S/O- Venue booking

Wegl13

I keep reading about you gals being engaged for what seems to me to be a long time (we had an eight month engagement) and getting one of the last available dates for a venue you've picked out. Because this seems so foreign to me (but then we got married in a schoolhouse that our family used to help manage), I would love input from you long term venue bookers. Where are you getting married? What kind of venue is it? Why is it in such high demand? Is it just a wedding venue, and if not, what else are people doing there?

monkeysip

We had a two year engagement.  

We booked our church about 15 months out.  The only reason we could do that is because we are parishioners at that church.  Our church, however, is a beautiful historical church that lots of non-parishioners use for their weddings.  Non-parishioners have to wait until the beginning of july every year, and there's literally a LINE of brides/grooms who wait to pick the best date in the following year starting at like 8AM.

Our reception venue wasn't as difficult to book, but having already booked the church date, it was very important to be on the ball in getting the same date for the reception.  There were other couples considering our venue for that date, but they chose something else, fortunately.  Our venue was a nice restaurant downtown that has a great view and the whole 2nd floor for events.

That's pretty typical in Houston.  You need to book at least a year out to get the best venues on the most popular dates.

kimmiinthemitten

Our venue had a ton of dates available because the salesperson isn't very good. However, it's a beautiful renovated historic bank turned ballroom.

The places at the top of our list that did have one of our two ideal dates booked were a Farmers Market, the original Ford Plant where they built the Piquette, a renovated historic hotel in downtown Detroit and a botanical garden/conservatory.

Wegl13

kimmiandkoley said:

Our venue had a ton of dates available because the salesperson isn't very good. However, it's a beautiful renovated historic bank turned ballroom.

The places at the top of our list that did have one of our two ideal dates booked were a Farmers Market, the original Ford Plant where they built the Piquette, a renovated historic hotel in downtown Detroit and a botanical garden/conservatory.

Those all sound like super neat places!

WinstonsGirl

Not sure if we were long or not (15 months), but we originally were planning on 3 months as we got engaged at the End of Dec and were looking at spring break (march).  But since we went to Hawaii, we postponed a year to give family and friends a chance to save up if they wanted to come with us.  We figured 3 months was a little quick to be asking people to drop everything and fly out.  If it was just us, we would have done the 3 months

kimmiinthemitten

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Wegl13 said:

Our venue had a ton of dates available because the salesperson isn't very good. However, it's a beautiful renovated historic bank turned ballroom. The places at the top of our list that did have one of our two ideal dates booked were a Farmers Market, the original Ford Plant where they built the Piquette, a renovated historic hotel in downtown Detroit and a botanical garden/conservatory.

Those all sound like super neat places!

Thanks! We didn't want a traditional banquet house, although we did look at the hotel in case we did and didn't know it. The other one I blanked on was a smaller concert venue. We booked 17 months in advance.

JediElizabeth

Ours is a wedding venue, and only a wedding venue. It used to be a stagecoach stop back in the 1800's, and it's very unique and beautifully historic. We booked 22 months out and had no competition for the date we wanted, but their calendar certainly wasn't empty for that season either.

Part of the problem there is they do only weddings, and they do one wedding per day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (And Monday for long holidays, I think.) So, generally only 3 couples can book per week, and Saturdays (the day we picked) are the most popular. On top of that, their prices are competitive in the area, particularly because they include a DOC, full open bar, in-house florist and other perks with their price. 

With that kind of supply and demand environment, it's no wonder they get booked pretty quickly.

sunflower0592

Ours was just about the timing being a bit off. We got engaged in January, and I really, really wanted a fall wedding in my home state, but this fall would've been too soon and too crazy to plan as I was finishing grad school, and logistically it just wouldn't have worked because I had a few VIP family members who wouldn't have been able to come if we had it this fall. So we're waiting until next fall which will give us lots of time to save money and not rush our planning. We booked our venue 15 months out, just to be on the safe side. Even that long out, a few places we looked at were totally booked for next fall already. We booked the last date in October at the venue we went with, a farm/B&B with a beautiful historic barn for a reception space.

