Attention all past, present, and future brides! Starting up my own wedding venue, what do/did you look for?
My husband and I are looking to start up a wedding venue, de Mariée Gardens (French for bridal). we have about 2 acres of private gardens that include a rose arbor, a gazebo, and a balcony that overlooks a river with a bridge spanning the river. It's very old-fashioned, with lanterns, benches, arches, and even a swing or two scattered throughout.
We're trying to make the venue as appealing to brides as possible by building dressing rooms, making our walkways more accessible to larger parties, purchasing an enclosed tent in case of inclement weather, providing up to 200 chairs, extra tables, some decorations, and more.
What we need now is feedback. all you past, present, and future brides out there, I know this is bare information, but what do you think? Any suggestions or thoughts would be very appreciated, along with how much you would consider paying for something like this. we don't know what the going rate is, and we want to be affordable because we had a devil of a time affording our own wedding.
Thanks, and good luck in your new life!
A HUGE factor that we looked for, was getting our moneys worth, and getting it for a decent price. nothing that was a huge cost, just because we were getting married.
I didnt mind paying for a beautiful place, if it meant that I didnt have to do a lot of extra rentals and flowers on my own. I think a lot of brides fall into a trap where they look for a cheap place, but then they have to spend so much on chair rentals, tables, oodles of flowers, etc.
What you describe sounds like a place I would have looked at. The chairs cannot be metal folding chairs, they should be nice. Basic white linens would be appreciated, unless you are partnering with catering companies who provide all that. A brides room would be wonderful. A floor appropriate for dancing would be good. and all areas should be wheelchair accessible. I would upgrade the bathrooms to have proper doors (not the metal dividers), nice sinks with fixtures, and wallpaper on the walls.
i say go for it
I like all inclusive wedding venues, because the more that's include, the less vendors you have to find elsewhere. So, food and bar should be base of the package. I would suggest trying to add DJ services, cake services, limo services and having centerpiece options available, as well as color coordinated linens and table numbers.
The price of your venue and packages is largely based on where you're located and the local economy. where I am, it's common for wedding packages to start at about $80 for an all-inclusive package with food and bar, plus some simple extras like linens, centerpieces and table numbers.
But, I'm in a very high-cost of living area, so this isn't all that far from reasonable. Check other wedding venues and see what they offer and charge.
First and for most is Affordability,accessibility (is it hard to find?), and personable employees.
I think the place you described is gorgeous (at least in my head). Make sure you're employees are not only loyal to you but that they're likable all the way around (I actually traveled outside of my county because I didn't like the woman who ran the bridal shop- she was too "heavy" of a personality for me.) keep your nickle and dimming to a minimum. It's so annoying to be nickle and dimmed for everything. You'd have to look at your area venues to find out what affordability in your area is. The high end where I live is 500 but it's probably a drop in the bucket for new yorkers.
Congratulations and good luck… by the way where is this place. If it's close to me… well lets just say I'm still looking for a venue
We looked at a lot of different venues, from beachside to country to hotel, the one thing we definately wanted was an affordable place that catered and had a drinks package. we also wanted somewhere where we could have the ceremony and venue in the same place.
We looked for places that could seat our people so that they would be comfortable and have enough room to freely move (I hate going to weddings where there are 12 people on a round table and you can't eat without bumping elbows)
The venue outside for us had to be a little bit child safe and most of all beautiful and neat. we wanted something rustic with a little bit of a modern edge and most of all comfortable.
Dressing rooms are a huge plus especially if you had a private toilet in there the bride could use and no one else. A marquis would be gorgeous and why not put lights in there carpet it, heat and cool it and make it a permenant ceremony and recption hire. That way you can have the inside room and marquis (you can run 2 weddings at once)
Make partnerships with DJ's, catering companies, hire places for decorations and florists so that you can offer your customers a wedding package with a discount off of some of these things for booking your venue
If you offered many different menu options (cocktail, buffet, bbq and seated) along with drinks packages I would have been more than happy to pay $130.00 per guest for meal and beverages and about $1000.00 venue hire (which is roughly what we are paying now for our venue.
The question that I see people ask over and over again on YA is "where can I find a venue that will let me do my own catering" – they don't want to be "married," as it were, to the venue's catering service. They want to either use an outside caterer or provide their own food (usually with the help of kitchen-savvy friends/relatives).
If you would be willing to let couples make their own catering arrangements when they don't want to use your catering partners, you could get a lot of the do-it-yourself, i-want-custom-everything crowd.
I was looking for a venue that would provide most of what I was looking for. They provided the seating cards, food, champage toast, cake, etc. They offered to provide some chocolates as a wedding favor in lieu of the cake (this was in case I wanted to provide my own cake). They also had a lot of upgrades available. They provided the basic table linens but I could upgrade and they would provide chair covers etc. when you are a bride, the less you have to plan the better.
For the ceremony I wanted to make sure they had a back-up plan in case of rain, that they had a plan to take care of mosquitos if it was buggy and that they had scenic areas for photos (and a scenic photo area in case of rain). also walkways are good because heels can sink in the ground especially if the ground is wet. my musicians also requested a covered area so they were out of the sun and blocked from rain. as far as pricing is concerned, I think $750 sounds fair for the ceremony and this would include Friday. Saturdays are usually more so maybe $950. I would call around and see what other places in your area are charging just so you can be competitive. I'm not sure where you are located and different areas in the states are more or less. I am in Connecticut and I think I paid $750 on a Friday. I remember Saturday was more. you could also do a deal if they book their ceremony and reception at your venue, you will give them $100 off the ceremony…something like that. Some incentive to book both. my venue also provided a refreshment and light snack when people arrived. I thought that was great especially since it was so hot out and the refreshments were well needed!
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I’m looking for a comfy swinging bench with a canopy or cover over top of it, for my backyard! If any one could attach links to any benches you can find that’d be great!
My FH and I are looking to start up a wedding venue, De Mariée Gardens (French for bridal). We have about 2 acres of private gardens that include a rose arbor, a gazebo, and a balcony that overlooks a river with a bridge spanning the river. It’s very old-fashioned, with lanterns, benches, arches, and even a swing or two scattered throughout.We’re trying to make the venue as appealing to brides as possible by building dressing rooms, making our walkways more accessible to larger parties, purchasing an enclosed tent in case of inclement weather, providing up to 200 chairs, extra tables, some decorations, and more.What we need now is feedback. All you past, present, and future brides out there, I know this is bare information, but what do you think? Any suggestions or thoughts would be very appreciated, along with how much you would consider paying for something like this. We don’t know what the going rate is, and we want to be affordable because we had a devil of a time affording our own wedding.We are considering charging $1,000 for ceremonies on Fridays and Saturdays, $750 for all other days. This would include chairs, tables, and decorations. We’re a bit tentative on receptions right now, not sure if we’ll get the funding for the building, but we will offer discounts when they book the reception with a local vendor. Is this fair?To start off we’re probably only going to offer a ceremony site. But there are 5 receptions venues within 5 minutes. Would you still consider this venue? Or should we just wait to open ’til we can offer both?