Basically, last year I was meant to get married, but our venue really screwed us over promising us one price when we put down the deposit and then nearly tripling it when it came to getting a more detailed quote a year later.. We had to cancel as their food and drink prices miraculously went up as well making it just short of £10,000 just for the venue !
Tomorrow night we are going to see our wedding co-ordinator at our new venue. We have provisionally booked our date and have just been waiting for this meeting to hopefully finalise things ! The thing is, I want to go in with my eyes open this time and ask every question under the sun before paying them our deposit.. Problem though, my mind as gone blank.. The only flipping questions I can think of are:
1. Do children get discounted? 2. Do we decorate or do they? 3. If we have to, then can we decorate the venue the night before or the morning of the wedding?
And that's it :-/ I know there are so many more but I really have hit a brick wall !
I know the quote is made up of them asking us question like max. numbers etc.. But I'm sure there were things I wanted to get across :-/
Can any of you suggest questions you asked your venue or questions you now wish you had asked in the beginning ?
Thank youuuu xxx
I can't wait to become his Wife :-)
4th July 2015
CommentAuthor*KelBel*
We asked our wedding planner things like,.... What times the bar open til on the night time? Do they do food sampling for the meal? What are corkage fees if we provide our own wine? We asked for a breakdown of each cost before we booked (as can take up to 4weeks for a formal invoice)
Velcro...my wedding day twinny! The Two Kel's!
Got engaged 14/10/12 in Central Park NYC!
Became Mrs Macdonald 13th September 2014
Mummy to 4 girlies and baby blue boy Due 10/05/2016
CommentAuthorMrsWright290912
I would ask if linen is included - some charge for this.
Do you have to pay a corkage fee if you provide your own alcohol - our corkage fee was £15 a bottle so we just bought from the hotel.
Are cake stands/knives included? If not you will need to course your own.
Will they accept delivery of baloons/flowers/cake etc prior to your day and store them accordingly?
Is there an additional charge per head if you go over the number they have given you or are you limited to that number alone?
Hope this helps :o)
I really did marry my Mr Wright and we had a nice day for a
Wright wedding!
Mexico for our first anniversary
CommentAuthorbarbie86
What exactly is included in the price you are paying? Eg room/venue hire, food and drink, etc. Are the any extras? (common ones are chair covers and sashes). If so, what do they charge? What are the food and drink options/packages? Can you give guests a choice of main course? (ours is allowing us to with no extra charge provided we give them numbers at least 3 weeks before the day) Do they have disabled access? Can you provide your own DJ/music (some we looked at only allowed you to use their 'house' DJ unless you paid a fee to use your own!) Can you provide your own wine, and if so, what do they charge in corkage? (can work out cheaper than buying theirs, even with corkage) How much do drinks from the bar cost? This might sound silly, but some venues we looked at were VERY expensive; eg one, which wasn't even very nice, was charging £4.50 for a can of beer. It's good to have an idea of this beforehand IMO. What, if anything, is the cut-off time? Most venues we looked at had a cut-off time of 11 or 12. If it's earlier than you'd like, can you extend it, and if so, at what cost? Can they guarantee you this year's prices?
Once you've been through all that, and are happy, you should then make sure that EVERYTHING is stated clearly in your contract; and I mean everything. We had canape choices, menu choices, drinks package etc and prices written into our contract, as we booked 3 years before, and didn't want them changing anything (if we'd just signed saying we were paying £50 a head for the wedding breakfast, they could quite easily have given us inferior/cheaper food nearer the time to make more money); likewise, we had room hire fees written into it, and, because our venue is a hotel, and our contract requires that all the bedrooms be booked, we also negotiated discounts on the room rates, and had this written in, too.
You should also ask whether VAT is included in any quotes, or is added on top; this is a big one that often catches people out, and finding you have to pay an additional 20% you haven't budgeted for isn't fun.
CommentAuthorMrsH-2B
Ahhh you life savers !! I can't believe I forgot all of those questions :-/ Wedding brain ! Lol..
I have the food/drink booklets and their prices are brilliant, I just need to make sure there are no hidden costs..
DJ I definitely need to ask about.. We've been to a wedding there before and the DJ was great but I don't know if it was in house or hired by the B&G..
