How We Chose Our Wedding Venue with WeddingWire

Picking our Wedding Venue was probably the most important decision in the wedding planning process. I knew that whatever I chose would ultimately determine so much about the overall vibe and feel of our wedding. I’ve had the benefit of being in the second wave of friends to get married, so I was able to draw from my friends weddings the things that were important to me in a Venue.

First off we had to decide on a location. While the ideal of eloping in some remote exotic local had some serious appeal (…and still does haha), we ruled that out because we had too many friends and family that would be unable to make the trip. Next we had to decide between Dallas and South Florida (where Christian is from), which was a fairly easy decision once we determined that we were looking at a December – February wedding date. I’m not a huge fan of cold weather, and Florida in February usually hovers around 78 degrees…aka the perfect temperature! Once we decided on South Florida, I started scouring WeddingWire’s Vendor Directory. Each Venue has it’s own page that includes information on the properties Capacity and Facilities, Services Offered, Pricing,  Photos and Reviews from other Brides. Basically everything you need to know to determine if you want to book a tour at the Venue.

At the beginning of this process I wasn’t 100 percent sure what I wanted out of a venue, but here were some of the main factors I was considering:

-December – February Availability

-Outdoor Area for Ceremony (ideally with water views)

-Must Accommodate around 200 People

Several of those factors can be specified in the WeddingWire’s Vendor Directory Search, so that helped me weed out a lot of Venues that weren’t right for us. I used the “heart” button to save any Venues I was strongly considering and ultimately scheduled tours at 5 different places (which was super easy as WeddingWire lists the contact info for each venue). I picked three Venues in Miami: The Biltmore Hotel, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, and The Perez Art Museum Miami; and two Venues in Palm Beach: The Flagler Museum, and The Breakers Palm Beach. I tried to get a good variety of different types of venues, so that I could see what all was out there.

When it came time to start touring the Venues, I tried to gather as much information from the Wedding Consultants as possible so that I could make an informed decision. I took photos and videos of each venue that I could reference them at a later date, and so I could share with Christian (he couldn’t take off work). I came in with individual questions for each venue weren’t answered on the site: 

What is their rain contingency for an outdoor ceremony? 

What time can the Ceremony Start? 

How late can the Reception Go?

Do they have a list of approved vendors? Etc.

As I started touring places, I was surprised by how quickly I was able to start to pinpoint my ‘Venue Deal Breakers’. When came time to make my final decision, I created Pro/Con lists for each venue. It helped me see where my heart really was, and made my choice a fairly obvious one.

*I want to note that all of these venues are gorgeous, and I would have been lucky to have my wedding at ANY of them. Most of my cons were based on my personal preferences.

VENUE PRO/CON LIST:

The Biltmore Hotel

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

The Perez Art Museum Miami

The Flagler Museum

The Breakers Palm Beach