Weddingbee Blog

There are a bazillion amazing venues in and around Austin. How were the Waffles going to narrow it down to just one?

Well, Miss Waffle got out her monster stack of Austin wedding magazines, fired up the Google and kept the following guidelines in mind…

1. Look for venues with outdoor capabilities. Mr Waffle made it very clear that he wanted to do as much outside as possible. Having come from, as he says, “grey, depressing England” he loves any excuse to be out of doors when the sun is shining no matter how hot it is. Bees, we live in Texas and it gets H-O-T hot here! The average temperature for early June is in the low 90s. AH! 90s!!! When he suggested this I had a tragic mental picture of our wedding guests fleeing the scene for air conditioning or passing out from heat stroke while he sunned on a rock like a lizard. Eek! I was hoping we could at least compromise and have an indoor/outdoor affair.
2. Must be within a reasonable distance of downtown. This was important because not only do we have a lot of out of town guests, but we have a lot of out of country guests and making them travel 30 miles to a gorgeous location after flying across an entire ocean just didn’t seem fair. Several venues in the greater Austin area fit criterion number one, but were eventually ruled out due to distance.
3. Must allow outside vendors of our choosing. I can become a pretty stubborn, cranky pants lil’ Wafflette when people tell me I can’t do certain things. Not being able to have the freedom to choose our own caterer, bartender, baker, etc just doesn’t sit well with me (no offense, of course, to those that would rather do all inclusive).
4. Stay in budget! This is pretty self-explanatory. Luckily, when we went to look at venues, we were staying open to the possibility of having a Sunday wedding for extreme money saving purposes.
5. Make sure the venue gives you a decent number of hours for what you are paying. Many venues I looked at would only let you have the space for 4 hours and charged a ton extra for every hour over. I knew that I wanted to be able to get to our venue early, set up, chill with friends and a mimosa and really enjoy the day. The last thing I want to feel on our wedding day is a horribly expensive time crunch.

Armed with those criteria in mind, online reviews and advice from Magic Alie, I was able to narrow my choices down to a final three which will be explored in our next episode of “Going on a Venue Hunt.”

Did you have a criteria list to help you on your venue hunt?