Do Wedding Planners Actually Help You Find a Venue?

Absolutely, and to be honest, this is the reason why couples hire wedding planners in the first place.

Choosing an appropriate venue for your wedding ceremony is a really daunting task. There are thousands of venues to choose from, each offering different pricing models and having varying availability, plus the added burden of selecting one of the most crucial venues of your life. A wedding planner will help relieve some stress – and choosing a proper venue is their number one responsibility.

However, let us dig into some more details, because there is something more about venue selection.

Venue Selection Takes One of The Most Amount of Time

Most people fail to understand how long the venue selection process can take until they go through it themselves. Choosing a venue is not only about finding a beautiful place. It involves numerous criteria such as capacity, location, policy on catering, decoration, cost, transportation, etc.

According to a study done by The Knot in 2022, couples spend on average four and a half months looking for a wedding venue to host their big day. It’s months spent visiting places, sending and receiving emails and comparing quotations which don’t match one another at all.

However, when working with a professional wedding planner, your timeline is greatly shortened. First of all, he/she knows those venues and has probably even been to them. He/she can tell you how the venue is organized and has most likely established connections with the coordinator himself/herself.

What Wedding Planners Do When Looking for the Wedding Venue

The first step is making of the initial brief. This is where the planner takes his time to get acquainted with your dream, the number of guests, time frame, theme, and budget you wish to spend. 

The second step is selecting potential venues from your list. As opposed to searching for information through Google, the planners make use of their social networks in order to curate potential venues. 

Thirdly, they make preliminary enquiries where the planner phones the venues to check on their availability and charges. Fourthly, they make site visits where they at times accompany you to the venues and make several technical inquiries. Lastly, they negotiate for the best venue on your behalf. The negotiation will include issues such as the cost.

Related: Checkout these gorgeous wedding venue in Shah Alam

These steps require a lot of experience and expertise, something which is lacking among many couples.

The Importance of Industry Connections

There’s a very important thing that many people don’t realize when choosing their wedding planner – they have access to some connections that couples don’t even know exist.

Once experienced in the trade, a competent planner should be able to develop genuine relationships with management teams at the venues, caterers, and event coordinators. This will result in much convenience since the planner would be able to have a prompt reply, a candid review, and even possibly reserve the date before its release to the general public online.

The venues in Malaysia can be booked well in advance, up to 12-18 months ahead, including ballroom and heritage venues in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. In the absence of a planner with contacts at the venue, it may be impossible to find such a place.

This fact is known by Kollysphere, which means that it knows about it very well.

The skill of Budget Management is also an Important one

The main thing that a wedding planner should be able to do in the course of searching for the ideal venue is managing the budget of the couple.

While these venues seem to be quite cheap at first glance, the reality is that they charge a lot more once such additional expenses like catering minimum, corkage fees, setup fees, and overtime are taken into consideration. These experts know how to assess quotes offered by venues and identify any hidden costs that would later surprise the couple.

In addition, wedding planners are aware of those venues that provide the best price/quality ratio for different budgets. They will not recommend expensive venues to the couple if their total budget does not exceed RM 80,000 and the room rental cost is RM 50,000 already.

According to a study by WeddingWire, couples who engaged a professional wedding planner experienced 32% less chances to exceed the budget limit than couples who arranged everything on their own. One of the reasons behind such success rate is the venue selection because it is considered one of the most costly parts of a wedding.

Wedding Planners Always Know What to Ask

It’s underestimated how many questions you have to ask yourself when choosing a wedding venue; there’s quite an extensive checklist of points that need to be settled, and not everyone knows what to ask for.

For example, things like:

• – Do you have a noise curfew?
• – What is the wet weather plan for your outdoor area?
• – Can I decorate however I want?
• – What happens if we exceed our agreed-upon guest number?
• – Are there other bookings at the venue the same day in the next room?

Omitting just one of these can lead to serious trouble on the day itself. Wedding planners come to every meeting having already formulated their questions.

Wedding Situations in Malaysia

When it comes to choosing the right location for a wedding in Malaysia, there are various aspects that need to be taken into account. In fact, situations arise when the marriage is celebrated twice by different means; for example, a nikah ceremony can take place in the morning and the reception party in the evening, possibly even at two different locations.

Some of the things that need to be considered include the cultural needs, the halal food aspect, space for prayers, and facilities for the performance of cultural activities. But it is not always possible to find a place that meets all these requirements, nor is every couple familiar with the process.

That is why a wedding consultant who understands the wedding environment in the region as well as its challenges is priceless. This is why Kollysphere agency can be of help in any brief.

When Couples Do It On Their Own

It is important to note how many issues can occur when couples attempt to make arrangements without a wedding planner when it comes to finding an appropriate venue for their event.

The issues couples face could include:

• – Booking a venue that will appear great from online photos but be impractical upon arrival
• – Overestimating the cost of the place and surpassing the budget limit
• – Failing to receive dates because the booking process moves too slow
• – Signing contracts while being unaware of the details regarding cancellations and force majeure conditions
• – Choosing a venue that will be inappropriate for the number of guests invited

This list can easily describe most common problems that couples face. Indeed, this experience usually makes one recall stories told by friends or family members who have planned a wedding.

Full Service or Partial Service? The Wedding Venue Assistance Is There Either Way

There may be some concern among some brides and grooms about using a planner’s services to help with the wedding venue, believing that they’ll automatically end up with full-service wedding planning and that this might not be necessary, as their event is more modest in scope.

Fortunately, however, many wedding planners provide various levels of services. Even the partial planning services or “month-of coordination” option frequently include venue consultation. You don’t have to relinquish the reins of your wedding just to get some assistance in choosing your venue.

In fact, it would be wise to have a serious discussion about what you need ahead of time.

But It Is About Getting the Right Venue

A great wedding planner will not simply find a venue for you; he/she will find the right venue for you. That means a venue that fits your imagination, matches your budget, can accommodate the number of guests, serves your logistical purposes, and is ideally the perfect environment to share your love story.

All of these don’t come by default; rather, they only come about through the efforts of someone who truly understands the events industry and can use his/her knowledge and experience to make it happen.

This is the mindset behind Kollysphere events, which is always to do things right.

So, Does a Wedding Planner Help Look for a Venue?

Indeed, they do, not only that but even more!

They buy you time, make sure you’re within the budget, help you gather information, use their professional connections, and show you some venues that might look perfect but have one flaw that is unknown to you. It goes without saying that choosing a venue alone makes booking a wedding planner totally justified.

For those of you who are just getting started with planning your wedding and think of how difficult the task of venue selection could be, take your mind off of it! This feeling is totally normal.