This past weekend, I had a virtual consult with my newest bride, who happens to be such a total sweetheart. Her wedding decor is going to combine really natural and rustic elements with punches of gold and whimsical little details (this girl works for Xbox; totally rad right?) and well, here’s the dress she bought. It’s been one of my faves ever since it came out last season. Nicole and I have been on the hunt recently for a perfect venue location that won’t break the bank and we may have found a winner on Saturday. In light of our little chat on Saturday, I thought I’d give all you newly engaged (or venue searching brides!) a little three part series on what to ask your venue before you sign on the dotted line. Read on for more of Part I.

{Stay organized from the start} Picking and paying for your wedding venue, can be a hefty emotional and financial investment. So many decisions have to be put on the back burner before you pick a venue and feeling stuck in a corner can be stressful. To start the selection process, pick no more than five venues that are your top picks and from there, narrow in on places that offer more of what you want and less of what you don’t. Rule out venues that don’t have your date available, venues that are completely out of your price range, or venues that aren’t licensed to serve alcohol (believe it or not these kinds of venues exist!)

{Get to know your venue coordinator!} If you haven’t hired a wedding planner, first hurry and go read this here, and then secondly, if you still want to plan sans planner, make sure you really get a feel for your venue coordinator, their responsibilities on the day of, and really just how invested and interested they are in the venue, their job and your big day. A venue coordinator, should you not have hired an outside wedding planner/day of coordinator, really needs to be someone you can trust, that can accommodate your requests (within reason of course) and that will be dependable should a problem arise.

{Be invested and inquistive of the obvious} Don’t forget to ask about and see for yourself, all the little things that we too often assume are already taken care of with wedding venues. Washroom facilities (how many stalls there are, are the facilities wheelchair accessible, are they kept clean), parking capacity and cost, pet-friendly ceremony spaces, alcohol boundaries (some places with outdoor terraces or decks don’t allow drinks outside); you can assume you know the answers to the above mentioned, but it never hurts to ask so that you can plan your big day details accordingly. Photo above via AWP.

What sort of questions did any of you find valuable to ask your venue about? The above photo is the wedding venue from our big day and I hate to admit there were tons of questions I wish we would have asked prior to committing. But stay tuned for more details on that in next week’s second post on what to ask your venue before signing! Happy Tuesday babes xoxo