Melbourne offers an abundance of exceptionally beautiful wedding venues. You have the option of a The Dome, Fox’s Car Museum, The Melbourne Pavilion, The Moser Room, or Malvern Town Hall and the list goes on and on. Weekend weddings too have become very popular where wedding venues are hired out from a Friday to Sunday for exclusive use and celebrated as a holiday over a few days.
So, with all these options how do you choose the perfect wedding venue? There are a few very important aspects you need to look first. Once you’ve established these you can narrow down your choice to your three favourite venues and from there go on your gut feeling.
We have a look at a few aspects that can help you to narrow down your search and ultimately choose the perfect wedding venue:
#1. Location:
Decide which area you would ideally like to have your wedding in. If most of your friends and family live in Melbourne, it would make sense to have your wedding close by. There are many beautiful areas surrounding Melbourne such as The Dome, Fox’s Car Museum, The Melbourne Pavilion, The Moser Room, or Malvern Town Hall offer beautiful wedding venue choices. Ideally, you should look at having your wedding close to where the bulk of your guests reside.
#2. Budget:
Decide on your budget and shortlist wedding venues within your area and budget. If budget is an issue for you then you may want to look at the fine print of wedding venue contracts. Sometimes the venue hire cost doesn’t include chairs and tables, waiters, crockery and cutlery or cleaning up. So, although on the surface the venue hire cost is cheap, it ends up being very expensive if you have to hire and pay for all the extras. So, choose a venue after proper consideration.
#3. Number Of Guests:
Decide on how many guests you will invite and look at venues that will accommodate these within your area and within your budget. Numbers are very important in your quest for the perfect wedding venue. If you’re looking to invite 250 guests, don’t pick a boutique hotel that only holds 50. Likewise, if you hire a ballroom for 300 people and only invite 50, you might not get the cosy intimate reception you had hoped for.
#4. Onsite Ceremony:Check Out the Inside of "The Dome"
Decide if you want your ceremony and reception to be at the same wedding venue and choose from the list of venues within your area, within your budget and within your capacity requirements. Some wedding venues only supply an area for the wedding reception. The bride and groom, therefore, need to have the wedding ceremony offsite. Although this is not a problem for most, it’s a good idea to be aware of what is available so that there are no surprises further down the line.
#5. Accommodation:
Decide on whether you will need onsite accommodation and further shorten your list. For out of town weddings it’s important to find out whether there is accommodation on the premises and if not, whether there is enough accommodation for your guests in the surrounding area. Firstly, you don’t want your guests to have to drive for hours after the party and secondly you may have many people declining your invitation if they have no place to stay. If you need onsite accommodation, it is important to ask whether this is an option to some of your top wedding venue choices.
Once you have established these important points it’s time to decide which wedding venue will be the best option for your requirements, ideas and theme and choose your dream wedding venue. Of course, you may never find a wedding venue with all your exact requirements which is when you need to decide which of the 5 points above are the most important to you and prioritise from there.