremony there (if those are your intentions)

How does their timeline work?

How many waiters/bartenders do they offer?

Those are a few that I thought of and that we asked of our venue.

MadHops21

pinkcow13 said:

Confirm the actual price - sometimes places will include add-ons which can significantly impact the price.

What do they offer in terms of meals, drinks?

Do they have a bridal attendant? (not that it is necessary but a nice perk)

Do they have a bridal suite?

How early/late can you get there for any set up or breakdown?

Do they have required vendors that you must use, or can you bring in your own?

How much of a deposit do they require? By when?

What are their minimum/maximum guest requirements?

Do they offer signature his and her cocktails (this one is optional. FI and I found a few venues that offers this and we thought it was cool)

How much extra is it to have the ceremony there (if those are your intentions)

How does their timeline work?

How many waiters/bartenders do they offer?

Those are a few that I thought of and that we asked of our venue.

-I'm finding this out with chairs...and some tables..I didn't realize certain chairs were more than others. I just thought they were...chairs. Definitely makes a difference.

-Definitely have not thought of that before. Estimating that we would have ~125, how many waiters does that need? I'm not very experienced in event planning. I'm the first to get married in friend group, and only been to 1 other wedding in my life. 

phira

Do they have a food/beverage minimum? If so, how is it determined?

Do they book other events on the same day?

JCbride2015

If your ceremony will be at the venue, when can you have your rehearsal?

MadHops21

If you don't have enough people for a plate to equal a minimum, is there usually something else you can do to make it? Like upgrade the bar or do add-ons? (Is this a good question, or is this something that you just automatically know?)

SJM7538

This may seem silly but ask how they handle the escort cards. Any wedding I've ever been to with a plated I've had a place card with my table number on it and then the server asked what my meal choice was as they came around. My venue however made me put stickers on each escort card that indicates their meal choice. (Example, I did gold stickers for chicken and silver for beef)

It was a huge PITA especially since they didn't tell me up front and I found out after I ordered my invitations.

blabla89

These aren't in a coherent order, but here are some that we asked:

-Is the facility completely ADA accessible? If this applies to any of your guests - FI and I could have saved at least one venue visit by asking this question before we went.
-If the venue doesn't provide food and drinks, are there you required to use an approved caterer? Can you supply your own alcohol? Is a bartender required? Are you allowed to have alcohol outside the building?
-Are you required to get an insurance rider for the wedding day?
-Are there restrictions on what you could do for the farewell? Some venues don't allow sparklers, rice, confetti, flower petals, etc.
-What is the process for holding a date? When is the deposit due? Is any of it refundable?
-What state does the venue need to be left in at the end of the night? Some venues just want you to get your stuff out, others will require that you clean up, sweep, and mop at the end of the night.
-Does the fee include a rehearsal? Can they guarantee a rehearsal the night before the wedding?
-Any restrictions on music volume, or when music must end?
-Does the venue have any sound equipment that your DJ could use?
-Are you allowed to have a tent (if that's something you might want)?
-Will your contact person at the venue be there for your entire wedding day?

MadHops21

lalalaurita said:

These aren't in a coherent order, but here are some that we asked:

-Is the facility completely ADA accessible? If this applies to any of your guests - FI and I could have saved at least one venue visit by asking this question before we went.
-If the venue doesn't provide food and drinks, are there you required to use an approved caterer? Can you supply your own alcohol? Is a bartender required? Are you allowed to have alcohol outside the building?
-Are you required to get an insurance rider for the wedding day?
-Are there restrictions on what you could do for the farewell? Some venues don't allow sparklers, rice, confetti, flower petals, etc.
-What is the process for holding a date? When is the deposit due? Is any of it refundable?
-What state does the venue need to be left in at the end of the night? Some venues just want you to get your stuff out, others will require that you clean up, sweep, and mop at the end of the night.
-Does the fee include a rehearsal? Can they guarantee a rehearsal the night before the wedding?
-Any restrictions on music volume, or when music must end?
-Does the venue have any sound equipment that your DJ could use?
-Are you allowed to have a tent (if that's something you might want)?
-Will your contact person at the venue be there for your entire wedding day?

What's this, exactly? I keep seeing people recommending wedding insurance, but I never actually knew what it was. 

pinkcow13

For 125, I think at least 5 should be good. The minimum at our venue is 125, and I know they told us how many waiters we would have but I cannot remember, I'll ask FI.  5 would be 25 per waiter, so maybe like 3 tables. And yea, at some venues the little things add up. I would also think that chairs are just chairs! We went to one venue that had a reasonable price. Then, the add ons. Linens, drapes, lighting, chairs, etc. It came out to the same price that we are now paying, and the venue we have is 100 times better than that place. AND they offer more! 

In regards to your question about not meeting the minimum, it all depends on the venue. 

That would be a good question, as some venues will let you add something on, while others would make you pay the price as if you have that many people.

EverAfer

MadHops21 said:

If you don't have enough people for a plate to equal a minimum, is there usually something else you can do to make it? Like upgrade the bar or do add-ons? (Is this a good question, or is this something that you just automatically know?)

Some places consider the minimum just for food. 

But you can probably ask if you can add the bar tab to it also.

Ask about 

-parking

-extra fees/service charges/taxes/ etc

-is there a bridal room for you to get dressed/ lock up your valuables/gifts

theartistformerlyknownas

These weren't all necessarily questions we asked, but things that came up during talks with our venue guy or situations friends have had. Apologies if some were mentioned.

- They only had 200 chairs available for the ceremony, and will have to rent additional if we have more people than that RSVP (guest list is 250). We have to pay a fee per chair to set them up, and a higher fee if they have to rent additional chairs.

- What does the space look like where you'll be getting ready?

- Ask what options/prices are for kids if you're inviting them - smaller portion of adult meal or their own choice? 

- If there is a minimum headcount for buffet meals, you can often just tell them that whatever the difference is kids meals. (i.e. 150 person minimum but only 135 RSVPed yes, tell them you have another 15 kids. They're often half price.)

- Will tables have to be moved to make room for the dance floor?

- Is there a cake cutting fee? (Our venue HAD an in-house baker, and if we used him they would have waived the fee. Buuuuut... he quit. So now I'm going to try and negotiate down the cake cutting/serving fee because we didn't have a choice but to get cake from outside.)

- Who is responsible for tear-down? (I've been to weddings where I as a guest had to help strip tablecloths.) Can centerpieces be left overnight and picked up in the morning?

- Is there a coat check? What's the charge?

- Are there any restrictions on outside food? What about if it's in a favor?

- Are there any restrictions on throwing things like rose petals?

- Do you get a food tasting, and is there a charge for it?

- How do they handle vegetarian meals? i.e. separate entree or only sides? Will you know ahead of time what that entree is so you can inform your guests? (Buzz about this lately, venues trying to almost hide what that option will be. You'll want details.)