It goes without saying that all wedding venues are different. While some will be quoting on a dry hire basis – so you might get the building and nothing else – some may provide some of the furniture. You can even opt for a venue that forgoes a hire fee for a minimum spend on food and drink instead (which typically also comes with a service charge percentage). If ease and simplicity is paramount, a package-based venue will include everything from hire of the space to each canapé served.
Always ask for a breakdown of what is included so you can more easily compare some of our front-runners side by side and understand the cost implications of each one. Don’t be afraid to negotiate, too!
More often than not, a venue will quote for their hire charge and conveniently leave the VAT off – the first you know about it is when the invoice turns up! It’s always worth checking so you can factor the whole cost into your budget.
Sometimes venues will have preferred/accredited and recommended supplier lists – especially if they are a historical building that really needs to trust the people coming in and out of their venue. ‘Recommended’ means just that – you can take it or leave it. But ‘preferred’ or ‘accredited’ generally means you will have to use someone off that list. Typically, these are suppliers who need to use their space more than others like caterers, production, florists as opposed to people like photographers and videographers.
If you have your heart set on using someone that isn’t on their list, find out if there is a charge to do so. This is more usual with caterers, as they have to conduct site visits and insurance checks with a whole new company, and need to charge for their time to do so.
This question covers a whole heap of areas, but there are a few places this really trips couples up later down the line if they didn’t ask beforehand. Things like:
Chances are none of these will be deal breakers, but it saves a lot of stress to know from the outset what is possible and what isn’t.
If you’ve gone for a dry hire venue and you’re bringing in your own furniture or bars, etc, definitely find out when they need to be collected. Some companies charge more to collect at 1am than if they were to come back during normal offices hours. Also, try and find out about storing wedding gifts and cards or anything you’re bringing in. If everything has to be off-site at the end of the night, you may need to nominate a friend or family member to take these home with them.
If being outside is a selling point for the venue, be sure to find out what happens if it rains (we are in the UK after all). Make sure you’re happy with the wet weather option, because the one thing you can’t control is the forecast.
Most wedding venues finish at midnight, and sometimes even earlier, but you can often extend this via the venue with a small payment to the council. So, if you want to go on until 1am or possibly later, find out if the venue can accommodate this and what the additional charge is.
This could be anything from maintenance work to changes to public access – make sure you ask as it won’t always be revealed. If there are plans, find out when any works are likely to finish and how close that is to your wedding day. These things have a habit of running over, and if it’s going to disrupt or be an inconvenience to you then there may be some negotiation to be done.
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