Here's The Skinny On Wedding Venue Shopping

Congratulations! You've just become engaged and you are soo excited! You're beaming, and showing off your ring to anyone that will stand still long enough to share it with lol. So now you have the task of getting ready for the wedding....the ceremony ....the reception....OMG! You have officially started to panic and everyone is giving you advice. Your Mom, your co-workers...even the bank teller!

Well unless you are doing a long engagement and are not doing the wedding part for 5 more years, you might as well get used to it. So after you've listened and tried to be patient with everyone now its time to really get things done and where do you start??

Often its the dress. That is important because your dress can take up to 6 months to order and alter. As important as the dress is, you will also want to start looking for a venue because the venue that you pick will effect all the other details of your day. An outdoor venue has to be prepared in case of weather, decor will be picked according to the style of your venue, flowers, and all the lovely things. Do you want your ceremony and reception in the same place ?

An all inclusive venue offers the ability to have everything in one place. What does all inclusive mean? Most of the time it means you can save a lot of time and money by choosing all inclusive.

Basically this means that your food, linens , tables, glassware, chairs, cutlery, and even some of the large decorative pieces are already in place. So having your reception with butler passed appetizers wont be a problem, and they usually come with a champagne toast. It also means you won't have to go rent all those extras, like chairs and linens, because they are included. I know a venue that will even include draping ( putting elegant fabric on the walls or ceiling to cover them).

So where to start looking ? First lets get the guest list and figure out approximately how many people you will be having. That's a biggie, because you want a space that will hold everyone. The other important factor is the date you pick. Try to be flexible, if you marry on a weekday it can save real money you can spend on other things. The other necessary decision, will you be getting married in the dead of winter or the middle of summer. Some venues have a high season (they charge more) when they are in high demand, or low season (charge less). You might consider the low season and a week day, it can be really shocking how much you can save by choosing these options.

OK now what ? With all the important parts start your research, more research, and some more research. Here are some other filtering facts, do you want rustic, city, modern, woodsy, maybe you like the vintage historic feel. These are some things that will filter out the other 10,000 venues just by narrowing down and looking for historic landmarks, or maybe museums.

Yes you can get married in a park...but you better have a permit when you do or you can pay a heavy fine for rolling in with your posse and setting up 200 chairs ! ( call the parks and recreational centers)

Maybe your thinking I don't have time for all this research and negotiating, and calling hundreds of people OMG ! So now would be a great time to hire a planner because this is what we do. We get all the juicy details for your day and start eliminating things that we know are not going to be in your budget or your style range. Keeping your sanity in tact is our number one task, let us take care of the overwhelming OMG things and allow yourself time to breathe :)

Madeline

Mandalay Bay Resort Oxnard California (on the beach inclusive venue)