I think that choosing your venue is
one of the most exciting parts of wedding planning. Once you have
chosen the venue, you can really start to visualise your big day. You've probably
found several venues and visited a few, and I know that there's a lot of
information to process to find the right venue for your wedding day. So today I
aim to cover some of the important questions that you need to ask your
venue to find the one that's right for you.
Welcome to The Barn at Cott Farm. I'm Becca and this is my husband Ollie. We own and manage this beautiful wedding and
events venue here in South Somerset. We renovated this timber barn for our
wedding in 2016. Since then, we've been hosting weddings and large events at the farm. And we want to share some of our
wedding planning experiences with couples planning their own wedding Like and subscribe to start your wedding planning with The Barn at Cott Farm. Couples can compromise on most elements of their wedding. But something that you really can't compromise on is the guest list. So capacity is probably the first, the deal-breaking, question. That you need to find out from venues. You'll probably find the venue's capacity, so the number of
people that the venue can physically accommodate, is different the amount of
people that they can seat. So for example we can see one hundred and fifty people
in the daytime, but we have a capacity for 300 for the evening. So they might be
different. Really I would suggest making a kind of draft guest list before you
approach venues so that you can work out whether their capacity is going to work
for you Once you've answered the deal-breaking capacity question, then you'll need to decide on the style of wedding that you can see
yourself getting married in.
I would recommend not ruling anything out
make a wide range of different venues. I've met couples who had their
hearts set on the castle who then fell in love with our Barn. I've met couples
who thought that they were going to have a barn, who ended up going for
a manor-house wedding, so don't rule anything out because your eventual venue
choice may surprise you. If you're planning to have a civil ceremony at your venue then you'll need to find out whether the venue has a ceremony licence
so you can have your wedding reception and your reception in one place. Unless
you particularly want to have a church wedding then a civil ceremony and then
having a wedding reception one place is perfect, because it means the you and
your guests don't have to move from one venue to another of the ceremony. So check with
your venue what your options are for having your ceremony at their venue.
And
also check what the wet weather options are there should be an indoor and
outdoor option, just in case. What's included in the price you'll
obviously need to know how much the venue charges but you'll also need to
know what's included in that charge and what extras you may want or need from
the venue or from other suppliers you basically want to get to a total price
that includes everything that you'll need for your big day and this needs to
include any extra costs or hidden charges such as corkage. I'm going to
break down any pricing into what I think your key categories if you're looking at
a dry hire venue, or a DIY marquee wedding, then you're going to
need to budget for a catering tent, kitchen equipment, carpet or flooring, and
lighting as a minimum. You're also going to need furniture – so tables, chairs, a
bar, and also decor. The beauty of a DIY wedding is that you can style your
wedding exactly the way that you want to, but it does mean the costs can creep
up.
Many marquee companies offer packages that include furniture and
equipment, which usually works out more cost-effectively than trying to sort
everything yourself. For permanent or inclusive venues, you'll
usually find everything I've just listed is already included as a minimum. It's
just worth checking whether there's any additional costs on top of the venue
hire fee to get the basics in place. So, once you've got a price for the
fundamentals, find out what's included and what else is available.
You should really think in detail about how you'd like your big day to run. So
let's take, for example, wedding cake. Here at our venue, we include a cake table
various cake stands that you can use, a cake knife.
We don't charge for our staff to cut up the wedding cake to serve to your guests. But if you take
something specific like your wedding cake and then, kind of ,follow that through for everything else that you're going to want to do on your big day, then you can
start to get a sense for what else you might need to budget for separately if
things like that aren't included. As a wedding venue we worked really hard
to make sure that your brochure and price list covers everything that you're going
to need before you come to visit us. Just check out the information that your
venue sends you so that you can work out a total price. Also find out if venue
hire includes a bar, outdoor furniture, toilet facilities, heating and
decorations. You'll need all of those things so, if they're not included, then
you will need to budget for them. Will you have exclusive use of the venue and
facilities? And, if not, how many other weddings will be taking place at the
venue on the same day? So we're an exclusive use venue but what does that
actually mean to you? Itt means that the only people that
your venue on your special day, so at your ceremony, and the grounds, in the car
park, in the toilets, and at the bar, on the dance floor, and in our campsite, the
only people there are going to be you and your guests and some of our discreet
staff.
