Finding the perfect wedding venue can be incredibly difficult. When you start planning for your wedding, you often have an idealized vision of how things will play out. It often involves a smooth ride through the planning process—choosing decorations, finding the venue, picking out the perfect catering company.
In reality, things are a lot bumpier than we imagine. Part of the problem is that the venue has to be just right. This is, after all, where you’re going to get married. Not only does it need to meet the idea you have in your head, but it also has to accommodate practical details like the size of the guest list and the format of the ceremony.
Here are some of the reasons why finding a wedding venue is so hard, alongside how you can make it easier.
You Need a Lot of Time
Many people don’t realize just how much time in advance you need to book a wedding venue. Most recommendations suggest couples start nailing down the details of the venue 9–18 months before the actual wedding date.
There are a lot of reasons for this, the first being that venues get booked up fast.The most popular day to hold a wedding is Saturday, and there are only so many Saturdays in a year. On top of that, spring and summer months, which are the most popular seasons in which to get married, book even earlier than dates in the fall and winter months. This means that in order to reduce the level of difficulty and stress, you need to start planning way in advance. If you give yourself enough time, the process will become significantly less difficult.
Meeting Specifications
There are so many details that need to be considered in order to accommodate both the ceremony and the guests. For example, if music and other visuals will be playing a big part in your wedding day, you need a venue that comes with the right equipment to make this a possibility, like a theatre or music venue.
The size of your party can be another issue. While art gallery-type spaces have become increasingly popular as wedding venues, they don’t always work for huge parties. In the city of Toronto, there are tons of cute and quaint spaces where you can get married, but there are fewer big venues that can accommodate large numbers without breaking the budget.
Since many people are looking for venues that will be the site of both the actual ceremony and the reception, it can also be difficult to find venues that can accommodate both smoothly.This type of venue must be able to handle the transition from ceremony to reception seamlessly.
There’s also accessibility to think about. Venue accessibility needs to be a priority when choosing a venue, in order to ensure that all of your guests can reach the venue comfortably. While laws state venues must be accessible, this still may not cover enough for all of your guests.
The best thing to do is draw up a master list of all the requirements your venue absolutely must have. Then, when conducting your search, cross off any of the venues that don’t meet those requirements. It can be easy to set your heart on a specific venue only to find there is a key element missing. It makes it much easier if you don’t run into this problem in the first place.
Knowing Where to Look
Finally, there are so many venues in Toronto. We’re a big city with huge numbers of event spaces to accommodate all sorts of parties. And with couplesare increasingly turning to unusual or non-traditional spaces to host their big day that number is increasing. But where do you begin your search, especially if you’ve had no prior experience with finding a venue?
One of the best things you can do is seek out companies that work with a big number of venues. They’ll have databases for you to look through with a ton of venues that can meet your needs.They will also know what type of event fits well within your desired space.