The bar prices - I cannot believe I forgot that one especially !! That was one of the big things at the old venue, a fizzing apple juice for £3.50 !!! Pint of beer £5 !!! Ridiculous..
They are all written down in my book to ask tomorrow :-) Thank you so much !! If anyone thinks of anymore they will be much appreciated ! xx
Bumped the thread "Questions to ask your Venue OFFICIAL THREAD" for you, there are a lot of useful questions listed. I hope it helps xx
CommentAuthorMrsH-2B
Aww thanks Sarah :-) I'll have a look now xx
I can't wait to become his Wife :-)
4th July 2015
CommentAuthor*Claire*
There's so many things to cover! One thing that I was told at a wedding fayre was to ask if they are providing background music for the wedding breakfast or can you set your own up? Never crossed my mind! The lady I spoke to said she went to one and it was so quiet, it needed music xx
CommentAuthorMrsH-2B
Never thought of that !! Added to my list :-) I'm going to scare the woman tomorrow with my nice long list haha..
The question to myself is, what type of music :-/ I don't want to use music that will be played in the evening....... I suppose Debussy and music of that genre would be nice for just background noise as hopefully we'll have arranged the tables well enough that everyone is talking lol.. Thanks again :-) xx
I can't wait to become his Wife :-)
4th July 2015
CommentAuthorVelcro
the first thing i asked my venue was what time last orders was hahhaha
priorities (y)
also, i had a fright regarding my chair covers. I assumed id be able to cover my chairs for the ceremony, and use the same ones for the reception. Its impossible to transfer them between rooms in time so i have to double up. Id obviouslty not budgetted for that at the time. On the plus side though I managed to find some cheap as chips.
I did a lot of my asking after, which was probbaly a bit foolish, but other than the chair covers everything has been favourable answers they provide the table clothes, cake knife etc, things like that
Also, find out if you can bring your own decorators/DJ in, dont feel obligated to use their supplier choice for anything if you dont have too. My venues prefferred suppliers cost an arm and a leg
the girls above have covered everything really
I was like you, had about 3 questions to ask lol
Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey
*Kelbel* is my wedding twinny!
CommentAuthorMrsH-2B
With everything that went wrong with our 1st wedding date I thought I'd be able to reel out a massive list of Q's when I needed to but came to do it earlier, wrote 3 things and sat tapping my pen.... My mind just went Luckily I have a lot of Q's to ask now !
I'll definitely ask about the chairs between ceremony and reception though ! Never thought of that either :-/ There's 2ish hours between the end of the ceremony and when the guests will be seated so hopefully it won't be a problem, but definitely going on my list just incase !
I can't wait to become his Wife :-)
4th July 2015
CommentAuthorMrsLJDeaton
Thank you for the list ladies shall be using this next month when I visit My Dream Venue The End Of The Month Exciting Need to get H2B to read through out some questions onto the list to ask added a few of my own taken some out which is relevant for me Just wondering if anything is missing anything I need to ask =D <3 X
Started going out 23.10.2010 met at Barnet college
Engaged 23.08.2012 In Turkey Our 1st Holiday Together
To be Mrs Lana Jocelyn Deaton on 23.10.2015 5 years the day
Jamiroquai Arthur Gordon Deaton Born 29/05/2015 My Son Jammy
CommentAuthorMickaylaH
If you are having children it may be worth asking how many high chairs they have to offer? Our venue only has 3 which isn't a problem just means we were able to make guests aware they needed to bring their own.
My also be worth asking for a list of the rooms.. this is something I was given as we said we would be able to book out all the rooms. This gave us total control of who goes in each room and we were able to ensure all people with children were given rooms which would fit a z bed or travel cot.
Another question one of our guests asked me was if the meat was going to boneless, always best to be 100% sure rather than just assuming.
If you plan on having a candy buffett etc check that your venue will allow you to supply your own if thats what you wish or if they will only allow it if you book via them.
Also any night entertainment, I am having a boothless experience at mine and booked this before asking the venue. Thankfully the venue allowed this but again better to check.
I know these aren't things that are likley to change the cost but I found this questions I forgot to ask on the day and have ended up sending many emails.
:)
CommentAuthorMrs T. 2 Be
This is very useful for us at the moment as we have our very first official meeting in a few weeks.
Started Dating: 25th September 2005
Engaged: 26th September 2012
Getting Married: 25th May 2014
