Your wedding venue sets the foundation for all planning to follow after booking. Furthermore, all of your wedding vendors should always tailor their services to best suit your specific tastes as well the requirements of the wedding hall. Therefore, it is important to know the top questions to ask your wedding venue at the final meeting before booking. This will help ensure the venue you select is PERFECT for your big day.
Questions To Ask Your Wedding Venue
Wedding Venue Charges
What is included with the basic venue rental package?
There are some venues that charge only for the space, while there are others where the site fee includes chairs, tables, table linens, etc.
However, most venue coordinators will make you pay additional amounts if you want these items to be more specific to your individual tastes.
How many hours will I be able to rent the venue?
In addition to the time needed for your wedding, you will need a couple of hours for vendor load-in and around one hour for load-out.
Find out the number of hours included in the basic rental fee.
If you feel that the time left after deducting three hours (for load-in and load-out) is not enough for the occasion, find out the extra amount you will need to pay for adding hours.
Policies
Do you have any alcohol restrictions?
Some banquet halls don’t allow dark liquor or red wine.
On the other hand, you will also come across banquet halls that will require you to have special permits for serving liquor.
However, most venue coordinators will not stop you from serving alcohol providing the job is done by your caterer.
Do you have any décor restrictions?
Many buildings don’t permit the use of confetti and other similar objects that can be thrown during the grand entrance.
You will also find some with candle and open flame restrictions or sparkler restrictions.
It’s also important to ask your wedding venue coordinator if they have a wedding decor checklist of guidelines to follow.
What is the wedding timeline?
Timelines can be different for each wedding.
However, I’m often asked, “what is the standard order and times for all of the events during a wedding day?”
With that said, I put together a sample of a basic wedding timeline and would like to share it with you below.
Are there any volume restrictions?
This is one of the most important wedding venue questions to ask if you are having a wedding DJ or band.
Certain venues, particularly the outdoor ones, would require you to follow some rules when playing music.
In addition, there might be restrictions on what you can or cannot play in some areas and after a certain time of the day.
Accommodations
Is there a separate room where I can get ready?
Most of the top wedding venues have a room dedicated for the bride. It’s the room where she can get ready with assistance from her entourage.
Is there a coat check?
This question is particularly important if you are planning to get married during the rainy season or winter.
Also, find out whether the venue has a coat check. If not, ask whether there is a coat rack.
Wedding Hall Availability
Do you host more than one event on a given day?
If you have picked a large wedding site with multiple spaces, you should be aware of the activities that would be taking place in other parts of the venue.
In addition, if the venue is hosting more than one event on the same day, find out how your guests would know where exactly they should go.
Furthermore, it is so important to ask when will you and your vendors have access to your banquet room to set up.
Electrical
What type of lighting do you offer?
As we survey wedding venues mostly during the daytime, we often forget to talk about lighting.
However, most wedding receptions are in the evening.
Ideal wedding venues have lights that can be dimmed.
Therefore, never go for a venue adorned with corporate, fluorescent lighting.
How much power you can provide?
This is one of the most overlooked questions to ask your wedding venue at the final meeting
Wedding vendors may need to pull a significant amount of power from the venue.
With that said, it’s extremely important to know whether the banquet hall you are considering has the adequate power and outlets needed.
Wedding Venue Lodging
Many venues offer overnight lodging accommodations at their location.
If the venue does not have this service available, be sure to ask if there are any local hotels that they could recommend.
Many of your guests will want to make arrangements far in advance before your wedding for overnight lodging.
In addition, be sure to find out if they offer a discount on lodging if you rent their reception space.
This is one of the best money-saving questions to ask your wedding venue at the final meeting.
Client and Vendor Contracts
A very important question to ask your wedding venue at the final meeting is “when is the final payment due?”
Furthermore, you will want to know what their refund policy is in case of a change of the wedding date or cancelation.
In addition, some wedding venue coordinators require that all vendors serving your wedding sign their vendor’s contract.
It is important to let the vendors you are considering know about any venue contracts they must sign prior to hiring them.
You will also want to ask the venue if there is a time in which all vendors and guests must exit the building at the end of the reception.
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Hello! My name is Tony Coppola and I’d like to take this time to tell you a little bit about myself and CC King Entertainment.
I began my musical journey when I was 12 years old as a singer and drummer. Ten years ago, I built a home recording studio and named it CC King Studio. Shortly after, I DJ’d my first wedding and CC King Entertainment was born!
Furthermore, after DJing hundreds of weddings, my business allowed me to leave my 16 year career as an occupational therapist. In addition, I ALWAYS go the extra mile to personalize my wedding services and have the honor to work with an amazing team of wedding DJs.
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That’s good to know that there is an option for lodging at some venues. My son is getting married soon and he has been looking for a venue. They will have a lot of guests from out of state so they need a place for them to stay. I’ll have to help him look for some places that would work nearby us.
Hi Tyler! Thank you for your comment and congratulations to your everyone on the upcoming wedding! The timing is perfect on this one because my best friend just got married a couple weeks ago and he had mentioned that the venue gave discount rates on their guests’ rooms. A bonus tip for you, my friend also mentioned the venue reserved a suite for him and his bride and added their room to their wedding package free of charge. So it’s possible they may do the same for your son and his fiance. He’ll definitely want to ask if they can add this to their wedding package as a complimentary service:)