Soon to be. Brides

Hi Latissa. Congratulations on your engagement! I’d say it’s totally fine that you haven’t picked a venue yet. However, it is good that you’re looking and you both have a set budget. You’re off to a great start. It’s good to look at different venues to see what they offer and how much. It helps that you have a budget, so it’ll be easier to veto the venues that are too expensive. There’s an option on here to search for vendors in your area, you can check it out and see what’s available for your date. Hope this helps! Happy planning.

Congratulations on your engagement! The first thing you need to do is set a budget, compile a guest list, and find/book a venue. You do not have a date until venue is booked and 2023 is very full with all of the Covid postponements. As far as keeping g costs down, think outside the box: any day except Saturday is much cheaper as is a brunch/lunch instead of dinner reception. Venues such as park and rec centers, community centers, veteran/fire halls are much more reasonable than hotel ballrooms, all-inclusive venues. Good luck!

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much so your advice and where can a search for venues in my area. I appreciate it

I started booking for October 2023 in 2021. Vendors were already booked for 2023 and some even turned me down because they were booked for my date. If you are set on October next year, you really need to get going on hiring everyone. As for where to find venues, you can search by location on Wedding Wire.

View Quoted Comment If you click on vendors at the bottom of the app it’ll list different vendors starting with venues. It’ll also allow you to type in the area as well. Let me know if you need help finding it.

Definitely start looking - I started looking in November of 2021 for my December of 2022 wedding and I had several tell me they had zero dates available - the wedding industry has seriously boomed after two years of people postponing. On top of the normal amount of people getting engaged and married in any given year.

But don't be discouraged if you feel like you're looking at a lot and not finding what you want. I contacted around 75 places for pricing and we physically went and saw 15 before we found the right one (which was the SECOND TO LAST!!! that we saw). When you get to the place that a) works in your budget and b) feels right, you'll know it. I literally breathed a sigh of relief when we walked into the venue we ended up choosing. After 13 places where only one other felt even close to right (but was out of budget) to have a place that was in budget and exactly what I was looking for... it was like the heavens opened up and I could hear the angels singing!

Take a look at the vendors tab on this site, and look in the area you're looking for. Keep an open mind and just start emailing asking for pricing (make sure to mention your date!). Most are really good about sending along information (I have so many PDFs of venue pricing around my city...) and will straight up tell you if that date is even available before anything else.

Try and keep your searches a little vague - the place we ended up booking wasn't even on my original radar! My dad did a search out of curiosity after we went to about 10 places with no luck and mentioned it to me. My fiancé's response was along the lines of "Oh yeah! That place!". It's less than 5 minutes from our house and never came up on any of my searches, my dad simply used a different search word than I did!

Good luck and remember to have fun! Weddings are about love and celebration and fun! Don't let the stress take that from you!

I would get going on booking. I booked my wedding for this october 13 months out and had a lot of vendors (videographer, caterer etc) tell me they were booked for my date already - and I'm getting married on a sunday. Our venue was almost completely booked for october already. Also, I know that my day of coordinator, photographer and some others have been posting on social media that they are already pretty booked for next year. If you're set on anything, especially october which is apparently big wedding season, I would get going

Everyone has some great advice for you, I just want to add that some venues may have a higher cost on paper, but make sure you look to see what’s included at that location.. for instance, do they also provide tables, basic linens, and dinnerware? (Those costs can add up from rental companies.) Others might have catering on site! Do they have alcohol? If so, do they have a corkage fee for outside liquor?
Budget was average for me, but I was able to spend less on a dress and made my own invitations to help cut costs. Talk to family and friends for ideas! Sometimes family wants to help chip in for things like cake! Best of luck and congrats!

View Quoted Comment Thank you guys for the advice I truly appreciate it 😊

We are still looking at venues and the wedding is this December! We booked one and then changed our mind. My advice is figure out what is a reasonable budget. And don’t settle for something you are not certain you will like . Fortunately we have both sides of the family willing to help financially so if that is an option it’s helpful. Plan to put 50% down on a venue to secure your date and around 75%-80% if you book a wedding less than 6 months with the entire balance paid 2 wks before the wedding . Outside weddings and churches are cheaper and are just as nice . You have a good amount of time . Also , the more guests you have the more expensive the wedding so focus on the most important people you would want to have . I truly believe no matter what budget you have you can still have a beautiful wedding