One of the biggest steps in your wedding planning journey will be deciding where you want to exchange vows. It’s not a decision that should be taken lightly, but there are so many things that you have to consider before you decide on your wedding venue. From the location to the type of venue you want, there are so many decisions out there and it can easily become overwhelming.
Realistically, the first thing you have to do is speak to your fiance and discuss what it is you want to get from your wedding. If you want something big, then choosing wedding venues like castles or stately homes is a great idea, but if you want something intimate for just the two of you, you might just choose the wedding venue on the beach. Here’s how you can decide where to get married.
Make a list of your options
There are many considerations that you have to make for your wedding venue location. You could go back to your hometown for either one of you and go something in the lines of tradition. Getting married in the same church or the same location your parents got married in, for example, is often something people do. You can go grand with a local destination like a stately home or a castle, or you could have a destination wedding and go abroad. Be prepared for people not to come to a destination wedding, but it’s your wedding after all.
Consider the cost
The average wedding can run into the thousands, but you need to remember that the cost of your venue often has many things included. Stately homes, for example, will often offer wedding packages that include things like catering, the honeymoon suite for the night, drinks packages, DJ, the use of the room. There are so many things that you have to consider when it comes to cost. Setting your budget will help you here.
Think about the location in terms of travel
Do you want to travel long distances to your wedding venue if you get married in a church? If you’re getting married in a church and the wedding venue is an hour away, that may not be feasible for your guests. Think about what you want for your wedding and then make some compromises on either the location or the church, or decide to get married in the actual venue itself.
Consider your guest list
When you’re deciding on where to get married, you have to think about how many people could be attending your wedding. If you are planning to have 100 guests on your guest list, but your venue is only going to hold 50, then you may want to reconsider your venue. Making your guest list before you look for your venue is important because you can sit together as a couple and determine how much space you’ve got.
Think about wedding catering
If you’re planning to get married at a destination abroad, then you need to think about what the catering will be like and whether it caters to your tastes. If you want to get married in a castle, you have to figure out whether or not there will be inclusions for catering or whether you’d have to hire a caterer separately. That could blow out your budget very quickly. So you need to look at your budget, your guest list and what you want for your wedding versus what venues are available to you for that budget.
Decide on what you want as a couple
When you’re sitting together and making decisions about your wedding, it can’t just be about what the bride wants or what the groom wants. You have to use your wedding planning as your first measure of compromise before you walk into marriage hand in hand. If you can’t agree on a wedding venue, you’re going to stumble over every other thing you’re going to have to agree on. You shouldn’t be taking advice from other couples in your life, or your friends, or even other family members. It’s nice if you’re asking for opinions, but if you have lots of people pressuring you to get married in one location or another, this is a conversation that you need to have.
When you’re choosing your wedding venue, it all comes down to picking things that you want as a couple, not picking things that other people want in your family.
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