In short it means that you're going to have privacy throughout your
special day and you won't be sharing the venue, the staff, or the facilities with
anybody else. If the venue you have your heart set on isn't exclusive use, then
find out what is exclusive to you. So for example you may have a private room for
your reception, but be sharing facilities like the bar or the toilets with others.
If you are sharing any of your venue with others, then find out who you're
sharing with.
So for example are there going to be other weddings taking place
on the same day? It's really important to find out who's allowed to go where. If your venue includes catering then
you need to find out whether the menus are at all adaptable, and could you write
your own menu for example? And how will your catering company or venue deal
with any guests from special dietary requirements? If there's no catering
option at your venue then you'll need staff for serving your food and
drinks, from basically from your welcome drinks onwards, and you'll also need to
take care of equipment, so things like crockery, cutlery and glass hire. You'll
also need your tables laid, either by staff or by you, and just think about
when you're going to do that. Think about whether you can have access to the day
before? I'll come on to that more in a minute. All of these things should be included in an inclusive venue, or from your catering company if you're doing a DIY wedding.
If
they aren't included, then you're going to add these to your budget. You'll also
need a wedding coordinator on the day this is basically somebody to make sure
that the whole day runs to plan and you do everything that you want to do. I
can't stress the importance of having a wedding coordinator enough! For our own
wedding we didn't throw the dried flower confetti that I had spent a year drying
because we forgot…
And we very nearly didn't cut our cake until the band
reminded us to do it. So seriously, if there isn't the wedding coordinator
included with your venue, then really do think about getting a professional to
come and do it for you. When you visit the venue you have a good
look at the furniture and try and picture how you want it to look on your
big day and think, for example, do you need to use tablecloths and chair covers?
And, if so, is that something that the venue provides? Or is it something that
you need to budget for separately and hire yourselves. If you do need
tablecloths then have a look at local hire companies that provide these
services. Better yet, don't use tablecloths. Go for
wooden furniture like ours! A key question is when are you able to access your venue to add your own personal touches? So for example here we allow
couples to come on the Friday and to do their decorations and to come with their
florists to different flowers and then we allow access on the Sunday for
couples to come and collect their belongings.
This works for us because we
only host one wedding a week. If your venue hosts more than that, or even more
than one wedding a day, then the chances are you won't be able to have access the
day before so find out what time you'd have access on the morning of your
wedding and really think about whether you actually want to be going to
decorate your venue on the morning of your wedding or whether you should be
sending your florist and possibly even a venue stylist alone to go and do it for
you.
Also find out when you're able to collect flowers and decor as well as
things like your cards and presents. It's really not ideal to be doing this at the
end of your wedding day so find out whether you can come the day after if it
isn't an option to come the day after then think about allocating this duty to
some of your guests and to collect your things at the end of the night so you
don't have to deal with it. Whether or not you have access the day
before your wedding to set up you're going to need to know what decorations
are available. So we provide things like fairy lights on the beams, bunting, a backdrop for the top table and a foliage chandelier. We've also got loads of
different styling props and accessories that couples are welcome to borrow. We
don't charge for our decorations, but my point here really is to ask your venue
and what's here what's included, what's available but for an extra fee, and what
you're going to need to sort yourselves.
This is especially important if you're
visiting a venue when it's set up for a wedding, because you won't know what
belongs to the venue. I personally think that candles are great for weddings. I
think they add a really nice flickering light and sometimes a signature scent as
well, and there is really good local eco-friendly candle makers around us so
we're really lucky. But if you do want to use candles then just check that your
venue does permit you to.
