What To Do After You Get Engaged: Find a Venue and Set a Date!

Series Part 2

Pop the champagne, sister! It’s time to break out the wedding magazines and Pinterest boards for the fun part of wedding planning!

I’m writing a 4 part series about what to do after you get engaged! Follow this advice and get the hard part out of the way first! Then, you can move on to the fun stuff! We’ll talk about that in the next post!

In my last post, we talked about the first step in wedding planning: nailing down a budget. It’s certainly not fun, but it’s necessary...and it helps you do all of the fun stuff, which is what we are going to dive into today!

Finding a venue is one of the most exciting aspects of wedding planning and one of the most necessary. You have to have a venue to get married and you have to have a venue to book any other vendors (i.e., photographer, florist, caterer, DJ).

I talk to many brides who have had a location picked out since they were five years old, but I also talk to brides who have absolutely no idea what they want or where to start their search. Whichever camp you are in, I want to let you know that the process of picking your wedding venue and picking a date should be fun and memorable NOT tear-inducing or panic-packed.

As you start out on your search for the wedding location of your dreams, here are some tips I have for you!

Consider what is more important, the venue or the date

If you are a bride who has already picked the venue of your dreams and won’t settle for anything else, then that is where you have to start. Many popular venues are months and even years in advance. So, if you absolutely HAVE to get married at Rose Briar Place in June you might have to wait a few years. However, if you really want to get married in October next year and that’s all that matters, you might have to go through a few venues before you find one that will work for you.

Know how much money you want to spend

I know, I know...you thought we were done talking about money. Well, we’re not---when choosing a wedding venue you have to know how much of your budget you want to spend on location. Narrowing your venue search down first by budget will keep you from falling in love with a venue you can’t afford. (Believe me, you don’t need that kind of heartbreak in your wedding planning).

Think about your vendors

Believe it or not, there are wedding venues that have the ability to control which vendors you use for specific aspects of your weddings. Certain venues will only allow you to use their food for catering while others will make you choose your florist, photographer, or DJ from their list of approved/partner vendors. ( Don’t forget, you CAN find an amazing, affordable wedding photographer.) So, when you are touring venues be sure to ask about their vendor policies before you pay your deposit!

Happy venue hunting!

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