Top 5 tips on choosing your rustic wedding venue

What do you dream about for your Big Day? Photo by www.dearestlovephoto

Choosing your wedding venue is probably the most daunting element of the entire wedding planning process for most couples – it sets the mood for your day, impacts your photography, determines what kind of experience your guests will have, and is generally the most costly part.So here are our 5 top tips to try and help take away some of those stresses!

1. List & Prioritise

First of all, you should both have an open conversation with each other about what you want from your wedding day. You need to be on the same page and know what the key things to look for are in your search, to make sure you are not wasting time reseraching and visiting venues that don’t fit that bill. Make a list of your ideal wants, anything you are willing to compromise on, and anything that you are not. Also, it is helpful to make a list of your key guest list, and maybe mark out any splits between daytime and evening guests, or question mark those that you would be prepared to push to the evening list if you decide on a smaller venue or budget.

Once you have your list, go through it and prioritise it. What are your 5 top priorities for the day? What are you not really that fussed about? Have a think about what you might be willing to sacrifice. Here are some questons you may want to think about:

Will they let you bring your favourite street food van, or do they insist on providing all the food themselves?
Do you want to party until 3am? Many venues have cut off points due to licensing so this might not be possible.
Is the venue licensed for cermeonies, or will you have to be legally married somewhere else?
Will they let you bring your dog?
Do they allow children at the venue?
Which of your guests would you be willing to cut from the daytime or evening guest list if you find your dream venue wbut it costs you more than you thought?
How much flexibility do you want when it comes to choosing your other suppliers?
Do you want a band, or will you be happy with a DJ?
How fixed are you on a particular date, time of year, or day of the week?

Our barn set up for a licensed wedding ceremony. Photo by www.hayleymorrisphotography.co.uk

Dogs are a welcome part of weddings here. And with 10 yurts each sleeping 4 people available to book at our adjacent glamping site, you can make a real weekend of your celebration with guests styaing on site. Photo by www.rachelburtphotography.com

A street food van at a festival wedding in our garden. Photo by www.electricbluephoto.co.uk

Children are welcome here and love the outside space available for games. Photo by www.tanyaflannaganphotography.co.uk

2. Type of venue & vibe for the day

Tristan & Stef Bennett in 2016 – the first wedding that started the ball rolling towards our offering here at Bennetts Willow Barn. Photo by www.suelloyd-weddings.co.uk

The type of venue you choose will generally help set the tone for the day, and this is likely to be something you decided upon when writing your list of priorities. You may not know, but weddings here at Bennetts Willow Barn stem back to the owners’ (Tristan and Stef) wedding back in 2016, when they built the yurt marquee so they could celebrate on the family farm. All we wanted was a good party – good food, good music and a fun and relaxed day for everyone. And oh boy did we get that!

Most people have an idea of where they see themselves celebrating their wedding – a stately home? A yurt in a field? A barn? And what kind of vive do you want? A very formal silver service sit down evening, or a fun festival wedding? Have a think about what kind of place you envisage yourselves celebrating in. If you are thinking about having a formal black tie reception, you may be looking towards a more luxury hotel or stately home. Do you prefer the idea of something much more relaxed where your guests can kick off their heels and enjoy garden games on the lawn? Do you want on site accommodation, and if so, for how many guests?

Another element to consider is how much freedom you want for the day. Many hotels have standard “packages” where they will instruct a florit and arrange for table decor in accordance with one of their priced options. This is an easy way to get your venue wedding ready, but if you are looking for a more personal and bespoke touch, you are probably going to prefer choosing a venue where they do not have a closed list of suppliers. Here at Bennetts Willow Barn, we have recommended suppliers that we have worked with before, but we don’t push you towards anyone inparticular – it is your choice.

We love that every wedding at Bennetts Willow Barn is unique – couples stamp their own personality in our yurt marquee and in the barn. Photo by www.hayleymorrisphotography.co.uk

Fun festival summer weddings are our speciality. Photo by www.electricbluephoto.co.uk

3. Research, research, research

We have lots of photographs for inspiration on our Instagram feed. Photo by www.electricbluephoto.co.uk

Once you have gone through your lists, spend some time researching what is available that ticks your boxes. Instagram is a great place to search – use hashtags to help focus your search on particular things. For example, the #worcestershireweddings hashtag will help you narrow down venues in the worcestershire area. An old fashioned SEO search is also a great way to help find a venue that suits your key words. for example, if you were to search “fun festival wedding Worcester” we know that Bennetts Willow Barn ranks fairly highly, so hopefully you would come across us.

Narrow down the list of venues you think you like to no more than 10 to start with, and contact them and request a brochure (many venues will have brochures freely available online, but you need to request an up to date pricing brochure. Here is a little sneaky tip – if you complete the wedding enquiry page on our website, you will receive an auto reply with our pricing. Check through the pricing and see if it looks within your budget and if you still like what you see, then contcat the wedding team to arrange a vist, or look for an upcoming open day.

When contacting the venue, if you have any absolute no compromise points such as a particular date or month of a year, then it is worth mentioning that. There is little point in you taking up time visiting a venue that is already booked on the date you must get married on (your 5th anniversary, for example. But if you are flexible, then don;t worry about this too much.

When couples contact us, we like to find out a little bit about what they are hoping for from their wedding celebration. Weddings are a two way process and we can help guide you if it really sounds like we are not going to be able to satisfy your key wants.

Remember to consider what is most important to you as a couple. Have the wedding YOU want! Photo by www.jennifertakesphotos.co.uk

4. Visit

Do you see yourselves celebrating your wedding at that venue? That’s the key question! Photo by www.rachelburtphotography.com

When you visit the venue, go with an open mind. No doubt you will have searched through the photo gallery on their website and their instagram account, so will have a great idea of what your wedding might be like. But try and imagine what YOUR day there would look like.

Don’t be shy about asking any questions you may have. You need to walk away knowing whether this is the place for you or not, rather than wishing you had asked more questions. Some people find it helpful to take a list of prepared questions with them. Also don’t be shy to take photos, if you think that will help you.

If you have found “the one” you are likely to know it there and then, and walk away wanting to get the venue booked! However, don’t rush into anything as yet as you ought to carry out our top tip number 5 …

5. Make sure you are ready to book

When you have visited all the venues you want to visit, hopefully you will know which is the one for you because you should have that “feeling” about it. But make sure you are fully ready to sign on the dotted line and hand over a deposit, whihc is usually non-refundable (weddings are generally booked far in advance, and cancellations can be tricky to fill, meaning a venue loses out on the incoem if they can’t rebook it after you cancel.

Go through the finer detail and be sure you fully understand what is included for the price, and what is not. We have heard horror stories of couples finding out late in the day that they need to pay extra for certain chairs or tables they have seen in some photographs of the venue, or that they need to pay for bar staff per hour or even for glassware! Corkage is also something to watch out for.

Most importantly, please make sure you read through all of the terms and conditions and any small print. It is really important that you understand what your venue is providing, and what they are not, in terms of physical elements as well as what services they are undertaking on the day. Make sure you understand what deposit is required for booking and when the balance is payable. When must food choices be made by? What information does the venue require about your other suppliers? a good wedding venue co-ordinator will always answer these questions clearly and will want to be sure you fully understand what you are signing up to.