If not have a look at LED options. You'll need to know what time the venue
is licensed until, so what time do they need to stop selling alcohol and and
live music? Basically what time does your wedding day
need to finish? Also find out about staff and whether bar staff are included? Try
and have a look at the bar when you visit, see what drinks they sell, and if
you don't have your favourites then ask whether it's something that they can get
in your wedding day. Find out if the bar excepts card payment. Ask to see
a bar menu to see if you can check their prices.
You need to find out whether you're able
to bring your own drinks, typically table wine, and if you are able to bring your own
drinks then does the venue charge corkage? Corkage is a charge venues
make to cover the cost of storage, chilling and serving your wine. It
typically includes things like hiring and cleaning glasses and staff, and it
sometimes includes recycling or rubbish disposal.
Find out whether your venue charges corkage. We don't here, but we know that a lot of
venues do charge corkage and sometimes it's more cost-effective just to buy the
venue's wine rather than pay the corkage charge. Most venues will have a list of
recommended suppliers. This is basically companies and people that we
as a venue have worked with before and we trust. This can be really helpful
for you if you don't know where to start looking for a professional photographer
or and the wedding florist. But recommended suppliers aren't the same as
preferred suppliers so if a venue insists that you stick with their
preferred suppliers then this can limit your choices and potentially not work
for your budget either.
Sometimes there is a good reason why
venues do this so for example we have a preferred catering company and basically
they offer consistent quality, their staff know the venue and uphold our values and
importantly they allow us to adhere to our health and safety and food hygiene
rules. So sometimes there is a good reason for preferred suppliers. However
sometimes there isn't such a good reason and sometimes venues do take commission from the suppliers. So just check what your venue's policy is on
this. if you're planning to have a band or a
DJ after your wedding breakfast then one really important question to ask your
wedding venue is can they accommodate this including all of their equipment
check for example there are enough electrical outputs for music and
lighting also find out when your band or DJ can set up if they can set up the day
before your wedding day rather than during the evening of your wedding then
it will be much more convenient for you and much less disruptive for your guests.
If your venue isn't local to your guests, then the chances are you're looking at venues
with accommodation. Now, I talked about exclusive use earlier and the same
question applies for accommodation. Is it exclusive use?Find out if the rooms are
provided just for you and your guests or whether you're going to be sharing
communal areas with people. Also find out about check-in and check-out time. You
might like to think about planning your ceremony time around when guests can check in.
We offer glamping in a campsite have we
relaxed about when guests and arrive because we're exclusive use. But if the
venue has weddings every day or more than one wedding in the day then you'll
probably find that there are sensitive timings in place. This section is to
cover things like parking. Is there enough parking for all of your guests? If
lots of people are traveling by car to your venue, then you do need to check the
earn enough space to park all of their cars. It's also handy to know if your guests can leave their cars overnight if they want to have a drink, and whether they need to think ahead about taxis.
Another practical thing to think about
is whether or not you're allowed to use confetti at your venue. The confetti shot
it's usually one of my favorite photos from weddings. Especially as I said
earlier that we forgot to throw our own confetti at our wedding. But find out
what the venue's policy is on confetti Some venues have banned it outright and
others like us do permit it as long as it's real flower confetti. No synthetic
confetti is allowed, even the stuff labeled biodegradable. Lastly on to the
practical stuff section just have a think about the outdoor space of your
venue and how you might use it.
Think about places for photos, and whether
there's seating outdoors. Availability is probably an obvious one but you need to find out whether the venue has any of your favoured dates available and also
find out how their charging structure works, because I know that some venues
charge more for, kind of, summer weddings for example. Or Saturday weddings. We only host one wedding week so for us which is the same price
all year round and any day, but I know that it is a thing for venues to charge
different prices. Once you've visited your shortlisted
venues then don't be afraid to ask the venue for a detailed quote based on your
actual guest numbers and your requirements. If the venue can't provide
some thought you're looking for then ask for recommendations. Also, if you need
to, you can ask for another visit with key decision makers such as parents
before paying any money. thank you for watching. Like and
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