Akbar’s guide to selecting the perfect wedding venue

There are 3 things that REALLY make your big day – choosing the right venue, choosing the right caterer and choosing the right band or DJ

Here, we will focus on choosing the right wedding venue for your special day.

Type of wedding venue:

People choose to get married in various places. The days of getting married in your local church or place of worship are long past us and the number of non-denominational, licensed wedding venues is on the up.

A few types of wedding venues:

• Places of worship
  
• Banqueting halls
  
• Hotels
  
• Country houses / estates
  
• Castles
  
• Racecourses
  
• Zoos
  
• Parks
  
• Gardens
  
• Restaurants / bars / clubs

Size:

Despite what you’ve heard, size matters...your perfect wedding venue should be large enough to accommodate your guests comfortably, but not too large that the venue overshadows your event. Few wedding venues will tell you that their space is unsuitable for your requirements so before you view any venue, ask them what their capacity is and ask for a floor plan with dimensions.

A rough and simple way to calculate how many tables you can comfortably fit inside your chosen wedding venue is:

Take the wedding venue’s usable area in square metres.

Take off 25% for dancing space, head table, DJ / band and path ways.

A table of 10 people with enough room to get in and out needs 9m2 of clear space so divide the remaining area by 9

Budget:

Can you afford your chosen wedding venue – the two things that eat the most out of your wedding budget are venue and food.  Typically, for a banqueting hall, you should look to spend around £15-£20 per person for a decent wedding venue – e.g. if you have 300 guests, look to spend approximately £4,500 to £6,000 for hiring the wedding venue.

Services / Restrictions:

What does your perfect wedding venue provide? The more you can get out of the venue, the less you have to pay for separately. Does the cost of the hire include tables & chairs? Does it include crockery, cutlery, linens and glassware? Do they provide cleaners or do you have to clean up yourself? Is any staff included or is there an event manager on site?

If money is a constraint, the most cost effective way to have a wedding is to find an all inclusive deal, where the wedding venue will take care of the food and the decor – some may even go as far as to include entertainment, cake and photographer. Cavendish Banqueting offer a number of all inclusive packages starting from £30 per person.

What will they not allow? Can you bring your own caterer? Can you bring your own alcohol? Can you hold your registry there? Are there restrictions for the DJ / Entertainment such as sound limiters, smoke / haze restrictions?

Location, location, location!

While this is not the highest priority (especially if your chosen wedding venue is a castle or country house) it is nice for you and the majority of your guests to not have to travel too far. Having a hotel nearby and also nice places to take photos is an added bonus.

Having nice people to work with:

If i had to make a top 10 list if things that annoy me the most about running an event, the top 5 would definitely be having to work with difficult individuals. More so for a wedding – its your big day. It’s hopefully a once in a life-time occasion. The last thing you want to have to deal with is constant obstacles and interference in your plans. The suppliers that are going to make your dreams a reality should be pleasant and easy to work with as well as being good at what they do. At Cavendish Banqueting, we treat every event as if it were our only event. While we may be a little pricier – CLICK HERE to see why: