Finding Your Perfect Wedding Venue

Planning a wedding can be a daunting experience. Most people won’t have organised a large event before, so it can be difficult to know where to begin.

Once you’ve decided on a date for the big day and booked the venue for your wedding or civil ceremony, the very next thing you need to do is book your reception venue.

The more popular wedding get booked up as far ahead as 3 years in advance; so to guarantee the fairytale wedding venue that you’ve always dreamed of it’s best to make this a priority from the start. In many cases you’ll find that if you’re not overly particular about the exact date you enter in to married life, then 6 months is often plenty of time to book the venue of your choice.

The majority of wedding venues will ask for a deposit as soon as you book and for the balance of the hire fee well in advance of your wedding day. The venue hire fee, which often includes many other costs for your wedding such as catering and entertainment, is often one of the largest investments of your day and people can feel uncomfortable parting with such a large sum of money so far in advance of the big day.

This is where wedding insurance is important. From the moment you start spending money on your wedding you should have a good wedding insurance policy in place. Wedding insurance doesn’t just cover financial losses incurred on the big day itself, but can help protect many costs incurred in the run up to your wedding including Wedding Dress cover , Wedding Rings and Transport cover and importantly Failure of Suppliers cover.

Specifically thinking about your venue, wedding insurance can help protect you in a number of ways in the run up to your wedding and on the day itself, including:

Cancellation Cover and Rearrangement Cover – Could help protect you from some of the significant costs that could be incurred if for instance your venue was unable to hold your wedding reception due to damage to the venue or if perhaps an important supplier such as your caterer didn’t turn up on the day. The Cancellation Cover in your wedding insurance could even help with some irrecoverable costs, such as deposits, in the event that yourself or your partner were made redundant before your wedding day.

Personal Liability and optional Public Liability Cover - With a large number of people gathered together to celebrate with you on your wedding day, accidents can sometimes happen. In today’s litigious environment it is wise to protect yourself against the cost of civil claims, for example, accidental loss or damage to a 3rd party’s property at the Wedding or reception venue. Wedding insurance can help protect you against such costs.

When they first start the search for their venue, many couples head straight for the big hotels. These hotels often offer a variety of packages for your big day covering everything from the catering and of course accommodation to flowers and even wedding cars. These packages can offer good savings compared to booking all the elements separately yourself. Often good value and undoubtedly convenient, be aware that some hotels run more than one wedding a day, so you could find yourself bumping in to another equally blushing bride in Reception, potentially taking some of the shine off your wedding.

For something a little different, have a look at stately homes and historical buildings. Many of these venues allow you to hire them exclusively giving you a more intimate feel to the day. Some people are put off by the fact you often need to book the catering etc yourself, but more and more of these potentially beautiful wedding venues will offer to help you plan your big day for those brides who would prefer someone else to take the strain.

Stately homes and historical buildings often come with beautiful grounds and therefore the opportunity for a romantic marquee wedding. Marquees come in all shapes and sizes, but for 200 people you could be looking at around £10,000 to hire a marquee that included everything you’d need such as carpets furniture, power and heating.

Although very pretty you must remember that marquee’s are only temporary structures so it is not unheard of for marquees to suffer damage while they are being hired out. Some marquee companies will expect you to cover all the costs of any damage, which could turn out to be considerable so it would be prudent to have in place wedding insurance with the additional Marquee cover option if a marquee is your ideal choice for you wedding venue.

Also don’t forget to check out local society buildings and halls as potential wedding venues; these can often offer far more interesting and memorable surroundings than a hotel or a stately home as they often hold special personal memories for couples and families alike and can be more convenient for friends and family travelling to your big day.

Start the search for your wedding venue online. There are a whole host of websites that allow you to search for the venue by area, by price and type of venue. An excellent feature of many of these sites is reviews of the venues by couples and guests that have experienced them first-hand. Make sure you read these reviews; a venue can give a really good impression when you go to have a look around, but it may be a very different story on your wedding day or vice-versa.

So remember, start looking early to make sure you find the venue that’s right for you, listen to what other people say and of course, make sure you have a good wedding insurance policy in place before you start spending a thing as you never know what will happen before your big day.

Wedding insurance from WeddingPlan Insurance