Virtual Tours

I think seeing the place in person would be better because photos don't often completely give you the whole vision. for instance, things may appear much larger in photos than they will in person. but i do get that with the pandemic, there have been less options so if that's what you're left with, it isn't a terrible idea.

I personally prefer seeing the place in person. If my fiance and I had booked a venue only based on pictures, we would have booked a completely different venue than what we did, and would have ended up disappointed. The pictures made the space seem large, though when we got there for a tour, the dance floor was extremely tiny and the space cramped. The outdoor ceremony space was also close to a highway, and you could hear cars and trucks driving by, which isn't what we were looking for in a ceremony location. The space we ultimately booked ended up being exactly what we wanted, and absolutely beautiful in person.


If it's a destination wedding and you're unable to tour venues due to distance, then definitely rely on pictures and reviews (and be sure to ask lots of questions before booking, and/or ask for additional pictures to be sent of specific areas or angles the advertised pictures don't show). Otherwise, even if it's the wrong season, I would still tour the venue to look for practicality and general layout/packages included. With so many people postponing due to COVID, venues will fill up quicker than normal. If you find a venue you like, but still want to see it in the right season, I would ask for pictures from that season. A virtual tour is also a good option.

I'm pro in-person tour. Pictures are great, but they can be doctored up to make the area seem better than it really is. It's also difficult to get angles and space usage correct when doing a virtual tour or using pictures because, again, you aren't there in person to judge it all. Lisa is correct, vendors and venues are going fast because more couples are postponing their wedding.

If you find a venue you love and they only do virtual tours, then you'll have to go that route, but also take a look at photographers that have worked with them, or any styled shoots they have hosted at their venue. The more photos you have to go on, the better.

I personally wouldn't book a venue without touring it in person unless it was something very affordable, like a park shelter.

I totally forgot about how postponing could be impacting it! I was just thinking it was new bookings, so that makes a lot of sense. I think we'll be better off with our date since we'll probably have to do a Sunday because we are having less than 100 guests.

I would never book a venue without seeing it in person.

Melle, you're right about how pictures can make a place look bigger or different. I just bought a house and the pictures they took of the house were just as you said and they totally had a different feel than in person.

The wide angle cameras they use distort the true size of rooms terribly.
I would never book this way.

I personally would rather see the venue in person

Totally agree with everyone! In person tour is the way I’d go. There were so many weddings that had to be rescheduled due to the pandemic that it’s not surprise that venues are 1.5 yrs out.

If you can’t do the in person tour and have to do virtual, I would try to make sure that you can at least do a drive by of the venue to see what surrounds it, where it is, and the grounds outside. For us, that was a big deal because we wanted a nice outdoor space to at least take photos. One of the venues we looked at we loved except it was in a horribly busy location that made photos we wanted nearly impossible.

I'd do it in person if at all possible.

DH and I toured a venue that we loved online, but when we got there, we realized they were hiding a LOT of important information.

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiike... they were headquarters for a political organization, and had VERY prominent portraits of members of that political party all over. And, no, they didn't come down for events. That was completely hidden online! I don't care what your politics are, my guess is, you don't really want a gigantic portrait of a former President staring down on you at cocktail hour. (Bonus for this being a universally panned former President.)

View Quoted Comment Lol good point. One of the main venues we were thinking of is the planetarium which is pretty well known around this area. I haven't been since I was a kid, but I'm positive there are tons of pics online and we're going to do a virtual tour this weekend. They host jazz nights in the summer too.

I did a virtual-tour of mine--FH has been there before and he pushed for it, so I figured the virtual tour was fine. It's one of those "walk through" ones, so it's more like a video than pictures.

Hi! My fiancé and I did a virtual tour of our (now) venue as they wouldn’t give pricing without a tour. We wanted to know if it’d be worth making the drive for first and it actually worked out great. We’ve been let down by high costs of other venues, which we realized only after seeing them in person. Like you, I wanted a venue picked out ASAP because they are booking up so quickly due to covid reschedules. I reccomend a virtual tour then going to see the venue. You could ask to hold a date for a refundable fee, until you are able to see it in person. That’s what we did!

I'm team in-person tours only because you can only see so much through a camera lens & you may feel different once you're actually there. We were only able to see one venue in person & we went with that one since dates were booking up fast and we didn't want to have to keep pushing back the date. If you must do virtual, see if you can reserve a date through that then see if you can go there in person at a later date.

Nooo. We preselcted three venues via virtual tour. Once we saw them in person, it was indisputable one of them was it and the other two were just not a good fit. Funny cause the one we were most excited about, was not it in person.

I'm all for seeing the venue in-person. Virtual tours might not allow you to see the entire space the way you want to and you don't want to book something and then be surprised when you actually go see it.

With 2020 brides rescheduling - 2021 and 2022 are going to be booked extremely fast. We jumped right into seeing venues in person when we got engaged because it was close to the time of year we wanted to get married.

Personally, seeing in-person changed my opinion on some places. I thought I loved one venue... it was my TOP choice but when we saw it's location (on a street corner) and lack of privacy we thought we had from the photos/virtual tour turned us away from that venue.

The vendor should be able to share photos with you of the space during the right time of year. It's can be hard to visualize but at least see the space in person to make sure you're happy with it in general. You can always go back to see it at the right time of year once you're booked to get a better idea.