Venue issue!

I felt the same way. I got got engaged in July but didn't actually visit venues until late august/early September. A lot of the popular venues book fast on Saturdays during the peak season. I was told fall is now the peak season. I was lucky and was able to book on my date. But you will have to be willing to be flexible with either the date or the venue. If you found your dream venue consider changing the date. If you have a date that is special to you then you will have to be flexible on the venue. Good Luck!

Yes and no. My Fiancé and I literally started looking for a venue in October and we're getting married in January 2020!

I think it all depends. We only had four months to plan our wedding and so we knew we had to be somewhat flexible with our date. We did a lot of searching online and a lot of driving to venues we were interested in that were also within our price range. If they were outside of our price range or not what we were looking for, we didn’t even waste our time. Because we live near DC, we knew we had to find some place more in the country and further from DC. We spent multiple weekends visiting three or four venues a day. We thought we found the one on our second day of searching. It was beautiful and it seemed to be a great deal. So, we had our parents come back with us and then we had some questions and concerns. We couldn’t be assured that the venue would be complete, that the owner would even have the fire pits complete, etc. Plus, she wanted more money from us to set up Friday and clean up Sunday—which added up to an amount outside of our budget. So, we just kept searching and finally found the one. The price was less than $5k for the venue for the weekend and it had everything we wanted. They had Nov 2, 2019 open—which was not the date we wanted, but we made it work. If the venue is more than you want to spend, I personally wouldn’t settle. There are plenty of venues and surely a few hidden gems. Ours was a hidden gem. There has got to be something just as if not more beautiful than this one that is also within your budget out there. It’s totally your decision, though. Good luck!

I got engaged last October and when I tried to get the date I wanted 10/10/2020 at my venue it was already taken. Two years in advance. I ended up with Halloween instead. Many people book really far out. Especially for weddings later in the year. Many popular dates.

Hi!! I can totally relate. Getting married in October 2020 and I feel that we have ran out of venues and I started planning a week after I got engaged (October this year).... The rates are extremely high during the weekends (mostly Saturday) so we are set on doing a Friday wedding. Which I don’t mind doing. I was told that if you do a Thursday wedding, the rates are twice less - I haven’t checked yet. We just have to relax, ask help from experts, have your fiancé by your side and a good support system from friends and family and I think we are good! good luck and congratulations!

Honestly, we started looking in September 2018 for our May 2020 wedding and were surprised at how many people already booked our venue of choice (at the time). We had to change our date, but only be a couple of weeks. Perhaps just ask to see what they have- maybe there will be things in late October or early December.

I also found that there were some venues that told me I was looking way in advance and they had very few reservations in 2020... so I suppose it really just boils down to how popular your venue is. If you don't have many conditions on what kind of venue you're looking for, it'll be easier to pick something. I truly believe that there are still options for you guys that aren't that overpriced place!

I got engaged and september of this year and we knew we wanted to have a fall wedding. All the venues and other vendors were pretty much booked for 2020 so we decided to move our date to September 2021. We booked our venue already because they told us they were already booking up for those dates, it’s crazy how far in advanced you have to book now!

Our venue usually books 2 years in advance. We booked in March 2019 and we're getting married July 2020. Luckily we're doing a Friday wedding so they had more availability then. But I would book something as soon as you know its the one you want!

I would say, if you're set on a certain venue, just change the date. I wanted November 2020 as well (to have a fall/rustic wedding), but I knew we would not be able to afford it. Plus the venue I really liked was higher since that is their "peak season". Instead, we went with March 6th, 2021. It's only a few months away from 2020 and it doesn't interfere with the holidays AND March is not as cold as February in my area (most of the time!). I also don't feel as rushed to plan with it being in March 2021. I'm still going to have my rustic theme, but just change a few things to make it more of a winter/rustic theme rather than fall. A lot of people always ask why my wedding is so far away and why we booked so far in advance and it is for that exact reason. There is nothing wrong with adding a few more months onto your original wedding date to have the perfect/dream venue! (:

We are getting married next October and had a hard time finding a venue. We fell in love with some online and when we went to call they were so far booked out that they wouldn’t even give us a tour. We ended up changing our date to a Sunday to pick the venue we wanted. It also saved us 2500 doing a Sunday. You didn’t start to late at all, some places are just very popular. You’ll find somewhere don’t worry!