The NESSENTIALS

So, as previously mentioned, Mike and I are on the hunt for a new wedding venue after our previous venue was no longer available for events.

The good thing is that we have a fantastic network, and my bridesmaids kicked into action with suggestions after I let them know what had happened. I tried to capture the most important things to us, passed them on, and trawled through the results.

Maybe I could have done a better job with that list of things important to us:

• within the M25 was a priority (and a tube stop nearby would be best)
• dry hire was preferred
• no vendor lock-in (like caterers) was preferred
• avoiding corkage was preferred (but not a dealbreaker)
• access past midnight was a bonus
• parking for suppliers was a bonus (as we had a particular type of catering in mind!)

These were of course things that we found important, but maybe I should have also mentioned our budget ambitions! Mike and I are by no means “cheaping out” on this celebration, but because we’re not interested in a packaged-up standard event, costs should be commensurate – after all, we’re putting in the work

Our friends flooded us with suggestions, which we were really grateful. Interestingly enough there was some overlap with venues we had initially considered. I was so glad I kept all data for vendors even if we had made decisions, even if you don’t want to imagine scenarios like this could happen!

Obviously time had passed since I originally collated the data, so some prices weren’t accurate, but there were a few that caught our eye – they were comparable to our previous venue. Mike and I took that information and made a new shortlist so we could figure out where to arrange initial viewings with.

In my next post I’ll share what we felt was important when we viewed our first venue with some restrictions still in place. Please subscribe if that’s of interest and you want to follow along!