5 Things Your Wedding Photographer Wishes You Knew About Choosing a Venue
Choosing the location of your wedding is a momentous decision, from price range to location, to catering and style options – your venue dictates a lot about your wedding day. With our years of experience, we wanted to share 5 important things to consider before signing your wedding venue contract.
Consider an All-In-One Location
How much easier would it be to get dressed, married and party at the same location?
This eliminates the headache of hiring transportation and ensuring GPS doesn’t send your guests to the wrong location. However, some situations require multiple locations, and in that instance, make sure to leave a little buffer room for transportation – especially for pictures.
Think About the Lighting
Try to visit your venue around the same time of day you are planning your ceremony. You’ll want to look at the windows and make sure they offer lots of natural light throughout the day.
Be sure to speak to your wedding photographer and videographer about their familiarity with artificial lighting especially off-camera flash. We know nothing beats the beauty of natural light – especially in the rooms where the couple will be getting ready. But sometimes it is necessary for dark rooms.
Make Sure there is Space for Wedding Portraits
During your walkthrough, think about the size of your wedding party. Is there sufficient space inside or outdoors for full wedding party portraits? Ask if they have a space near your ceremony location, or if there is a room in the venue that is used for portraits. If you’re not 100% sure or forget – make sure to speak with your photographer. We always take a site tour before our clients’ big day to ensure we have a plan in place for their big day.
Find Out Where The Cars Will Park
It’s such an easy thing to overlook, you know there’s space to park but where exactly is it? Suddenly it’s the day of your wedding and your officiant can’t find a street parking spot. Avoid this headache by speaking with your venue beforehand. If it’s a traditional venue or hotel chances are you’ll have a designated parking area. For other venues such as parks or restaurants try to coordinate with local garages for a group day rate.
Prepare for Mother Nature on Your Wedding Day
Even though it’s said to be good luck to rain on your wedding day, most couples aren’t looking forward to saying their vows under an umbrella. If there’s any chance for rain, wind or even extreme heat, ask the venue if they have options for you to move the ceremony inside, even if just temporarily. Depending on the size of your wedding, an empty conference room, hallway or even covered patio will be able to house everyone until the weather lets up – as they say in Hollywood – the show must go on!
Even if your venue doesn’t have a backup plan, and it rains on your wedding day, we will be there every step of the way, singing Alanis Morrisette’s Ironic, holding an umbrella for you, and getting those once-in-a-lifetime moments – raindrops included.
So, the next time you go look at a venue remember these 5 things: Location, Lighting, Portrait, Parking and Weather. We guarantee it’ll make your wedding day go by smoother and be more enjoyable.
If you’re looking for experienced photographers to capture your day, fill out our contact form. You can also learn more about us or check out our Wedding Experience page.