MairePoppy

My DD was engaged for more than 2 years before they booked their venue. Her dream venue advertised a generous discount for their remaining dates for the year, so they went to take a look. They picked a Sunday, for the flexible time allowance,  in October - less than 6 months out.

The venue is a turn of the (20th) century bank with all the old fixtures, murals, teller, cathedral ceilings, balcony,  very ornate. My daughter fell in love with this place years ago when it was being used a pub. It's now used for weddings and other private, civic and coporate events. The venue provides complete packages with custom touches and they do one event at a time.

fyrchk

We booked about 15 months out, also. Part of that is because we are getting married in Estes Park and a lot of places close in the off-season so we didn't want to have to compete when things opened back up.

We originally wanted to get married at the Stanley Hotel but it's just sooo expensive (for us anyway) and they do multiple weddings at a time. I also have a friend who got married there and she was annoyed that people kept opening the door to their reception to "peek in." Another friend got married in downtown Denver at the Brown Palace. The picture of her dad walking her down the aisle has a random woman looking in the glass doors. (Photographer was able to take her out, but she still gets annoyed by it.)

So, we went a Lodge in Estes Park that has amazing views. Our ceremony is outside overlooking Rocky Mountain National Park and the Continental Divide. Our reception is in the restaurant of the Lodge. One wall is all glass and overlooks the town of Estes Park. They have wedding packages, all linens, etc included, open bar packages, and DOC. The wedding coordinator is also married to the head chef, so she is willing to work with you on menu stuff.

ChelleJayne

Our engagement is going to be 18 months. We booked our venue at 17 months out. Here in Havasu, the ideal dates for a wedding is in the fall and spring because it is so bloody hot here in the summer, 120s anybody?! When we were looking into booking, I wanted something near the lake or channel. So we looked at 2 venues and decided on the London Bridge Resort. They had our date available so it wasn't a problem. That's our venue below.

kvruns

We booked like 10 months out and had the last "good" Fri or Sat spring date.  They had some in April (flowers not bloomed yet so not that pretty and could be cold) and 1-2 Sundays available but Fri and Sat were all booked until mid summer of the next year and then some available in the fall except for the date we go (May 29).

The venue is a really pretty garden area and a bit more affordable than some other comparable venues. I think the garden setting makes it more popular since there are only a handful around here that aren't the whole barn thing and then being a bit cheaper than some others. I definitely didn't want an outdoor wedding in August and wasn't keen to go to fall so spring it was.

julieanne912

I'm one of the "short timers" but I found that a lot of the cheaper venues were booked for the entire year, and I started looking literally the day after we got engaged in early February.  We only got the date we did because of a cancellation the day before I called due to a military deployment, otherwise our venue was booked solid for Saturdays until the end of October (which starts to get iffy, weather wise, here).  I was not willing to do a Friday or a Sunday.  I booked it over the phone, my H hadn't even seen it before, and I hadn't seen it for months.  The owner told us later that they had around 75 events booked there in 2015 (not all weddings).  

My first pick venue was booked for the entire year and well into the following year.   Also, I wanted a "country" type wedding but that wasn't out in the middle of nowhere and didn't cost an arm and a leg, and didn't require us to use their catering.  So, that limited my options, but those are also very popular requirements. 

I would have gotten married at a less than ideal location because we didn't want a long engagement but I could see how it's basically, wait for the venue you love, or compromise and get married quicker, for a lot of people.

pinkcow13

We had almost a 2 year engagement. We got engaged in September of 2013. I always knew I wanted a spring wedding, and H agreed that he would like spring, but I felt that 8 months would be too rushed if we opted for May 2014, therefore we chose May 2015. We booked our venue a year and 5 months in advance. Our venue is very popular, and is usually booked a year and a few months in advance. We got married at the Central Park Boathouse, which is not an exclusive wedding venue. The venue area also hosts galas, premier parties, and other events such as baby showers, etc. 

