A tour is an hour. Spend it on the questions whose answers you cannot get from a website, and you will leave able to compare venues on something other than how the light was that afternoon.
Time
- What time can we get in, and what time must everyone be out?
- Are those hours guaranteed, or shared with another event that day?
- When can vendors load in, and when must they be gone?
- Is rehearsal time included, and is it guaranteed or subject to another booking?
- What time does the getting-ready room open?
The room
- What is the seated capacity with a dance floor still open? Not the standing capacity.
- Who sets the room, and is it set before we arrive?
- Who turns it between ceremony and dinner, and does that cost anything?
- What is the wet-weather plan, and when do we have to decide?
- Where do guests park, and how far is that from the door?
Money
- What is the site fee, and what does it include line by line?
- What is quoted separately - tax, gratuity, service charge, security, cleaning?
- Is there a guest-count minimum?
- What is the deposit, is it refundable, and does it transfer if we move the date?
- What does a date change cost, and how late can we make one?
People
- Who runs our wedding day - a named person, or whoever is rostered?
- Will we meet them before the day?
- Are outside vendors allowed, or is there a required list?
- Who handles the bar, and what is the per-guest floor?
- What happens at the end of the night, and who does it?
- What is the one thing couples wish they had known before booking here?
That last one is the best question on the list. A venue that answers it honestly is telling you something real; a venue that has no answer has not been listening to its couples.
What to look at while you are there
Stand in the room with your back to the prettiest wall and look at what your guests will actually see for five hours. Check the bathrooms. Check the path from the parking to the door in the shoes you will be wearing. Ask where the bins go, and where the caterer plates. None of it is romantic and all of it shows up in the photographs.
Our answers to all twenty-one are on the rates page and in the questions, before you drive out. Request a tour when you want to check them in person.