Things to Consider When Booking Your Wedding Venue

Overwhelmed at where to start with finding your perfect wedding venue in Northern Ireland. Here’s a few useful tips from a wedding photography perspective.

How to choose your wedding venue

So now you’re starting to plan your big day – it can be overwhelming with the vast choice of venues here in Northern Ireland. So I thought I would help a little.

The first thing you and your other half need to decide, is what you want from a venue. This will make It so much easier to narrow down your favourites.

Things to consider:

Does your venue only do one wedding a day?

If they don’t, are you okay with that? What measures do they have in place so that each wedding has their own space on the day and don’t bump into each other. Do they give each couple enough time to get photographs at their favourite spots? For me personally, I think it sets your mind at ease if you don’t have to worry about seeing another bride on your special day.

Does your venue provide accommodation?

Having accommodation at your venue makes it easy if you have guests travelling some distance and even for yourselves, meaning you don’t have to worry about transport after the party. Luckily, a lot of venues which don’t provide their own accommodation, have B&B’s or other hotels nearby but it’s just something to think about

Are there places at your venue for photographs or will you have to travel somewhere else?

Having places at your venue to take photographs makes the day run a lot smoother as you don’t need to get transported to another place for photographs. A lot of venue’s have their own gardens which are great if there’s good weather but living in Northern Ireland, the weather can be very unpredictable. It’s good to view your venue and see where they have for photographs inside if the weather did take a turn. You could also look at photographs the venue has shared or from photographers, to give you some ideas

Make sure you get on with your wedding coordinator 

You will spend a lot of time in the lead up to your wedding and on the day, with your wedding coordinator. It’s so important that you’s get on well and both have the same vision of how you want your big day to go Consider how quickly they return your calls, emails etc. Whilst they are dealing with lots of weddings you will want to get answers relatively quickly. Expecting a response straight away is unrealistic however. Please go easy on venues/ co-ordinators (& other wedding suppliers) at the minute as they deal with the aftermath of the pandemic. Everyone is working so hard at the minute, with lots of venues having weddings daily to cope with the level of weddings who had to postpone due to the restrictions throughout 2020 & into the first half of 2021.

Where is it?

Think of where you both live, as well as your family and friends. Try and narrow down an area you would like to get married in. There are so many stunning venues in NI that it can be overwhelming trying to look at them all. So by narrowing down an area this will streamline your search a little. Maybe theres a venue that already means something special to you both or it’s close to home. This will help you narrow down your favourite venues.

BUDGET

There are a lot of different vendors you need to hire for your wedding day and it’s important to budget realistically for each one. If you’re open to options – does your venue provide a discount for weekday weddings? Do they have a minimum number requirement? Do they have a set package?(make sure you do your homework on these though as they may not be as good value as they appear, eg does the photographer include coverage for the full day or just a few hours, do they provide all the edited images or just a small selection, with the expectation that you will pay to have the rest of your images etc) . Being realistic is so important – some couples will go all out on one or two aspects of their wedding & then have to scrimp & save on the important things like their photography, which can lead to regrets after their wedding day when its too late. Likewise, if you’re trying to purchase your first home alongside getting married, don’t feel pressured into spending massive amounts of money on your wedding day. So many couples end up in a lot of debt due to their wedding & this can add strain to your relationship.

Covid

With the current pingdemic, I am trying my ultimate best to stay safe for not only my family, but my couples as well. There has been so much disappointment this last year and with venues especially. Make sure to ask any venue you are considering what happens if your date has to be postponed due to Covid. Will there be any additional costs or can your date be transferred? Will your deposit still be valid? If you unfortunately have to limit your numbers, will you still have to pay the extra money?

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PS. Make sure you both love the place! This venue will hold a special place in your hearts for the rest of your lives so it’s important you get ‘that feeling’. Visit many times, go for lunch, go for dinner, even stay for the weekend. Make sure it matches your personalities so that you “feel at home” when visiting .

I had written a blog previously about some of NI’s beautiful venues, PS I can’t update that blog but another venue I would like to recommend is The Dunadry Hotel. I have photographed a few weddings there now. The recent refurbishment of the wedding reception facilities are just stunning & their new outdoor space is breathtaking – the perfect spot for romantic & whimsical wedding photographs.

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