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Top 5 Questions to Ask on a Venue Tour

In this episode, I’m giving you the 5  questions to make sure you ask on your venue tour or site visit. It’s actually more than 5 because each one has more questions associated with it because I can’t help myself. So let’s dive in.

Question #1  How much does it cost and what is included in the cost?

Obviously, this is an important question to ask. But in addition to asking about the cost, it’s important to ask these 2 questions related to the cost:

• What is the service charge? 
• If the tables and chairs and glassware are included, may we see them?

A service charge is a fee the venue typically applies to their services, like catering, alcohol, etc. Typically this is between 15-22% but it varies from property to property. It’s not an insignificant amount because if you’re spending $35,000 on catering, 20% of that would be an additional $7,000 which isn’t peanuts.

The tables and chairs, glassware, and linens also vary from property to property. Some of these places have really nice new inventory. Other places have – honestly – terrible-looking stuff. The linens are super thin, the napkins are very casual, and the glassware is really heavy and cheap feeling. 

That might be fine with you or you don’t care. But Rather than assume that you’re saving money because you can “use whatever the venue has” make sure you want to use it or it matches the aesthetic of your day before writing off that expense.

Question #2 What is the max capacity for the ceremony and reception spaces?

• Can we see a sample floor plan with our guest count?
• Is there enough room for a DJ or band?

This is pretty much a no-brainer for the ceremony space. You probably won’t have an issue with this UNLESS they tell you that the ceremony space is the same as the reception or dinner space. I HATE it when a venue doesn’t have a separate space for both the ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner. 

Some of you might be planning to have your ceremony at a place of worship, so you’re totally fine. But if you’re planning to have your ceremony at the property and they need to shuffle the tables around while people are at cocktail hour, I would try to avoid it.

It makes for a very rushed setup and things are likely to fall through the cracks. Our dinners usually take all day to set up. I couldn’t imagine doing it in 60 minutes while people are having a cocktail hour. Not to mention, you still have to break down the ceremony before you can even bring in the dinner tables and flowers. 

Going along with this, I would also ask about inclement weather or backup plans if any of your events are taking place outside.

In terms of space and floor plans, I would definitely ask to see a floor plan with the guest count you’re anticipating. You may be dreaming of long rectangular dinner tables, but your guest count might only fit in the room if they’re seated at all round tables, is that okay with you? 

In addition, if you’re planning to have a band, they’ll need more space for a stage, access to power, etc. Make sure you check to see where they would need to set up and if they have space to store all of their gear and cases, and possibly a place to hang out, get changed, eat dinner, etc. The band's cases take up a lot of storage and no one wants to see all that stuff piled up in a corner in plain view. 

Question #3 Where does the wedding party typically get ready?

• What is the lighting like in this space?
• Is there enough room in this space for all our people, moms and stylists?

If you’re planning to get ready at the property, make sure you ask to see where you and your fiancé are going to get ready. Some places have one really nice place, usually for the bride, and a more casual place for the groom. But what if you’re a same-sex couple – who gets which room? More importantly, why does one person get the nice getting-ready quarters and the other person doesn’t? 

When you’re in that space, look around. What’s the lighting like? Is it bright and sunny with natural light? Or kind of dark and dingy? Will you want to take photos in this room or need to find somewhere else? 

Also, is there enough room for all of your family and your hair and makeup stylists?

Question #4 Now that you’ve checked out the spaces and assessed if they’ll work for you, it’s time to think about the logistics. Make sure to ask at what time do we have access to the property?

• Can you drop off stuff the day of, the week of, or the day before?
• At what time can my vendors start loading in and by when do they need to retrieve their stuff?

You don’t know it now, but you’re going to have a lot of stuff to bring to the venue and it would be much easier to be able to drop it off ahead of the wedding so that’s one less delivery to make on the wedding day. Some places don’t have space to store your stuff, and other places charge for storage. Other places won’t let you or any of your vendors access the space until 1:00 pm that or you can, but you have to pay extra. Knowing all this ahead of time is important for your planning. It may not affect your decision to go with the property, but it’s important to note it for later.

For load-out, it’s important to know when you and your vendors need to retrieve all their items for load-out. Some places require you to remove everything that night. If that’s the case, your florist and other vendors will need to know that as some places charge extra for same-day delivery and pickup. The same goes for a Sunday retrieval as opposed to a Monday. 

Question #5 And finally, the last question on our list is, are there specific vendors we need to contract for certain things, or are there additional fees we should be aware of if we use vendors, not on your list? In addition, are these vendors paying to be on this list, or are they on here because they’ve been vetted? 

I love a good preferred vendors list. A preferred Vendor list often means that the venue has vetted the vendor and they know they provide quality services. Sometimes the venue will only put vendors on this list if they pay to be included. I don’t like this pay-to-play structure and think the venue should disclose that information if this is the case.

In addition to this, some venues require that you work only with their preferred vendors. Venues do this for a lot of reasons, one of them being other vendors have screwed them in the past and they’re not allowed back. Sometimes venues will have flexibility with this list, but sometimes they won’t. If you already know of a vendor that you want to have and they’re not on this list, I would find out if they’re willing to approve new vendors not on the list or if you have to pay a fee so that you can have who you want on your wedding day. 

And that concludes today’s short but very specific episode on the top 5 questions to ask your venues during the venue tour. 

Now it’s time for a quick recap of all the questions.

1. How much does it cost and what is included in the cost?
2. What is the max capacity for the ceremony and reception spaces and do they have sample floorplans?
3. Where does the wedding party typically get ready?
4. At what time do we have access to the property?
5. What vendors do we specifically have to use and are there any additional fees associated with this?

For even more questions, I actually have a free handout on my website called the top 20 most overlooked questions to ask your wedding venue. You can get the checklist at verveeventco.com/venuechecklist.

That’s it for this week’s short and sweet episode. If you haven’t listened to any of the episodes I talked about above, make sure you do. Follow and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I can’t wait to talk to you next week. In next week’s episode, we’re getting all the ins and outs of flower preservation. What exactly is flower preservation? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out!

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