The Truth About Wedding Venue Pricing
If you’re in the market to find the perfect wedding venue for your wedding, there are an ever-growing number of choices to choose from. Along with that, you have a wide range of pricing from under $1,000 to some exclusive venues running upwards of $75,000 or more!
Well today, I’d like to explore a little bit about wedding venue pricing, what it means to you, and some of the hidden fees and very costly secrets that will bite you on the back end of signing a contract.
What do couples want in a Wedding Venue?
First and foremost, they want something that is within budget.
That means they are seeking a place that they can afford and that’s something that I will touch more on in a bit.
But, beyond cost, they want something that can ‘wow’ friends and family that is included in that overall cost. Being able to entertain at a venue is one of the top features that couples seek.
Part of the Silver Hearth Lodge wedding campus atop Bent Mountain, Virginia.
They also want lots of valuable resources to help with their wedding day, so having a list of preferred (or vetted) vendors is often times beneficial to the couple.
Finally, they are seeking venues with those unbeatable added perks, like a coffee bar, a firepit, and smores bar, a lawn games court, a pavilion, nice bathrooms, a playground for kids, and even a place for the four-legged friends too.
Couples want places where there has been a lot of thought put into the venue and that’s a big key to what makes a venue successful, like Silver Hearth Lodge for example.
But with all these things, what about the cost of the venue itself, sometimes you will find what’s on the front end in savings is really a back-end money pit.
It’s What You Don’t See
Not all wedding venues are the same and many offer different things, amenities, and the like to help justify their pricepoint, that’s perfectly natural.
However, some venues are a bit sneaky in luring you into the venue and locking you into their rules, like you MUST use their in-house catering for example.
Many times, the venue rental cost may be the lure, but to hook you, they will double, sometimes triple the rate of the catering and that’s because many catering companies own venues.
It’s sort of like the automobile industry, they get you to come to the dealership with special pricing and incentives, but they generally make all that and more in the way of fees and stupid things you really don’t need, like undercoating or services plans.
Take a look at this chart.
Venue Costs
If you look at the overall cost of the venue as a separate line item, you’ll see that Venue A and Venue C seem to have great rates. Venue B seems to cost a little more than the others, but Venue B doesn’t have an in-house catering company, so you find a caterer that can accommodate 100 guests at $23 a plate.
Venue A and Venue C state that you MUST use their catering company and they have higher rates to offset the venue cost. Let’s add those values to the chart.
The Hidden Costs
If we total the both costs together, Venue B comes out as the better money-saving alternative and thats the one that allows you to choose which catering company you want, not which you MUST use.
The Venue/Catering Costs
Now, not all wedding venues are like this, but some are and that’s something you should be aware of, having a great low cost doesn’t always mean you are saving money, but that’s not all, value comes in the form of what the venue offers too.
Value is in the Venue itself
Virginia’s smallest wedding chapel on the Silver Hearth Lodge wedding campus.
“The national average for a wedding venue itself is between $10,700 according to a survey of brides. ”
So, let’s chat about that for a minute, what does the cost include for a venue?
Well, at a basic level, it should include things like tables and chairs, a couple of great locations to have the wedding (in case of rain) and some other basics like restrooms for your guests, parking lots, dressing rooms and a kitchen for your catering company.
But it goes beyond that, much more in fact.
Venues with features allow your guests to further enjoy themselves during the wedding reception and that’s something that is often overlooked in most wedding venues today.
Think of things like firepits, places to relax such as couches, rocking chairs, charging stations for their phones, umbrellas in case of rain, fans on the dance floor, a bar area for drinks, and maybe TVs playing sports for those that enjoy that sort of thing.
Venues that spend money on feature-rich amenities for your guests all have added value and being able to entertain and wow your friends and family are part of what makes a great venue, having that ‘Disney World” experience.
The idea is to offer an ‘over-the-top’ experience, so I want you to leave today with that in mind, what things do the venue you are touring offer that the others don’t?
Finally, be mindful of low-cost venue pricing, the venue is that way for a reason, and sometimes it’s because it’s nothing more than a building with a couple of rooms and sometimes there is a catch to the pricetag too.
