From my previous tip post, I enumerated the important questions and factors to look for in your event suppliers. This time, let's focus on one major event supplier, the venue.
Big or small, grand or intimate, doesn't matter what kind of event you have because venues always play a large role and impact to your event.
So you managed to select venue/s available to your date and within your budget. But it doesn't stop there. We also know that ocular visits are a must, and better if we can tag along our coordinators for additional brainstorming. But there's more! For those who are critical with details, this one's for you.
Going Sherlock with Your Venue
15 things to watch out for in your potential event venues
1. Ingress Time & Number of Events in a Day
After confirming the date, consider the time slot. They might be catering to more than 1 event a day. If your event is dinnertime, they might have a lunch time event. That doesn't mean it's already ok. Most often than not, prior events to yours tend to extend their time due to egress and clean up, or their event itself is already delayed. This can greatly affect yours as well as you need to wait for them to finish up before your suppliers can even start setting up.
2. Size
Better if you inspect the venue itself, because sometimes they overestimate themselves, or you'd prefer to have more space than usual or a large stage that can consume space. It would also depend on your arrangement if it's cocktails, round table setup, long tables, theater, etc.
3. Hours of Use & Curfew
If you don't like paying extension fees, better align with your coordinators and emcees on the program and allot allowances for delays. Some also have specified closing time and noise curfews where you cannot extend beyond it.
4. Corkage Fees and Other Extra Fees
Some venues have their list of accredited partner suppliers to encourage their clients to book them, which means that hiring other suppliers outside the list would incur corkage fees. Famous examples would be catering, lights and sounds, etc.. This varies depending on the venue. Others simply have corkage fees if you want to bring specific items inside such as alcoholics, lechon, etc.
A number of venues also charge extra such as using their electrical outlets for your equipment, using their specialty stage lights if they have, turning on additional aircon or fan, etc. All these should be properly accounted for to prevent unpleasant charges during your event.
5. Prep Room
Think carefully if you need prep rooms, as some venue types like restaurants don't have any. This is particularly important for weddings or debut where couples and celebrants need to do touchups or change their clothes depending on their program. It would not be such a good sight for your guests to visibly see you doing so. Using the public restrooms would be challenging. Also, most celebrants have a lot of luggage, and no room to properly set them aside would look messy and pose security risks.
6. Styling and Effects Restrictions
Some venues are strict with styling and effects, such as restrictions on the use of materials for ceiling treatment, use of sparklers and other electrical effects simply because of safety! We should not contest as the venues are more familiar with what they can accommodate. If styling is important to you, better ask this one or consult with your event stylist on alternatives.
7. Dress Code
Most applicable to specialty, formal and upscale venues, they do impose minimum required dress code before allowing people to enter their premises. So if your event have a more casual or informal vibe, this is not to be ignored or else your guests might not be able to join you.
8. Furniture, Fixtures and Facilities
Some event venues don't have available chairs and tables, stages, couches, for use or rent, because usually these are availed from the catering or event stylists. Inspect the venue's lighting and ventilation as well. Is it bright enough in the evening? Is it humid? Are the aircons enough?
Check their pantry or kitchen! For caterers needing to cook some of the food during the event itself, they will be needing the appropriate space to do so. Some pantries or kitchen can be misleading as cooking is apparently not allowed.
9. Parking
Very critical for events with majority of the guests bringing their own vehicles, and those without drivers. Having no parking spaces or alternative nearby parking can greatly affect your guests' patience and may also incur delays in your event start time just because of the queue, specifically for event places with coinciding events. Also, for paid parking, inquire on complimentary parking stubs so you can provide one to your VIPs ahead. Some of our thrifty guests may also ask for it!
10. Security, Safety & Maintenance
Inquire on the number of guards and what areas they are positioned. Look over the surrounding areas of the venue if it's generally safe. Do they comply with proper emergency exits, fire extinguishers around, etc.? Inspect the gardens, restrooms, walls and railings for cracks, rusts, stains or even odor. These speak a lot of the venue's age, cleanliness and maintenance. Not that these can directly affect our event, but we may never know!
11. Accessibility & PWD Friendly
We know our guests love us and would try their best to be present for those special moments with our lives, so it's only right to think for their sake at times. Is your venue easily navigable and listed in Waze? Are the roads narrow? Bumpy? A lot of winding and inclines? Any vehicle type restrictions?
At the same time, if you are aware of any wheelchaired guests, do check if their stairs and walkways are PWD friendly. For multi-leveled venues, elevators!
12. Elevators
Speaking of elevators, this is only applicable to multi-leveled venues or if yours is on the rooftop or other upper floors. Check if they have separate elevators for staffs & suppliers so they and their equipment will not mix in with your guests. Check the number of elevators and their speed if your guests would have to wait a while. This can also cost delays in starting due to queue, as well as crowding during exits.
13. Proximity
This does not pertain to the venue's distance between you and your guests homes, but rather the distance of the venue to other pertinent locations involved, especially applicable to weddings with separate ceremony venues. Is your reception venue near your church? Your prep location? Do you prefer it to be nearby malls to in case of emergency supplies? This can matter to urban areas with high traffic congestion as delays might be inevitable.
14. For Outdoor Venues, Backup Indoor Venue or Tent
We are all powerless against nature, and if it so happens that it would rain despite our hard prayers, we need to be prepared with a plan B to keep our event going. If there's no indoor venue and the venue does not have tents available, rent it from somewhere else.
For garden events, rain in the morning and sudden sunny day in the afternoon does not mean it's already ok. Even if your event is not affected by the rain itself, the grasses and soils of the garden are still wet, in short, muddy. Its difficult to move around wearing heels and leather shoes and with our long gowns draping on the floor.
15. Important Documents
Most still forgot how important it is to check the legalities of our suppliers in the form of their business permits, official receipts and contracts. It's for both parties' protection so it's necessary to insist to have these available and have your own copy as well. Every payment must have an official receipt. Especially at times like this where natural disasters and pandemics are widely happening, a proper documentation of your agreement is a must, as these will be your basis for cases of cancellations & refunds, rescheduling and other adjustments needed.
Bonus
Some additional factors to consider that might not have any direct impact to your event, but would greatly help during planning and coordination stages.
1. Client & Co-suppliers' Reviews
Hear out opinions from their past clients and suppliers who have worked with them before. This actually applies across all suppliers, not just the venue. Co-suppliers might have insider information about the staffs of the venue that are not revealed in public. Past client reviews are also re-assuring to support the venue's reputation and credibility. Just make sure the reviews you're looking at are authentic and recent, not just tampered or pre-selected, old reviews.
2. Managers & Staffs
Another plus of doing ocular visits is to get to know the managers and staffs in person. Are they professional? Friendly and hospitable? Do you have an account manager not just a random sales personnel that can past you around? Are they flexible and negotiable? Will they be able to accommodate your requests? These factors greatly affect the planning stage, and for some cases, may result to better event experience than those with rigid or inexperienced personnel.
3. Complimentary Wifi
Lastly, if its not really an unplugged event, wifi is a plus or upgrade to your guests and suppliers especially if you have busy businessmen and entrepreneur guests that can't seem to get their eyes and ears off their phones! It's also useful in case you have emergency files you need to access online, and your guests with no data can immediately share memories in their social media accounts.
Anything else you might want to add? Too much to handle? Perfection comes at a price, and even with doing everything with our best, unexpected circumstances might still happen. However, for controllable factors, prevention, pro-activeness and preparedness definitely increase the chances for a successful and enjoyable event!
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