Need suggestions for wedding venue.

[MaBelle]

My ds and dil are reopening our lodge and cabin wedding venue.  Dil has lots of great ideas but wants to make sure she's covered everything.  

Here's her post on the site this morning.

Morning coffee thoughts! What’s something extraordinary you want from your wedding venue? What is something that happened or didn’t happen at your wedding venue that you wish would have or wouldn’t have happened? Help us make our venue stand out from the rest! What are my young beautiful brides to be looking for?

So speak up!  The little cabin is the "Bridal Cabin" with upstairs for the men and down for the women to change.  It has a separate entrance to the upstairs.  Lodge has kitchen, bathrooms and a big empty room.

 

[Faith-manor]

As part of the package, provide a coordinator to handle all of the details that make brides, mothers of brides, etc. miserable the day of...so the caterer comes to talk to the coordinator, not the family, and so on with every vendor. If people are going to pay a good deal of money to use such a nice facility, then really help them make that day lovely by taking away as much stress as possible.

Also do your research with local businesses and find out what vendors are willing to deliver/work the events. Have that list available so that parents and couples can easily find out where to go for flowers, food, DJ, what not. And if you don't have a parquet dance floor, I would recommend putting one in because the crowd that would normally pay to use a facility besides a church or a small VFW hall is usually the one that wants some space for dancing.

[PeachyDoodle]

My sister got married at a venue very similar to this one. One thing it offered that others didn't was a groom's lodge, where the groomsmen could hang out, barbecue, etc. before the wedding. And skeet shooting -- this was a major draw that REALLY appealed to my BIL. It wouldn't have to be shooting necessarily, but some kind of activity for the groom and his buddies to engage in while the girls spend several hours getting made up and pampered is great.

[Faith-manor]

I like the idea of activities. Could be lawn bowling, could be barbecue, could be stocked trout pond so go fishing guys - though it should be catch and release because if they gut and fry them, you've got that smell wafting around the place which would not be conducive to wedding happiness, pool tables, etc.

Also, offer a no frills kind of package deal for people on a budget. You could work out "for this price you get" and maybe it's the use of the facility for so many hours plus desserts and beverages but not a meal, set up seating for only 50 or 75 guests, and maybe you toss in to that rental of tablecloths and cloth napkins but no china or anything. There is real need for young couples not connected to local churches to have a pretty place for small, easy weddings that don't break the budget. If you price it right and are careful how much service you provide, it should be a decent money maker.

[Carol in Cal.]

Do you have some kind of smooth but not slippery pathway between the two buildings?  Great functional item and fantastic photo/video op for the wedding itself.  

Is this a wedding/honeymoon site or just wedding?  If it’s also a honey moon place, an outdoor hot tub, maybe with an open topped set of walls around it, would be very welcome and fit with the rustic decor.  There used to be a restaurant in South Lake Tahoe that had outdoor hot tubs for dinner guests.  They had 8 foot redwood fences around them for complete privacy, and were open to the sky.  You could go out there and use them without need to bring anything else along—the restaurant provided towels.  Even if it was snowing, this was pretty cool.  (Obviously not during a lightning storm.)

Is there a little stage at one end of the great room for the wedding party or for speeches or toasts?  That is a nice feature.

If it’s not a honeymoon spot, a ‘to go’ basket of local goodies for the happy couple to take on their way would be a nice touch.

[Carol in Cal.]

Consider having a package for wedding/reception and another one for just receptions.  Personally I would not marry outside of a church, but I wouldn’t have a reception at a church.  A reception only space is important.

[prairiewindmomma]

Clear pricing structure (friday/sunday, saturday, holiday, offseason/weekday prices) & payment options

dance floor

Linen/table/chair rental package options--clearly photographed

Clear information about: how many guests can be seated at 60" tables, whether chairs can be moved by staff from outside to inside, whether cake cutting/serving is provided, etc. 

Lots of photographs of the site, including photo ops things (rusted 1930s truck, stone pathway to gazebo to hold the ceremony, rustic timber wall with vintage edison bulbs, whatever.....

