Choosing a venue is one of the biggest decisions of wedding planning, and it needs to be made very early on in the process, as it impacts every booking you make afterwards.
You need to consider a venue's aesthetics, guest capacity, and the location and how that will impact travel to and from the event. And then, of course, you have to think about the overall price, looking carefully at what exactly is included. Maybe you're searching for an all-inclusive venue with an expert, in-house vendor team; Or maybe you'd prefer a DIY venue where you build your perfect vision on a blank canvas of a space.
As we discussed in our article about choosing a wedding aesthetic, certain aesthetics and styles are more strongly associated with some venue types than others. For example, historic ballrooms lean towards classic elegance or a vintage feel, with heavier fabrics and moodier colours. Meanwhile, beach weddings call for light, airy fabrics, natural textures and a more relaxed vibe. Holding a boho wedding in a rustic, wooden barn makes perfect sense, while a botanical wedding held in a garden or greenhouse venue is a timeless option.
If you're aiming for a particular aesthetic, it's important to look at a venue's existing architecture and surroundings when deciding if it's the spot for you. You’ll want to make sure that you're planning a style and decor that complements the space rather than clashes with it. This can end up saving you time, money and effort when it comes to hiring furniture and decor, as you'll be able to use features already available at the venue, and it will also help everything feel more cohesive and purposeful. It can also help with setting guest expectations - your venue being a rooftop bar in the city is going to conjure different images in the minds of your guests when they get their save the dates than a forest setting in a national park will.
Speaking of guests, the size of your guest list can also impact which venue will work for your event. If you're having a micro wedding, you probably don't want to choose a venue that ticks all of your other boxes but is one cavernous space meant for weddings with at least 100 guests - unless an echoey, social-distance wedding is what you're going for. Similarly, if you're having a large wedding, some venues will simply be too small. And if you do find one that only just has the capacity to fit your expected guest count, keep in mind how much space will be needed for a DJ/musicians, dining tables and chairs, other decor, and waitstaff moving around, and try to think about how cramped and hot it might get in there once everyone is crammed into the space together.
Another thing to remember when looking at venues is seasonal changes and how weather can impact the space. A place may seem perfect when you tour it in the spring, with a beautiful backdrop of trees and greenery, but come autumn or winter that scenery is going to look completely different, either a whole new colour scheme or sparse and bare. That stone paving you love the look of on a sunny day might actually be a slipping hazard if it gets even the slightest drizzle of rain on it. A ceremony space might look picture perfect at 11am but if you're planning an afternoon ceremony, your guests might end up being blinded as the sun hits the windows - or, it might turn out that the lighting of the space has a completely different vibe than the natural sunlight you saw in the photos.
The next article in this series discusses the logistics of travel to and from wedding venues, for both you and your guests, which is yet another thing to think about before you sign any contracts.
But, once you've thought through all of that, you've got a shortlist of places, and are comparing quotes, you now need to look very carefully at exactly what's included in your venue hire.
what's included
All-inclusive wedding venues, as their name suggests, usually include everything you need for a spectacular wedding day: spaces for ceremony, cocktail hour and reception, in-house catering and bar-service, waitstaff and bartenders, styling in terms of furniture, table settings and linens, coordination, and clean up. Some venues will have in-house decor that can be added to your package, and may even have deals pre-organised with certain vendors, such as celebrants and entertainment, though this is rarer. Slightly more commonly, they can include on-site accomodation and dedicated spaces for getting ready, or for a quiet couple's retreat during the celebrations.
No matter what's included in the contract, it's important to double check the details, as each venue and team will have their own definition of scope for each inclusion. Lots of staple things are bound to actually be included if you go with an inclusive venue, but it's on you to check all of the details and ask plenty of questions to ensure that you're getting exactly what you think you are when you sign that contract.
pros
Perhaps the biggest pro of going with an all-inclusive venue is the time it saves you. Going with an all-inclusive venue can remove a lot of wedding planning stress, as it simplifies the logistics and ensures that a lot of the coordination is already taken care of for you. This means that planning can be simplified, as you have a built-in team who are used to working wedding events together, know how things run, and don't require you emailing several different vendors to double check and coordinate details.
Simply by having the ceremony and reception in one place, you remove the hassle of organising travel for the wedding party and guests, and coordinating with two different venues. If your venue also includes accommodation, even better! You can get ready on site and stroll on over to your ceremony without stressing about getting stuck in traffic and being late, and you don't have to pay for wedding cars or other transport to site. Those extra few moments of relative relaxation you get by not having to leave as early are priceless, too.
