Which should you book first: your wedding venue or your wedding planner?

The age-old question: should you book your wedding planner first, to assist and support from the get-go, or your venue first, to establish the setting and overall look before bringing a planning team on board?

a wedding venue in santorini, greece overlooking the water and full of colorful florals

Unlike the chicken and the egg, this question has an answer. There are key advantages to having a seasoned expert on your team before you begin your venue search:

Wedding Planners Help Curb Venue Choice Paralysis

Let’s face it: the venue search can be exhausting and daunting. For many couples, identifying, sorting, and comparing hundreds (or more) options to select the perfect setting is an overwhelming starting point. The burnout can set in early, and couples can get hung up on the first step, stalling the planning process.

If you choose to book your wedding planner first, they will help you by getting to know you and your priorities, taking on the research project, and sharing a curated selection of venue options with pricing, availability, and relevant details.

Planners have an understanding of the total wedding budget, and will know which venues will work for you and which may end up above budget or won’t comfortably accommodate all guests. By filtering out unavailable and irrelevant options, your full-service wedding planner can present a selection of in-budget venues tailored to your event.

a charming wedding venue in the south of france

You will limit analysis paralysis and decision fatigue by evaluating only options that work for you, presented by your planner in a consistent and clear format, instead of trying to find and evaluate them in a sea of irrelevant choices.

Your Wedding Planner Will Identify Venue Red Flags and Hidden Fees

Wedding venues can be difficult to compare apples-to-apples. They share information in long emails or awkward PDFs, with some fees listed without tax, some with. For destination weddings, a venue that appears less expensive but only has 10 rooms on site may end up costing a couple more than a pricier venue that has 27 rooms, if guests are covering the cost of their accommodations.

In the US, it’s also common to see venues and restaurants list a price without specifying their admin fee (which can be as low as 2% or as high as 26%+) and whether they expect a gratuity.

Some venues include a few hours for setup, but that may not be enough time for your vision, decor, or vendor requirements. Adding time later will come at a higher cost or may not be possible.

As a general rule, things you could have negotiated up front will likely be more challenging or expensive to obtain later.

Your planner will help sort and characterize these issues, to provide you with a clear and comprehensive understanding of the overall fee structure and potential pain points for the specifics of your desired event.

A seasoned planner will spot potential red flags a mile away. A venue that requires vendors off a prescribed list may mean you are locked into a certain price point for vendors, or may have to pay a fee to bring in the caterer you want. Your planner will help you avoid or mitigate these concerns from the beginning, and can help negotiate around them.

Wedding Planners See Potential

As a full-service planner who includes comprehensive event design in my process, I love helping my couples visualize their wedding and story in a specific setting. Classic châteaus, elegant villas, and charming wineries can all blur together when endlessly joy-scrolling through other peoples’ wedding photos and venue brochures.

a beautiful wedding venue in florence, italy, found by the wedding planner

A venue with a mediocre online presence may be a hidden gem – your planner can help you uncover it. Your planner can also help you imagine how to transform a cold, industrial blank-slate space into a warm, glowy celebration that fits your vision.

A collaborative process with an enthusiastic professional will unlock the full potential combining your vision with a specific setting.

Booking Your Wedding Planner Before Your Wedding Venue Will Save You Money

I negotiate venue contracts on behalf of my couples, to help get them the best value for their investment. Even if you are familiar with reviewing contracts, if you haven’t reviewed a wedding venue-specific contract before, you may not spot missing or inappropriate clauses.

Additionally, I identify opportunities to add value by increasing scope of services once no further price reduction is possible. Perhaps there is on-site furniture the venue could include in the rate, waiving the usual fee? Can we get an extra hour for vendor set-up without an extra cost?

Planners are adept at advocating for their couples. There are areas where a venue can provide a benefit to you at little or no cost to them, but which they do not readily offer up. Your planner can figure out where there is flexibility, and help push to get you the most value.

For planners like myself who do not accept kickbacks or commissions, hiring your planner first aligns interests and also helps ensure you receive the lowest rates possible. When planner commissions are built into venue pricing, couples who approach a venue independently may be quoted the full rate, inclusive of commissions, which the venues are then able to keep as added profit.

Following the wedding venue negotiation, a planner who does not accept commissions will have the venue remove the built-in planner fee, saving you an additional 10-15%.

Wedding Planners Help You Think Outside the Box

I generally include a few wild card venue options for my couples in their Venue Menu. Why? During our venue kick off call, I get a comprehensive understanding of the must haves and nice-to-haves for my couple. Sometimes, in the venue search, I come across something that may be missing one of the must-haves (for example, maybe it doesn’t have a pool, or maybe it is out of budget for a four day event, but would be IN budget for a three day celebration, or it isn’t within an hour of a major international airport, but there’s a super-convenient train option).

If I come across a property with the perfect vibe that ticks every other box, I will share it as an option to consider. That way, my couple won't miss out on a potential opportunity because of an initial list of requirements. As always - this is an option, not an obligation. Wild cards can be easily eliminated!

Here's an example: the stunning Villa Cortine, that I knew would be a perfect fit for my couple given all of their wishes, but wouldn't fit within their budget for a wedding with five days of complete venue exclusivity.

bride and groom celebrate their wedding feast on lake garda and the beautiful villa cortine. mother of the bride gives a speech

I presented it as an option for a two nights of exclusivity, and we planned auxiliary events in the days leading up to the wedding, from a private boat ride with aperitivo on board, followed by dinner in town for the immediate family on Wednesday, a casual welcome event in the city-center for all guests on Thursday, and then we transitioned to the villa for Friday-Sunday. In this way, the couple got exactly what they wanted: a multi-day celebration with quality time with all of their guests and the spectacular setting of a luxury five-star villa with complete exclusivity for the two main events of their wedding celebration. It's an option that would have been ruled out completely if they'd been only looking at their original list of requirements. Wild cards can come in handy!