First Venue Visit

lmcooper86 · June 2014

Hi all,

My FI and I are going to visit our first potential venue tonight (YAY!), and are very hopeful. We love what we've seen online, so we're really hoping the venue will be just as great in person.

I have a number of questions that I want to ask, but am wondering if there are any questions that you wish you had asked your venue when you first went to check them out? Was there anything that came up later that you wish you had known about up front? Or any questions that you wouldn't have thought to ask until someone else told you to?

Any input would be appreciated!

torontobride14 · June 2014

be sure to find out EXACTLY what is and what is not included. ie: tables, linen, staff as well as taxes and any extra service charges. I'd also take a good look at the venue and even take your own pictures if you can and take note of anything that may affect your decor decisions later on. I would also ask for a copy of a contract to review even without your specific information in there, this way you can truly see what all the fine print is.
good luck!

beachyone15 · June 2014

Take pictures if possible (will help you later when you start thinking about floral and decorations).
Make sure you know what's included
Do they have an "event minimum" you have to meet?
Will they provide staff, servers, bartenders, a coordinator, etc?
How much time will you have to set up (or have your vendors set up) before the ceremony/reception?
How many people can they accommodate comfortably, and when is a final headcount due?
Ask about parking for your guests
Deposits/service charge/gratuity included/set-up or tear-down charges?
Is there a preferred or "must-use" vendor list?
Bar/alcohol restrictions, if any
Ask them questions specific to your wedding. Example - our venue does not allow outside food to be brought in (except for the cake). We wanted to have a cookie bar so we asked the venue and they agreed this would be fine since we are using the cookies as favors and will be ordering them from a professional bakery. If they hadn't allowed this, we would have been looking for a different venue. So be sure you know going in what you "non-negotiables" are.

Good luck and have fun!

manateehugger · June 2014

-Bathrooms. If you've got 200 guests and only one stall in the women's restroom, you're asking for a rough time. Edit: TK doesn't like paragraphs. Sorry

-Set up and tear down - when can it happen (most of the venues we looked at penalize us if weren't out by a certain time) and who does it? When do your vendors have access to the venue? -I'm sure they gave you a capacity number, but think about how many people will actually comfortably fit once there's a DJ, cake table, dance floor, etc. -Like PP said, know exactly what is or isn't included in your rental fee. -Will they have staff on hand during the event? How many members? What's their job? What does the venue coordinator do for you (and not do for you)? -Parking situation. -Can you have open flames? Are there any other limitations on decor? -Ask how they normally set up the room. -If there's more than one space at the venue, ask how many events they host. How do they keep the events separate? One country club we looked at normally hosted two events a night and only had one of those crummy room partitions in between and tried to tell us that they were soundproof. Yeah, no.