Having the vast majority of furniture, tableware and linens included with your venue hire saves you having to collect them from a decor company, ensure that none of them are damaged on the night, and then return them back - or pay for that company to drop them off and pick them up. You're already going to have a lot of things to bring to the venue, keep track of, and bring home, so anything you can do to lessen that amount is a win.
Being able to leave the event on a high and not having to worry about who's going to clean up, if they're going to forget to pack anything, or if they're going to leave a mess that means you miss out on getting your deposit back, is a huge plus for venues that include post-event clean up. Obviously you should never deliberately leave things a mess, and hopefully there aren't people on your guest list who would, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing your wedding party aren't on their hands and knees in their formal wear picking up confetti from the floor, or that you don't have to wake up early on your first day of marriage to vacuum the venue, is a highly underrated benefit of inclusive venues.
Many inclusive packages are priced per-guest (usually within bands or ranges) which makes pricing clearer and easier to budget for.
cons
The fact that they have so many things already included can make these types of venues harder to personalise, however. It's not uncommon for them to insist that you use their in-house services, or a vendor from a pre-approved list of theirs. While often this is helpful, as it means that all of your vendors will know their way around the venue, the bump-in and bump-out times, and what's expected of them there, it can be a negative if you have a particular vendor in mind who isn't on their list. You can ask the venue coordinator if they can approve an outside vendor that you'd like to hire, and they'll most likely say yes, but it is still a possibility to consider that you may have to choose between a venue and a caterer, for example.
There may be limitations on the hiring of extra activities and decor, too, which may limit how unique you can make your wedding, depending on the specifics of the venue. Custom touches can be harder, or more expensive, to incorporate at these places than they would be at ones where you just hire the space.
As mentioned earlier, it's extra important to double check what exactly is being included in these contracts. At first glance, it might look like absolutely everything you need is included, but when you check the fine print you find that you're actually missing some key elements, which can lead to panic depending on when you notice, and will lead to extra costs. For example, they may say that chairs are included, but then when you read on you see that it's actually only 60 chairs included - so if you've got a higher guest count, you'll need to pay extra to have enough chairs for all of your guests.
A venue coordinator also usually does things differently to an independent wedding coordinator who isn't tied to a particular venue. If your coordinator works for your venue, there may be up-charges required for them to assist with set up on the day, or limitations on what help they can offer with information about things outside the venue's usual scope, like cake bakers. Or, it may be that there's one coordinator who assists with the paperwork and planning side of events, and then a different coordinator who works on the actual wedding day, which may not be a dynamic that you'd like.
what's included
DIY venues are exactly as the name says: do-it-yourself spaces, where your venue is a blank canvas on which you can create your dream wedding day, tailored to your exact specifications. With these venues, couples are responsible for bringing in their own vendors and managing every aspect of the event, from set-up and pack-down to catering to decor and everything in between. Sometimes there's decor included already - a lot of greenhouses are DIY wedding venues, where you hire the space and the greenery is included, for example - but sometimes there's not, like if it's a hall or a family member's backyard. Some venues will literally be a blank canvas, an empty space with nothing included, in which case you'll need to consider all of the usual wedding necessities plus things like refrigeration and heating for food, electrical set ups for lighting and music, and sometimes even toilets and sinks.
If a space is advertised as venue hire only, or a DIY event space, but you fall in love with photos of it all set up, it's really important to check what exactly in those photos comes with the venue and what was brought in from outside vendors, as hired furniture, lighting and amenities can completely change the look and feel of the space, and you don't want to be disappointed when you see it in person and it's got none of those.
pros
Undoubtedly the biggest pro of choosing a DIY venue is that you get total creative freedom. The fact that you can control every design detail, from where things are set up (depending on doors and power points), to which furniture is used, and every single vendor you hire, makes them ideal for creative couples with a strong, unique vision. You're able to more easily mix and match things from different aesthetics and different vendor packages, so you can tweak every little detail to be exactly as you'd like.
These spaces are often more unique and can be more memorable than the more traditional venues that tend to offer all-inclusive packages. If you're looking for a venue that matches with a specific hobby you and your partner share, suits a more niche aesthetic, or will simply wow your guests, going with a DIY venue can be the perfect option for you.
