Choosing the Perfect Location

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Your wedding should be the happiest day of your life. But how to choose the perfect venue? Well, unless your friends and family have the time and money to watch you tie the knot in Las Vegas or the Caribbean, it is advisable to choose somewhere within easy reach and book the venue well in advance. Naturally Saturday weddings in the height of summer are the most popular, and it is worth choosing a date when the majority of your guests are likely to be free and that will also fit in with your honeymoon plans (avoiding the rainy season if you are going somewhere exotic, for instance). And if you plan on having a civil ceremony you must check that the venue is licensed and all the paperwork done in advance.

Regardless of whether you have a church or civil service, it is important there's sufficient parking for your guests, plenty of accommodation options nearby to suit all budgets, and that your wedding doesn't clash with any other public events being held in the vicinity on the same day. Another critical consideration, unless you plan to hold it in the same building as the ceremony, is to have a suitable venue for the reception situated nearby, with a good local taxi service available to ferry guests back and forth. And remember people will have been sitting in rows during the ceremony, so the reception venue should be capacious enough to let everybody spread out, with room for children to run around, dancing later in the evening and adequate seating for older guests.

If you are planning a summer wedding, ensure both the wedding and reception venues have sufficient ventilation and the climate can be controlled over the course of the evening when the party thins out and the temperature drops. Also that measures are taken so smokers will be able to smoke in comfort without annoying non-smokers. These details are especially important if you are planning to use a marquee. Other considerations include the provision of a dressing room for the bride and bridesmaids prior to the ceremony and whether separate rooms will be available for the wedding, reception and meal. Finally, ensure there is an appropriate location nearby for the wedding photographs to be taken, including some provision for taking them indoors in case it rains.

With respect to catering, including linens and tableware, waiting staff, settling on a menu and printing it out and the clean up at the end, it is worth finding out whether you have to use the venue's bespoke service or can shop around to get prices for local catering companies. The same goes for the provision of a photographer, alcohol, flowers and decorations and music and entertainment. Sometimes these things work out cheaper as an all inclusive package provided by the venue, and other times you'll get better value for money and a greater range of options by outsourcing various services locally. Either way, it is important that the venue gives you the choice about how you want to use it. And if you are going to manage everything yourself, it is vital that you are given adequate access to the venue before the actual wedding day so that you can design it to your specifications and make the necessary preparations.

Other issues to run through include secure storage and insurance for presents and personal belongings, whether a PA system will be available for speeches, and to what hour the venue has a license to sell alcohol and play live music. In effect, you are making sure your wedding day goes to plan and is not subject to restrictions and rules and regulations. In this respect, it is important you have a good, honest relationship with the venue so you are both prepared for all eventualities and there are no last minute surprises.

To give you some idea of the kind of venues available in your area it is worthwhile looking on the internet because the sites that come up should include photographs and the amount of effort a venue puts into its online presence is a good indication of their overall professionalism. An alternative method is to look through The Approved Index (www.approvedindex.co.uk), the UK's leading business to business referral service, for Venue Finding companies that will be able to offer further suggestions about the kind of venues that are appropriate for your needs. But whatever means you have of sourcing the venue, here's wishing you have a wonderful day.

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