Planning your wedding is exciting and stressful all at the same time. Yes, your wedding should be the happiest day of your life, but it comes with a staggering amount of admin. You have to deal with setting a budget, providing food and drinks, dealing with family, making sure everything is legally binding, and finding some time to enjoy yourself and plan something that you and your future spouse actually want.
The only way to deal with some of this stress is by breaking each task down into achievable goals. For example, here are some tips to help you find a great wedding venue.
Figure Out a Budget
The first step of picking a wedding venue starts before you even look at different venues. You need to figure out your budget. This will help you to determine how many people you can afford to host and feed at your wedding.
This prevents you from pushing for venues that you can’t afford. Instead, you can aim for something achievable and escape disappointment and debt. There is no point in getting a beautiful venue if you can barely afford the marriage license.
Pick Your Guest List
The next step to planning your wedding is to work out a guest list. The smaller your wedding, the more venue options you’ll have. However, some couples like the idea of inviting more than just their immediate family and close friends.
If you want to keep your options open, you can create a few different guest lists. First, a small list of the people who you both need at your wedding. Both of you should have an equal say in this. Then you can add people who you’d like to invite to different lists.
You should also create a list of people who shouldn’t get an invite. Again, both of you should have veto power over guests. Life is messy, and if there are some people who you don’t want to invite to your wedding day, communicate it clearly.
Pick a Theme
Your wedding is a celebration of a lot of things. You celebrate your family and friends, but you also celebrate your relationship. This means that the most important opinion should be yours. You can listen to your parents and other family members, but the theme and other details should represent the couple.
More and more people are choosing to have more unique weddings that they and their guests will remember. You don’t have to push things too far, but you can play around with your decor, colour scheme, and other aspects of your weddings to create a memorable day.
Some venues work better than others for specific themes. For example, if you want a more rustic wedding, an outdoor venue with plenty of flowers might be the perfect place. Or you might want an intimate wedding in a pub or small hotel.
Finding a Venue
The last step is to find the venue itself. Create a shortlist of different wedding venues and make sure that you visit them in person. Check the availability of the venues and find something that fits your preferred wedding date. From there, you can look forward to your big day.
This is a collaborative post and may contain affiliate links