Venue viewing nerves..

laura2481

... just thought I'd share the fact we are going to view our first venue tomorrow and it is also our first choice so if all goes well we may provisionally book tomorrow and I'm all nervous because

• What if it doesn't live up to expectations?
• what if they add on loads of extra charges so that where it had sounded affordable it then goes out of range?
• What if the date we want has been booked?. Even though only last week it was available.
• What if OH doesn't like it?
• What if my mum doesn't like it (she is coming with as there is also a wedding fayre tomorrow and although it's not her decision I just don't fancy the ear ache..:p)

So there you go.. thought i would vent my craziness here so OH doesn't think I've gone totally bonkers. :rotfl:

pretzelnut

Calm down hun, deep breath it will all be fine.

I have visited 14 venues this week as i thought i had found something that was perfect then i made the mistake of continuing to look and im so glad i did all venue number 14 was the one.

Its not just the venue thats important, you have to get on with the staff. We loved one venue but the wedding co-ordinator was very strict and stern and we would have just butted heads.

You can provisionally book a date there and then, your not commited to anything, then you can go home sleep on it and compile a list of questions to go back and ask again.

Venue 14 for us have done us 5 quotes in 24 hours as we keep fiddling with options and menu's and they are quite happy to do this as they want our day to be perfect. We were originally having a cvil ceremony there, but the wedding co-ordinator knew i was divorced and asked if me getting married in a church was important, which it is, so she asked why i hadn't asked to get married at the local church. I had no idea i could, but as we live in scotland and are getting married in scotland the minister is happy to marry us in church.

We also discussed our ''unusual'' wedding ideas and they were very willing to accomodate them as it makes a change for them and again its our day and they want it to be right for us.

Few questions i have learnt to ask this week:
Are children charged at 1/2 the adult rate?
Do wedding guests get reduced accomodation rates?
Is the menu flexible, can you get add something in if we request it? - for example our venue are making us fruit kebabs for our chocolate fountain, and we requested a particular champagne for the toast which the hotel doesnt normally stock but they will order it in for us and they have given us a really good price.
Do you charge a ceremony room hire fee?
Do you have your own chair cover and are these included in the price or extra?
Will i be able to have access the evening before to set up, or will you and your staff do that for me?

The venue wont accept our deposit until we ar e happy with our quote.

As for your mum - just tell her that her opinion has been noted and her advice taken on board, but ultimately it is your decision.

I just tell my mum to shut up - otherwise i would end up with a wedding straight out of the 80's with a dress that has a lace polo neck and carnations coming out of my ears.

Wait for your quote - then haggle, there is always something you can knock of the cost.

laura2481

Back from the viewing.. well, been back a while but been doing other stuff and everything went well. We had a chat with the wedding co-ordinator who was really nice and asked her about 80 million questions like - can the cater for special dietry requirements, if we don't want a usual drinks package can they still supply sparkling wine for the toasts. Do they charge extra for use of table ware/linen etc (they don't) when would we be able to decorate the venue (theyll do it for us) and a million other things. I would have provisionally booked right there but OH thought that provisionally book meant paying the non-refundable deposit so we didn't do it at the time. He says he wants to think of a few more questions first... i just don't want to loose the date We are a bit limited in our area for venues as they are either too small, extortinately expensive or a bit grotty so I would be if we missed our chance...

Toothfairy4

That's great news laura! I am pretty sure you can provisionally book without paying anything (think they hold it for about 2 weeks or so), if you really like it and are seriously considering booking there then it would do no harm to do this to make sure you don't miss out on your date? x

laura2481

Toothfairy4 wrote: »

That's great news laura! I am pretty sure you can provisionally book without paying anything (think they hold it for about 2 weeks or so), if you really like it and are seriously considering booking there then it would do no harm to do this to make sure you don't miss out on your date? x

Just need OH to understand.. he seems to think this is all more complicated than it actually is... :rolleyes: :rotfl:

frannyann

Tell OH its quite normal for venues to 'hold' the date for a week or two whilst you think about it! Ours held our date for three weeks with no fuss, we told them we were going to book just needed payday to come around as we'd only just started saving!!

Toothfairy4

^ What franny said is a brill idea, explain to OH that women know these things lol

pretzelnut

As i siad i have loked at 14 venues, we have provisionally booked 4 of them, all of which i will be telling to erase me from their diary tommorrow, to free up the date for someone else.

But you dont have to do this if you dont do anything after 2 weeks they release the date.

Ring them tommorrow, ask them to provisionally book the date (what DF doesnt know wont kill him).

Paying a deposit means your happy, and offers limited negotiations IMHO, get your quote first, then when your totally happy, put your deposit down.

borokat

We looked venues this weekend and have chosen the one we want. Just waiting for OH to call, ask a few questions and then hold the date. I am dying for him to just do it but he hasn't phoned them yet. grrrrrrrr!

laura2481

Made OH spend the evening looking through the possible venues and deceide which other ones he wants to enquire with- and he found three other places so I have emailed them today. The only problem with the place we viewed yesterday is he says it doesn't have the 'wow' factor. I kind of want to say 'we can't afford 'wow'. There is no affordable 'wow' around here!!! Elegant and nice is all we can reasonably aspire to'.. after all. What does it matter what the outside of the venue looks like as long as it is nice inside. :rolleyes: men, eh?!

laura2481

Just asked my preferred venue to 'save the date' for us and I feel a bit happier now..:)