Decision Making for Dummies: Choosing a Destination Wedding Venue

I’m sure anyone who has planned or is currently attempting to plan a destination wedding, can tell you that it can be pretty freaking difficult. (I should probably start referring to our own as a semi-destination-wedding really, since I’m lucky and will actually be moving back to the home of our wedding a few months prior to the date.) But the initial stresses of planning from abroad were definitely not easy—props to all you destination divas out there!

Being a terrible decision maker, I thought that finding a venue wouldn’t be too difficult. I spent my days online, searching and bookmarking practically every wedding venue I could find in Sydney. I even went so far as searching for surrounding areas, like the gorgeous Hunter Valley vineyards a few hours out of the city. Suffice it to say that after just a few short weeks of planning, I had a lot of potentials to play with.

I started off doing what any bride-to-be from abroad would do: I looked at (and drooled over) images on their websites. I looked at the rooms available. I looked at the exterior of the buildings. I looked at the locations and the gardens. I went for aesthetics first, and weeded out any that didn’t quite fit what I was looking for.

Then I looked at prices.

Most places were pretty good about listing costs on their website, so I could automatically see if they were just too expensive for us to consider. If there were no prices listed (never a good sign!) I emailed them and waited for a response. My short-list came down to about twenty venues. TWENTY VENUES. I didn’t know what to do next. Momma Jaguar volunteered to see a few for me, but I knew I would want to see them for myself. So what to do next? Wait until five months before the wedding and hope our date was available? Or should I try to work out a way to visit Sydney and see them myself?

I chose the latter, thanks to some frequent flyer miles and a free flight. I managed to scrape two weeks off work, and went to work on operation: fortnight of manic wedding planning.

I contacted my favourite reception venues and churches, booked in times to see them and with Mr. Jaguar’s help, put together a spreadsheet of costs, inclusions, extras and all sorts of other random information I probably wouldn’t need but thought I’d better take anyway. People thought I was crazy for being so busy on my ‘holiday’ – but this was serious wedding business, people! My three priorities for to hash out were the trifecta: CEREMONY, RECEPTION & PHOTOGRAPHER. That was it.

And because I’m a nerd, I put together a fancy little itinerary, all ready to go. It looked like this: