5 Reasons To Book Your Wedding Planner Before Your Venue

The number 1 mistake couples make early in their wedding planning journey? Booking their venue BEFORE their planner.

I don’t think I’m being dramatic when I say choosing your wedding venue is maybe the most important part of wedding planning. The physical location of your celebrations can (dare I say should) influence almost every other decision you make after that, since it helps dictate the vibe and atmosphere of the whole day or weekend. It’s like the director of a West End show choosing the right set backdrops – getting it ‘wrong’ in the sense of it not being aligned with the actors, costumes and lighting creates a jarring effect and makes the whole creative process harder. The same principal applies to your wedding venue, which is why I have a whole list of reasons to book your wedding planner before your venue – I’m sharing 5 of them with you here.

 1. Don’t go it alone in the biggest part of planning

Out of all the decisions I’ll help you make during your wedding planning process, choosing your venue is often the one that takes the most time and involves the most moving parts:

• Deciding and talking about your preferences, must-haves, would-be-lovely-ifs and definitely-don’t-wants regarding your venue
• Envisioning how your day will flow and working out how your venue will accommodate that
• Making a shortlist of potential options (possibly more than once!)
• Visiting those options and asking all the right questions
• Booking your chosen one, which involves reviewing the fine print in the contracts

Trying to do all of this alone is one of the biggest reasons couples get overwhelmed and stressed with wedding planning. The decision feels big, and it’s a trip into the unknown. Having your wedding planner on board before you start means you’re in expert hands for this key moment.

2. Time saving: no more late night google searches and wasted days off work

Wedding planners know a lot of venues, so we can save you all the time, energy and stress of aimless google searches and endless review-reading. We also make sure that the wedding venues you take time off work to visit are actually worth that day, because we know they fit your brief and are genuine contenders. Sometimes couples get stuck in a loop of wanting to find their venue and then a wedding planner who has worked there before, but the downside of this is your planner can only give you all their valuable insights after you’ve already signed on the dotted line – and you don’t need me to tell you that might be too late! 

When you book your wedding planner before your venue, you get all the benefits – pro knowledge and advice about which venues will best suit your vision and which to avoid, plus the added bonus that if they have worked there before they’ll share information you never would have found otherwise.

3. It’s great value for money

For most wedding planners, their fee won’t change if you’ve already booked your wedding venue vs if they help you with your venue search. This means if you book your wedding planner before your venue, you’re getting amazing value for money! In case you’re wondering why and were maybe hoping for a discounted planning fee if you found your venue first, let me explain…

Booking your wedding venue is only a small portion of the work that actually needs to be done with, on and in it during the planning process and on the day itself.

As your planner, I’ll still be managing and overseeing everything related to your venue whether I was present when you booked it or not. I can also act as a liaison between you and the venue for any special requests we want to make that might fall outside of their usual procedures, help you understand and navigate restrictions such as sound limiters, and can sometimes provide extra leverage on your behalf – venues want to have good relationships with planners, because we are more likely than you to bring them repeat business!

4. We know every sneaky question to ask

You’ve probably seen a lot of online lists of ‘things to ask your wedding venue’, but I can guarantee there will still be things that go un-asked without a planner on your team. Sometimes couples simply forget, and sometimes they aren’t even aware that it might be a question to ask. For example, we might have a call together before visiting your venues and talk about the fact that real candlelight is really important to you, and you can’t imagine your wedding without it (completely agree, by the way!).

When we shortlist your venue options, I’ll be sure to ask whether they allow open flames and can therefore accommodate your vision. Some venues allow only enclosed flames which can change the atmosphere of a candlelit space, and some historic venues ban them altogether – this can be a real issue if you’ve already signed the contract and then find out the glowy gorgeousness you’d imagined is not possible after all.

If your ears pricked at the word ‘candlelight’, you’ll love my guide on how to throw a winter wedding in London.

Advocating for you and your wishes for your wedding day is a huge part of my job as your wedding planner, and ensuring we ask all the important questions is key to pulling off something truly incredible for you.

5. The sooner your planner is on board, the more ‘put together’ your wedding

Another reason to book your wedding planner before your venue is in the name of cohesion and curation. It’s in my nature to be really good at seeing the bigger picture, then dialing into the granular details that will make it a reality. If you’re imagining a weekend of laid-back-luxury complete with fun food and clay pigeon shooting (like S&A’s Scottish Highland fling!), you’re not going to achieve that by booking your wedding at the Savoy, for example.

 
When we start your venue search we’ll already have spoken about everything you do and don’t want for your wedding (and no, you don’t have to have it all figured out already!). I’ll act as your sense-checker, coming with curiosity to ask ‘why is this idea appealing?’ and ‘how does it fit in with everything we’ve already thought about?’. When i am on board from the beginning, including for the venue search, I have a much better grasp on your wedding as a cohesive whole and am able to fully manage it and all its lovely details.

Wondering where to start planning your wedding? I’ve narrowed down 6 steps to set you on your way.

If you’re about to say ‘yes’ to a venue but want to book a planner and haven’t yet…pause! I really recommend you bring your planner on board for all of these reasons and more. For more venue-specific advice, start with my guides to spark inspiration and ideas for what you do and don’t want at your wedding as the first step:

• The best venues for a weekend wedding in the UK
• The best London hotels to get married in
• Sicily’s loveliest destination wedding venues
• 7 amazing orangery wedding venues close to London

Images by Barker Evans (B&W) and Rachel Takes Pictures (rest).