Weddings take a long time to plan. Some people spend a year or more planning their special day. From looking at beautiful wedding places to touring wedding ballrooms and talking to companies about catering for events, there are a lot of details to consider and things to keep track of. It does not have to be as hard as it may seem to find the best banquet hall rental for your special day.
- Start with your budget. You should have an overarching budget for your entire wedding. This should include everything from how much wedding ballrooms cost to the price tag for the flowers. When you are making up your budget, you should also make a list of what you really want to have at your wedding and what details may not mean as much to you. This can help narrow down your list of possible wedding ballrooms and venues. Once you have a budget, stick with it.
- Have you decided a style for your wedding? Do you have a theme that you have always wanted to include in your wedding? Maybe you have always envisioned a formal event or maybe you are a more low key kind of couple and want your wedding and reception to reflect that. You may be surprised to learn how many wedding receptions are held in some very unique spaces. People have used everything from the formal ballroom at a fancy and elegant hotel to a barn at a friend’s farm to host their wedding reception. If you do decide to go with some very unique space, you may have to handle more of the logistics so keep that in mind. It can end up costing more in the long run.
- Think through what you want. After you have drawn up a list of the wedding ballrooms and other spaces that you are considering, work through how you will get everything done. If you are having an evening wedding reception, you may want to pass out sparklers to your guests, for instance. If that is the case, you may need an outdoor venue for your reception. You need to work through all of the logistics of your event before you set yourself on one venue.
- Check out the venues you like a few times. If you can narrow your list of wedding ballrooms or other venue spaces to just a few, you should make it a point to see them more than once. Your first impression may not be the same as your second or third. Go back and think about the logistical needs of your wedding reception when you look at the venue a second or third time. What does the venue look like at the time you want to have your wedding reception. If you tour the venue at 10:00 am and your reception will be at 7:00 pm, you need to see what the area looks like at 7:00 pm.
- What kind of catering do you want? Is there a specific cuisine that you want to serve? Are there dietary restrictions or considerations that you have? You need to ask the venues that you want to rent if they will allow you to bring in your own caterer. There are a lot of wedding ballrooms in hotels where they require people who use their space to also use their catering department. Whenever you go to a place that hosts a lot of weddings, you need to see what their policies are vis-a-vis catering, alcohol and the baking. They may have rules about all of these things and that can limit your choices for all of those elements.
- Ask about control. When you are looking at wedding reception venues, ask about the catering issues (as mentioned above) but also about the flowers, decorations and music. Some wedding ballrooms have rules and regulations that govern all of that. You may find that a great wedding reception venue is not as great as you thought because they limit your choices too much.
Your wedding is a special day, full of hope, joy and celebration, you can make it really special when you find the right venue.
