Venue searches can be so exciting, frustrating, and down right painful if you are flying solo. Here is some insight on what it’s like to work with a planner while searching for your wedding venue!

One of the best parts of being a wedding planner is to assist a couple in finding their wedding venue.  Not only is it exciting to guide them through a process of elimination with our custom questionnaire (we will get into that a bit later), but to really be a match maker and find the perfect venue for them. I have to admit it is sometimes a bit of a challenge to see if I can get a couple’s dream venue on the first selection!

Photo Credit: VRAI 

So, what does a wedding planner do that you can’t do on your own?  Great question!

For starters, we understand that you are quite capable of searching online for your venue, and we definitely try to assist with online searches as well on our blog, but to work with a planner brings much more value than just research. (You can find some helpful posts, here, here and here).

• Invaluable Resources- All of the wedding venues in the Chicagoland area are cataloged nice and neat in our online system for easy reference, but we also have a history with these venues.  This means that matching you with your perfect venue should happen naturally.  We know the in’s and out’s of these Chicago venues, and that is something that only comes with years of experience.

• Narrowing Down Results- When working with a couple, we start the process with a venue tour consultation based off of our custom venue questionnaire to help narrow down the venue options. This is not only for our research, but also for the clients to narrow down the options in their mind.  To hear all the venue types that you may not have thought of helps open up opportunities you didn’t know existed as well as solidify a clear vision for your dream venue.  Here is an inside look to our questionnaire:

Venue Date- Are you flexible?  Is this date have special significance?  Are you open to Friday/Sunday options?  What is your back up date?  

Season of Year- With each season brings pro’s and con’s to having a wedding in that season, we will educate you on these to make sure you have thought of everything when deciding on the perfect season that fits your wedding.

Budget Education-What is your total budgeted amount for your wedding?  What is the amount allocated towards your venue?  Are you looking for a venue that is a one stop shop, or an open format venue that allows you to bring in a catering company, florist etc and completely customize all that you dreamed of.  What is your max per person budget?

This is just the first three questions of the questionnaire, so yes you can see we dive right in and help you with education on things you may have overlooked, but we guide you through these decisions as well.

• Pricing Breakdown- We work with our clients to give a clear explanation on creating a workable budget and how this breaks down into their venue selection.  Having a workable budget is essential, and to have an expert walk you through this process really does help move things along smoothly. The less stress, the better!

• Time Efficiency- I’m sure you thought the first thing I would mention would be how much time we will save you by doing all the research!  This is true, we do cut your research time completely out of the equation. We take an approach of selecting the top five venues which meet your criteria from our custom questionnaire, and show you only those top five venues.  This helps us execute your perfect venue match much faster than giving you a list of ten to fifteen venues. You would be so overwhelmed trying to narrow down your list that you wouldn’t be moving forward and getting your dream venue booked!  This process is ideally done within a two week period from beginning to end. We aim to speed up the process to get your date on the calendar so you can move on to more wedding planning!

• Expert Guidance- One thing my clients love about the venue tour with Visions Event Studio is having a planner with you on your venue tour.  We are there to assist with this process so that you know you walked away asking all the right questions, and everything we may have discussed in our consultation was addressed.  Pricing and contract signing is something we also assist with in our venue tour service.  To have a planner reviewing all the documents you are signing and give you guidance on pricing really has set our couple’s mind at ease by knowing they made the right decision.

If you are looking for assistance in your wedding venue search or want to talk to some of the couples we have worked with in the past to see how much it helped them, please feel free to reach out to Visions today to get started!

Planner’s Tip: Remember, most venues are booked a year to a year and a half out, so if you are newly engaged you will want to get this done yesterday!