Personally, I loved having a long engagement, because we knew we were going to have a big wedding. I didn't want anything to feel rushed, and we wanted to give our VIP's plenty of notice as we did have some out of towners. 

lovemesomemonster

We will have had a 13 month engagement when we get married and we booked the venue a year out. It's in high demand because it's beautiful any time of year and is a historic lodge. We are having a January wedding and already most of the weekends were booked when we called so they fill up fast. They don't only do weddings, they also are one of the top ski resorts in the area and do other events. 

MissMidtown

We will have a 2 year engagement. Our reception venue averages 8 weddings a month. When we booked they only had our date and Christmas Eve/New Years Eve left in 2016. It is an historic building in the center of the entertainment district in Detroit and is convenient for our out of town guests.

madamerwin

We had a 15 month engagement and booked our venue 14 months out. Our venue is specifically set up for weddings, and it was very reasonably priced, so it was already slim pickings for dates when we found it. When we went to book, we got one of the last weekend days for all of summer 2015, so I'm guessing most people who have used it booked up to 18 months out.

Wegl13

pinkcow13 said:

We had almost a 2 year engagement. We got engaged in September of 2013. I always knew I wanted a spring wedding, and H agreed that he would like spring, but I felt that 8 months would be too rushed if we opted for May 2014, therefore we chose May 2015. We booked our venue a year and 5 months in advance. Our venue is very popular, and is usually booked a year and a few months in advance. We got married at the Central Park Boathouse, which is not an exclusive wedding venue. The venue area also hosts galas, premier parties, and other events such as baby showers, etc. 

Personally, I loved having a long engagement, because we knew we were going to have a big wedding. I didn't want anything to feel rushed, and we wanted to give our VIP's plenty of notice as we did have some out of towners. 

I love the boathouse! I've only been to NYC once but we spent so much time hanging out at Central Park. Honestly this one is surprising- I would have thought it would have been booked solid for a lot longer time!

kimmiinthemitten

MissMidtown said:

We will have a 2 year engagement. Our reception venue averages 8 weddings a month. When we booked they only had our date and Christmas Eve/New Years Eve left in 2016. It is an historic building in the center of the entertainment district in Detroit and is convenient for our out of town guests.

I'm trying to guess but there are too many options!  Which building?

MissMidtown

kimmiandkoley said:

MissMidtown said:

We will have a 2 year engagement. Our reception venue averages 8 weddings a month. When we booked they only had our date and Christmas Eve/New Years Eve left in 2016. It is an historic building in the center of the entertainment district in Detroit and is convenient for our out of town guests.

I'm trying to guess but there are too many options!  Which building?

Private Club on Madison. What about you? I think we share the same date.

Edited to remove exact location. Will PM the building to you.

luckya23

I think my wedding venue was more popular for corporate events, since it's a big clambake/bbq place, and can accommodate 400 at my venue, and 1000 at the larger site.  The larger site was already booked for my date (I never went there for that reason, but I like mine better based on the photos).  Anyway, we booked about 11 months in advance.

The second choice runner up was a lot smaller (max 80 with no dance floor) and we would have had to change our date because they were booked already for June 27 in the previous July when we looked. 

We were trying to go super-budget though so the only other places we looked were VFW type places.

ThxSugar

We booked our venue 14 month in advance. Part of it was we just wanted to have a solid date. We had been engaged for several months, changed our plans several times, and were really annoying our mothers, lol. We knew we wanted a fall wedding because summer is too hot, winter is too cold, and spring was too soon. Once we found the venue, we picked from available dates.

charlotte989875

We had an 11 month engagement and booked the venue a week after getting engaged. Both H and I love the rehabbed old hotels in downtown Buffalo and wanted the church, venue, and hotels to be close to one another. Saturday's were completely booked from May to October, so we got married on a Friday (checked with all VIPs before booking). The venue only does one wedding per room per day, had day of coordinator, and handled all set up and tear down.

I'm guessing part of the reason everything was booked so early is that it's primarily a wedding and corporate function venue, weather in Buffalo is not ideal from November to April for weddings, and the venue has a reputation for great service and amazing food and drinks.