Planning a wedding will force you to make decisions about different options based on many different aspects. While you have to think that the vast majority of them are optional.

You can get married without wearing wedding dresses, give up flowers, the banquet, even (hopefully) a professional wedding photographer. But there is one thing that is indispensable and it is practically the first thing you have to think about, you know what I mean? Exactly! The first thing will be to choose the ideal place to celebrate your wedding.

But I’m telling you that finding the right place isn’t easy, whether it’s for the ceremony or for the celebration with your friends and family or even for these 2 great moments.

The luck is that you will find many options to choose from, no matter what you are looking for, outdoor places, good restaurants, a great ballroom, a rustic and bucolic setting. You will find many options, even if you have thought of getting married in a forest, a mountain or on the beach by the sea, there are professionals in the sector who will offer you the most incredible places.

But before you start looking, it would be good to know that you have to take into account to find the ideal venue.

What kind of wedding do you want

This question is obvious, but it is fundamental. For example, if you are planning to get married in a particular church and then look for a nearby place for your celebration, something highly recommended if you don’t want your guests to spend a lot of time travelling from one place to another. Your search will be different from if you have planned an outdoor wedding in a space where you can spend the whole day with your guests.

Another fundamental concept is the style of wedding you want, we can opt for romantic weddings, modern weddings, more natural places or spectacular locations. As you see the style will also help you focus on some specific places and discard a large majority.

How many guests will attend your wedding

Here we find another fundamental element to start looking for the right place to celebrate your wedding.

Before you start looking you have to know, even approximately, the number of guests that you plan to have with you on your wedding day. Most of the places destined to this kind of events have a minimum and maximum capacity.

You may have dreamed for a long time of getting married in a beautiful property that you already know and when you book you are asked for a minimum number of attendees or even find that the room you liked so much is too small to comfortably accommodate all your guests.

Unfortunately it would not be the first wedding I see the attendees crowded together due to the lack of space.

Knowing the number of guests beforehand is crucial, since on the one hand it will make it easier for you to choose the place and on the other hand it will help you to prepare your budget. Without a doubt, this is another fundamental aspect that will influence your decision to choose one place or another.

Your budget will determine your options

The budget available or marked for your wedding, whether you like it or not, would be the most important limitation that you will find, all the ideas and dreams for the celebration of your wedding, in the end they will clash head on with the cost that they have and your capacity to face it.

But being this fundamental point, knowing the criteria that they mark to fix their prices can help us to manage to adapt us to the place that more we like.

The cost of space

Knowing the cost of a space where you celebrate a wedding will help you plan. I will try to explain in a simple way with some examples how different places charge.

Wedding halls or restaurants

These premises, calculate the space needed taking into account the number of guests, and in the end the price is charged per cover. Once you hire a certain number of attendees they will adapt the space needed.

But there are other options that make the price of these places vary, such as floral decoration, arrangement of a place for the wedding dance, open bar for the guests at the party and the most fundamental point, the chosen menu.

Depending on the category of the place, we will always find a minimum price, and from there up the options will be endless, you know, the more sugar, the sweeter.

Wedding properties

Here we can find basically two options, although they are not the only ones, but as a rule, there are places where they charge per guest similar to a wedding hall as we have seen before and others where you only rent the space and you will be in charge of finding the rest of the providers (catering, music, floral arrangements, decoration, etc.).

We could also describe this same thing in a different way. In the first ones you have to assume that they impose the catering company, the florists and decorators and even the DJs and from here they elaborate their budget, there are even cases in which a catering company exploits estates exclusively and offers you all the services.

In the second case, there are properties where you rent the space and have the freedom to look for the different suppliers that best fit your tastes and budget or within the proposals that the property itself can make for you. This will give you more possibilities, but be very careful to get your fingers caught on this subject.

If you rent a space for your wedding that is already close to the limit of your budget, it will be a problem, since you still have to hire at least a dozen professionals and their services to be able to celebrate your wedding and in these cases the cost of the catering is not included.

My advice is that once you have your budget, divide it between the different services you need. When you have done this, you will be able to see what you are spending each euro on and what you consider more or less important to modify the amount spent on each thing.

Your own wedding venue

I told you before and I repeat it again, to carry out an original wedding many times the imagination is much more effective than money.

Every day in my experience as a wedding photographer, I see more celebrations in different places. A plot of land available from a family member or friend, space unthinkable a short time ago to hold a wedding, such as an art gallery, a factory, a small conditioned restaurant, a space in the forest and a thousand other ideas.

Wedding planners and wedding planners are aware that this is a growing trend and are starting to offer them in their services.

Nowadays wedding planners are able to give you the good service you need in the most unsuspected place, so don’t discard anything and throw your imagination into it. I’ve really seen beautiful weddings in places that are not meant to be celebrated a priori. Nor is it necessary a conventional banquet, a good cocktail for example can replace it with great success.

What’s included in the price

If you are more or less clear about the location, either with full service or giving you the option to hire your own providers, you have to be very clear about what is included and what is not. Make sure you know what each thing is worth. Keep in mind that in many occasions and depending on the category of the supplier the items you have hired may be excessively basic.

For you to understand there are celebration utensils and there are day to day utensils, there are places where the open bar does not include certain hours, I can say that I have come to see on some occasions deny a bottle of water to a guest on a very hot day because the drink service did not start for an hour.

Be careful with this and talk to the possible suppliers you are going to hire to solve all the possible doubts.

Always think of your guests

The success of your wedding and the memory of it by your guests, is ultimately what will measure the success and “quality” of your wedding.

I’m not going to explain much here, but there are things that fall under its weight. Your guests have to be comfortable, you can’t cram them into a small space or as much as you like an outdoor wedding, there are places where you can only do it in the summer months.

Details such as older people having a place to sit or at the last minute your guests not having a means of communication to go to the hotel if they have come from outside, have to be taken into account.

These small issues, and others that we often overlook, are fundamental in choosing a place to celebrate your wedding and make it a success.

Do we need the service of a wedding planner?

Nowadays the figure of wedding planners such as wedding planners are gaining acceptance.

I would personally advise you to talk to a professional, if you are looking for a place to celebrate your wedding, they are familiar with almost all available places and know the different options to prepare an event as well as manage the possible permissions that may be necessary.

Find a person who understands your needs and tastes and can offer you the best option for you. You may find event organizers who have a limited number of providers or sometimes want to bring in the one most favorable to them (because of their particular interest and not yours).

This is not a bad thing because you have probably worked with them and they know the quality and results, but you should feel free to choose what suits you best and fits your style.

It’s not much use to be offered a great classical music quartet when your favorite style is jazz, you can surely find a jazz group that fits you much more.