After being a business owner in the wedding industry for 20 years, there’s one thing I wish I could share with every newly engaged – or about to be engaged – couple. Hit pause, pour a stiff drink, and talk with a wedding industry insider about your budget before you book your wedding venue (if possible!),
When couples get engaged, there’s a sense that the clock starts ticking and they need to book their wedding venue before their favorite dates are booked. For some, it feels like a race! I get it. The urgency, however, often comes at a cost. Literally.
When you choose your wedding venue, some budget implications may be determined without your knowing it. Most wedding venues have a list of caterers to choose from meaning there’s a food budget range that’s already taking shape as soon as you book. As for the bar, some venues market competitive rates up front, then make up the difference with higher rates or add-ons you may really need on the backend. Other policies may require the use of in-house rentals or limit coordinator support to only the items rented from the venue. These early factors and others may be shaping how much money you’ll have left for your photographer, reception design, favorite DJ and all the other things you’re excited about!
Taking a minute to explore this before you start the race can make all the difference and remove some of the unexpected stress in your wedding planing. Here’s a few thoughts that can help.
Connect With A Local Wedding Industry Insider
- Wedding budget calculators like those on The Knot, Zola or Wedding Wire can be helpful. However, they are usually based on common budget percentages which might not take into consideration your individual priorities or reflect the costs in your local market. And let’s be honest, not everyone even knows how much money they have for the budget early on which makes these percentages unreliable. And they certainly don’t take into account policies of specific venues/vendors. That said, these calculators can still be helpful when getting started!
- There are wedding planners you can hire on an hourly basis to help establish an initial budget. For many this fee can be applied to their cost if you choose to book with them. This is a great service, but we do recommend working with someone local as they’re more familiar with local vendors, costs and options.
- Mindy and I fully believe in the value of this conversation, so we’re rolling out a similar option where you can meet with one of us – or another established professional – to come up with a tentative budget that can help with your early planning decisions! We’re making these meetings available to anyone who might be popping the big question soon, or is recently engaged and would love some help getting started. As with planners, there will be a small fee for this session, but we’d happily apply it to a new booking at one of our wedding venues or even a rehearsal dinner at The Foyer if another venue is right for you! Click HERE for more details or to schedule your consult.
How We Help Protect Your Budget In Our Wedding Venues
- Our wedding venues are mostly flat rate. This means we include all tables, chairs and furniture that we have in the space, so there’s no additional costs for outside seating, chandeliers, getting ready suites, etc. The price on our page is the real deal.
- Included Coordination: All of our venues include full coordination for weddings in our venues which is commonly an extra $1500-$2000. This includes planning and design meetings early on, vendor coordination in the weeks leading up to your event, plus day-of-coordination. And we don’t limit setup and teardown to items rented through us (with some common sense exceptions of course).
- Most of our available add-ons are costs you would likely have through other vendors. We have some design options available for rent, but don’t require that you use them. Think of this as less of an extra expense and more as a convenient option to keep things in-house. Depending on which of our venues you’re at, this could include dinnerware rental/service (commonly rented through caterers or rental companies), plants and lighting for table design (commonly rented or provided through florists), and a photobooth (which is included at no cost with our Design Suite at Cheney and Leona Road). We do ask that linens are rented through us, but only to ensure we have the correct size linens in our venues prior to your event so there’s no delay getting started on your reception setup.
- All-inclusive,transparent and realistic bar pricing: Our published bar prices include the hours you’ll most likely need for your event, glassware which is commonly an add-on, bartenders, and champagne for your head table. Most of our couples pay the package price that is advertised. Transparency is everything, so we work hard to eliminate surprises! We are happy to create custom packages or fun add-ons, but it’s definitely not something you need to do.
The race is on! But a great start makes all the difference in how the rest of it goes!
Click HERE if you’d like to schedule your wedding budget consult with us.