There is a potential to save money by using a DIY wedding venue, under specific circumstances. The amount of vendors and decor that you need to hire often means that the cost differences between DIY and inclusive venues even out, once all of the extras are taken into account - But, if you're resourceful, or are using the property of a family member or friend, or keep things particularly small (or micro, even), choosing an empty venue and DIYing everything else can be a more budget-friendly option.
cons
Deciding to go with a DIY venue is a significant time investment. Wedding planning is already a huge time sink, but if you have a DIY venue it takes a lot more time and a lot more planning - seriously, more time and effort than you expect is going to be required to pull your event together. As you're getting only the physical venue space and need to coordinate everything else yourself, if you don't have a wedding planner (and even if you do, although to a much more manageable extent), you'll be spending huge amounts of time contacting multiple vendors, sorting out details of contracts, timing and logistics. You'll have a lot more emails and meetings to discuss details of what they need to organise themselves, clearly explaining what isn't included at the venue, as many vendors will assume that things like fridges are part of every wedding venue.
It will also take more time on the actual wedding day, as you'll be responsible for overseeing vendor bump-in and bump-out, and handling clean up after the event is over. It's definitely recommended that you hire a day-of coordinator, at the very least, and you'll almost certainly find yourself relying on your wedding party and family to help out more in the planning stages and on the day. Asking them to finish off your wedding party by taking down decorations or picking confetti off the floor isn't the most fun, though, so you might also consider hiring someone to do the cleaning for you, which is another potential cost.
The freedom of being able to set up the space in a unique way also requires more time and planning from you, as you'll have to measure the space, note where plumbing and power points are, entrances and exits, windows, and any uneven flooring or stairs, and consider how people will move through the space on the day to effectively plan where everything will go. You'll also need to get information from vendors about how much space they need for their set up, if they need to be right near a power point (or, if they're going to have extension cables, where they will run), etc. to ensure that there's enough room for everything to fit and everyone to move around each other when they're all set up on the day.
Depending on how unique your space is, you might also have to discuss the logistics of transport, parking and unloading with your vendors. A lot of places that can be hired for events will have loading zones nearby, but they'll be limited, so you'll have to be careful with overlapping arrival times for your vendors both before and after the wedding.
Although at first glance it can definitely seem cheaper to hire a venue-only space and organise the rest separately, buying or renting everything else you need really adds up quickly, and you can end up spending the same, if not more, than you would if you went with an all-inclusive venue. You've got the basics like tables and chairs, tableware, an arbor and lighting, but you might also need generators, additional lighting, heating or cooling, or even things like fridges, stoves or portable toilets, depending on your specific venue. And that's before we've even got to all of the other things you need, like tableware, linens and extra decor. Make sure you don't get swept in how cheap it appears to hire a venue like this without making a list of everything you'll need to source and organise yourself, and roughly how much that will all cost, before you sign a contract.
All of this can cause DIY weddings to be more stressful. Without a built-in venue team who can help simplify the coordination and take care of a lot of the logistics, especially if you're not hiring a wedding planner and aren't an event coordinator yourself, there is a higher chance of more things potentially going wrong. It may all come together perfectly, but the potential for miscommunications and missed details is higher with a wedding at a DIY venue.
If you're unsure about which venue type is right for your wedding, think about how much time you have available to dedicate specifically to wedding planning everything from scratch, and how much saving that time is worth to you. Are you trying to minimise stress and the decision fatigue that comes with wedding planning, or do you genuinely enjoy event planning and feel like it will be rewarding to do it all yourself? Are you able to save money by using guaranteed support from family, friends and industry connections, or is there a venue package that includes almost everything you're after that's a more cost-effective option? Are you dreaming of a very specific, niche or unconventional wedding day, that just can't be met by using an inclusive venue?
If convenience, simplicity, and expert support top your list, all-inclusive venues can provide peace of mind and make the entire process of wedding planning much smoother. If creativity, customisation, and hands-on involvement are more important to you than saving time, and you find the whole process exciting and rewarding, a DIY approach might be the way to go.
Whatever you choose, both all-inclusive and DIY wedding venues can create magical, memorable celebrations. Figuring out which one is the best choice for you depends on your priorities, personality, and resources, as well as the specifics of the exact venues that you're looking at. Just be sure to read the fine print, and whatever venue will choose can be transformed to the wedding space of your dreams.