The website should have: preferred vendors links, document links (to the contract, etc.), lodging/transportation info, etc. 

[Faith-manor]

And don't be tempted to cram people around tables. I have seen this time and time again in order to put too many people into a too small space. I've seen old people trip and fall, people getting caught up in table and chair legs, unable to push back from the table quickly if a beverage gets spilled, etc. there needs to be a reasonable amount of space.

My recommendation is to always take what the local fire department tells you is the maximum capacity and reduce by 20% for the number you will allow. I have never known a fire department to be stingy with their numbers, if anything too generous. A lot of times they use a square footage formula also taking into account the number of emergency exits - of course this is moot for outdoor weddings - but the number is really only appropriate for the ceremony, ie. aisles of chairs. It becomes an inappropriate number when tables start taking up the bulk of the space.

Also, do check local ordinances about parking. noise, zoning, etc I know someone who bought a beautiful victorian home, renovated it without doing her research first, and then wanted to open it for small weddings. Would have been gorgeous. However, city ordinance dictated no more than four cars in the driveway, no more than four on the street. She wasn't near an area where should could readily rent a parking lot, and then offer valet parking. OOPS. No wedding venue. She was able to make it over into a bed and breakfast, but she'd already invested in a lot of stuff like tables, chairs, linens, etc. for the wedding venue so she lost a lot of money.

Probably you've thought of all of that, but I usually like to just check and be sure since knowing someone who made a big mistake in that regard.

[Carol in Cal.]

Think about bathrooms.  Do you really have enough?  Are you going to be able to keep them stocked and clean throughout an event?  Do you want an access door on the outside of the building as well as the inside?  I assume there are overflow bathrooms in the bride's cabin--are those available during periods of high demand?  Like right after lunch or dinner?

What about outdoor lighting to assist people in getting to their cars after dark?

Will this be open during months where inclement or very cold weather is likely, and how will you handle that?

[moonflower]

my sister's wedding was at a state park lodge type of thing, and while rustic-ish it had a nice bathroom with stalls and sinks and etc.  The best part of that was a padded bench area in the women's bathroom where it was easy to sit and nurse.  If you could rig up something similar I bet that would be really welcome.

[Halftime Hope]

Create two or three sites for wedding ceremonies on the property, so couples can choose what fits them best.  Provide at least one heavy-duty electrical access point at each potential ceremony site.  We had to buy $300 of extension cords to make the camp venue dd chose work with the set-up she wanted.  (We had budgeted $1K for unexpected expenses, but still.)   If a spot is beautiful but remote, you can make a genny available, but have long enough cords (300-400 feet) and an enclosure for the genny, to help dampen the loud noise. 

Provide plenty of outdoor cafe-string lighting above pathways, and in places where over-head cafe-lighting would not have scenic value, at least put solar pathway lighting at calf-level.  

Remember that trees are best planted 20 years ago. Money spent on "teen-age" (big) trees will pay off quickly, but also plan for the long haul, and plant lots of small trees strategically.

My niece's wedding venue will not accept flowers or cakes the day before the wedding, and that was NOT stated in the contract.  I'm presuming they learned that the hard way, but yeesh, it's a PITA for my SIL, as niece is having a  late-summer morning wedding. She's trying to figure out how to store DIY flower arrangements for at least a day.  Sigh.  I wish the venue had said, "Sorry, no cakes can arrive until the day of, but if you want to leave flowers here, be our guest, but know that we accept zero responsibility for how they fare in our A/C or heating."

ETA:  If you don't want guests or lighting companies mucking around in your trees, string your own cafe lights at a site or two for outdoor seating and/or dancing. It was a huge job for us to do lights for dd's wedding, and we were super careful to use materials that would not damage the tree-bark.  If guests want dancing under the trees, have them rent a dance-floor (the rental company will bring a tarp for under the panels) instead of damaging your floor panels, which you should reserve for super-flat spots you've pre-approved. 

Edited January 25, 2019 by Halftime Hope