When searching for your dream wedding venue, it’s essential to ask the right questions. While it’s important to find a venue you love, you’ll also need to consider details like costs, logistics and accessibility. So before you sign the contract, here are seven important questions to ask your wedding venue in 2022.
1. What is your availability in 2022?
With so many weddings that had to postpone the date, wedding venues are booking up more quickly than ever before. So before you fall in love with a venue, make sure to ask about their availability, especially if you plan on having your wedding on a Saturday, over a long weekend, or during the more popular months. Pro tip: make sure to ask if they have a cancellation list or waitlist. Sometimes those move quickly, and you can secure your spot.
2. What’s included in the venue price?
Make sure to ask the venue operators what’s included in the price. The venue's price can include things like tables and chairs, include tables and chairs, technical equipment, a cancellation window, alcohol and more. Knowing exactly what’s included in the price will make it easier to narrow down venue options that fit within your budget.
3. When do we have access to the venue?
Depending on the venue, there are different hiring periods. Confirm the hiring period and the access details, including setup time, pack-down time, and curfew on the night. These details will help your wedding suppliers quote accordingly, organise staff, and account for any after-hours fees. Plus, if there’s a curfew, this could not work with how you planned the evening.
4. Are there any accommodation options nearby?
You may have family and friends looking to stay locally around the wedding venue. Therefore, consider asking your venue if they have any recommendations for local accommodation options. If most of your guests are travelling, we recommend looking at venues located close to hotels or resorts or investing in transport to help get them to the venue.
5. Does the contract include a force majeure clause?
If there’s anything we’ve learned over the last two years, it’s that things can change very quickly and without much notice. Now, there’s a way to mitigate that risk. You should ask the venue if the contract includes a force majeure clause. This clause relieves both parties from performing their contractual obligations due to an event outside of reasonable control like a pandemic.
6. What are our wet weather options?
Unfortunately, when planning a wedding, the weather is the one thing you can’t control. So it’s important to ask your wedding venue what happens if it rains. If they have a wet weather option, they’ll be able to talk you through any undercover backup spaces or might suggest you hire a marquee, tent or tipi instead.
7. Can you share previous weddings?
When you’re touring an empty wedding venue, it can be hard to visualise what it will look like when full of your family, friends and decorations. So we recommend asking the venue to send through photos or blogs of recent weddings for visual inspiration. These will also give you a helpful guide on table layouts, colours, and styling details that work well within the space.
Planning a wedding is already so challenging that you don’t want to get blindsided by small details. However, these seven questions to ask your wedding venue in 2022 will keep you cool, calm and collected during the planning process.
Let us know if you want to hear about our wedding packages here. We shoot Australia wide and we will be bringing back our international weddings depending on the borders, asap!
Esther xox