Venue Deal Breakers

Have your list of wants, and your list of needs and your guest list count (aboutish) and go from there. Make sure you can have everything you want.

My biggest deal breaker is if we (family/WP) had to be the one serving foods (even if it was catered and we just had to refill it), also FH wanted a place that would only hold 60 max and now because of his connections we have had to invite over the 100 we originally thought and we are at 140 if everyone says yes.

Is your wedding really in 2 months in Spokane?? You might not get to be too choosy.

1. Mine has to let outside catering.

2. Not a ballroom/hotel conference room.

I wanted a venue that could be used for both ceremony & reception but separate enough that there wouldn't have to be a break down where guests could see it, be a part of it (moving their own chairs) or inconvenienced by it. I also wanted it to be strictly a wedding venue that had great reviews (longer history) since I'm planning out of state. No new-to-this industry mishaps. And inclusive--didn't have to be completely, they don't provide cake for example but as much bang for my buck I could get. I didn't want to deal with chair or table rentals.

OP, is your wedding really in 2 months--August is popular wedding month in WA state, I know Spokane is hotter in August than Seattle but still super popular, are you sure you can book that date? Saturday weddings are usually the most expensive and book fast.

My deal breakers were: the backup plan for rain in case of outdoor ceremony not happening, parking for guests, location of venue, logistics of ceremony to reception transition, washrooms, exclusivity (only people there) and not a ballroom, conference centre, golf club or banquet halls.

I had 3 and 2 of them were pretty stupid.

1. Affordable open bar package. I knew I wanted open bar the whole night

2. No ugly carpet. I said no to many places because of the carpet haha

3. High ceilings. I'm tall and some places with lower ceilings make me feel claustrophobic. I wanted it to have a super open feel.

You are two months away and just now looking for a venue?!?! Most places book up a year in advance so you may be somewhat limited. Not familiar with Spokane but because of your quick timeline, you may want to consider looking at State Parks - there are some amazing locations that are beautiful and very inexpensive. That being said, using a park would necessitate bringing in tables/chairs, etc.

Deal breakers - ceremony and reception in one location. Having to travel from ceremony to reception --no fun.

Also - really wanted a more DIY venue that allowed for outside vendors, etc. Yes, it is more work but the all inclusive/package places are just incredibly expensive and seems very limiting.

Ours was the willingness to change the ceremony site from indoor to outdoor since no one has any idea what the weather will be like on my date.

We ended up with a semi-inclusive venue and I am so thankful. The owner is the head chef and it's so much easier to just deal with one place for about 65% of the wedding. It makes the higher price so worth it because we don't have to worry about rentals.

Me IRL looking at your wedding date

Yikes... at this point your deal breaker will probably have to be if it available even! Good luck!

Ya you aren't going to have many options two months out during wedding season. good luck.

My deal breaker was a venue only allowing us to use a list of "Approved Caterers". Trust me, you save a lot of money not having to use a "Wedding Caterer". We are having Famous Dave's cater for 10 times less with tastier food.

I hope you date is wrong OP. If it's correct, then your focus needs to be that the venue is available and in budget.

My dealbreakers:

1) Had to be in budget.

2) Everyone could be seated on the same floor. I hate weddings where some guests are on a different floor as it feels like they are less important.

3) Had to be able to have onsite ceremony.

4) Had to have backup plan if it rained.

5) had to allow weekend weddings. (One venue we looked at only allowed weekday or Sunday night weddings).

I'm going to guess (hope) you set the year wrong and are actually getting married 14 months from now....

In addition to what PPers have said, before I decided on adults only, I wanted affordable kids' meals. Some places barely discounted or did not discount kids' meals. At one point, if we invited kids, we had 88 kids on the list and 250 adults!

A deal breaker for me was a huge rental fee. I looked at mansions, museums, aquariums online that all had about $10K rental fees just to use the space, before any food or alcohol. That would've been pretty much my entire budget so I said no way.

1) can't have ugly carpet

2) can't be an ugly hall

3) must allow outside vendors

4) No more than 20 minute drive from my house and church

5) The vibe i get from the person who runs the place. If i got a feeling that you will be a pain in my butt and are bad at replying calls/emails, i'm out.

6) Price. I'm not throwing out more than 5k on a hall. My hall ended up being less than $2,000. Its a hall owned by the city.

PP's pretty much covered all mine. Except one. . .

Our ceremony venue doesn't have AC. Which I didn't realize when we went for the site visit in February and it was lovely outside. It's going to be hot AF in September. Thank god it's an 11am wedding and a short ceremony! But since your date says August, check on the AC!

My only hard and fast deal breakers were budget and handicap accessible.

An uncle who I love dearly is paralyzed from the chest down and I wanted him to have a good time as well!

Mine were:

1. Budget, obviously

2. A decent indoor option if it rains.

3. No more than one wedding at a time.

4. Charging me for every little thing . (One venue wanted to charge me for putting my bag in the bridal suite and to turn all the lights on, no thanks)

5. Gaudy details

My biggest one was that I really didn't want a venue that charged the bar by consumption. I wanted a set price for open bar all night so there were no surprises at the end of the night.

Also, I'm hoping you just stuck a random wedding date in there when you signed up here..otherwise, good luck.

Mine were

-Had to be a brewery

-Had to have good beer (you be surprised how many shitty craft breweries there are....)

-Had to be in Virginia (home Commonwealth yo)

-Had to be scenic/in a beautiful location (this was surprisingly hard to find as most breweries are in strip malls or run down business parks)

-Preferred exclusive use of private indoor event space (not tents!) OR full use of venue (again, this was hard to find because these are working venues, a wedding is a drop in the bucket compared to regular sales)

-Outdoor ceremony spot

-Allowed outside catering OR had decent restaurant as part of the brewery

-Relatively affordable/in our budget. I don't have 10k to drop on the venue rental alone

In the end, only 3 places met our requirements.