Decide on your theme
Before you begin your search, you need to first decide on the theme you want for your wedding. Your theme will dictate where you need to focus your search. If you want a beach wedding you know you need to search the coast, if you want a rustic wedding, you need to look for a farm or barn, etc. and so forth.
Know your budget
The cost of a wedding on average is north of $30,000 in 2018. If your one of the lucky ones and has rich parents who don’t mind throwing large amounts of money towards the big day, great, but for most Americans, the cost is just not feasible. When looking for a venue keep in mind the other expenses you’ll have, and be sure to ask what they require you of use of theirs. Many venues will require you use they’re caterers or bands, etc. These become added costs that your unable to lower in other ways when the date gets closer.
Expand Your Search
We all have our comfort zones we feel close to. We want to stay close to a certain area for family and friends and such. Depending on where you reside, the number of options you have may vary. If you live in a more heavily populated area than you may find many places available to you, but further away in rural areas large indoor locations may be few and far between. Being a bit more open minded may allow you to some additional options.
Consider a Smaller Wedding
Weddings by nature are expensive. Inviting everyone you know can get quite expensive, especially providing for a larger venue, feeding all your guests, etc. Consider a smaller, more intimate ceremony with just your closest family and friends.
Use Your Imagination
You probably have an idea in your head of what everything is supposed to be like on your big day. The way everything should be setup. The decor. The building itself, etc. The perfect venues are usually made for that reason, and they often cost more to rent. Think of other places, buildings, etc. that could double as a venue. For rustic themed weddings think a barn or an outside farmyard. A beach wedding could be changed to a waterfront wedding. In our area most of the local fire companies will rent out for weddings and events. Our own wedding was in a fire hall and was rustic themed. Once inside the decor was setup to the point who couldn’t tell where we were at. We ended up paying the fire company a total of a few hundred dollars to rent the hall and commercial kitchen for several days’ use. We had looked at specialized venues of over $10,000 a day, not including the services we had to agree to use of theirs.
[…] A place to have your wedding is usually the biggest challenge and the most important thing to consider, reasonable cost venues will book up much faster. It’s nice to be able to have the nicest venues that specialize in weddings and have the manpower to help setup and cleanup, however, you can find many outdoor areas, local beaches, government owned parks, fire halls, and church halls that usually will accommodate wedding parties and for a much lower upfront cost. When we had our wedding some of the restaurants and hotels that had venues had rents of $10-15,000, and you had to use their catering services, housing, photographers, and had limited time you could actually use the facility. We ended up renting our local fire hall and its commercial kitchen facilities for $400 total. Checkout our post on finding the perfect wedding venue. […]