You're Engaged! Selecting a Ceremony & Reception Venue!
Yay, you're engaged, now what?! (Did you see our last post about exactly just that?)
Priorities, Style, and Formality
Now on to the fun stuff! Stemming off the budget talk, we suggest picking your top three elements of a wedding day, and making them the priority. Are you foodies? Allocate more money to the food portion of your budget, and maybe a little less on floral. Is photography important? Allocate more to a photographer, and go more budget-friendly with a videographer, if you choose to have one.
You'll also want to determine the style and formality of your wedding day. This of course relates to budget, but guides us in our next direction when selecting a venue. If you want a black-tie, luxe wedding, your budget needs to reflect that. If you plan on a more intimate casual affair, you maybe able to stretch that budget out a bit more.
Totally lost on what your 'style' is? Take a look around your house and in your closet. What type of restaurants are your favorites? What colors do you hate or love? Start collecting images (but please for the love of the Wedding Planning God, do not go Pinterest crazy - trust us) of what speaks to you and your fiance. This is also a great time for a planner to step in to help make that vision a little more concrete and cohesive.
Selecting A Ceremony And Reception Venue
The first step here is to decide what kind of ceremony you would like. Plan on getting married in a church? We highly suggest booking this first, as dates and times can be extremely few and far between. Not to mention, if you aren't members already, you may have to be active members for a few months first before you can secure your date! Once you've booked your church, you can move onto looking for a reception venue. Hoping for a non denominational wedding ceremony? You'll want to look for a venue that can host your ceremony and reception.
When looking for your venue, you'll go back to everything we talked about before: 1) Will it fit all of your guests? 2) Does it fit in your budget? 3) Does it fit your formality and style? Having all these items nailed down before you venue shop will truly make it a much more fun and streamlined process.
