If you’ve made your way to this page, congratulations! You’re either recently engaged or you’re hoping to be engaged soon and you’re a little type-A, so you’re jumping on the venue search now. For those in the latter group, no shame—finding a wedding venue can be a stressful process, especially if you’re a planner by nature. I booked my wedding venue before my fiance (now husband) officially proposed! You’re in good hands.
The fact is, most popular wedding venues in Austin and the Texas Hill Country are booked over a year in advance. We are seeing more and more Friday, and even Thursday weddings, because there is simply a ton of demand to host your wedding here.
I’ve been a wedding planner for 15 years and the question that’s most often asked in my first meeting with a prospective client is, “why is it so hard to find a wedding venue?”. The answer, “high competition and high stakes.”
For many young couples, this is the first big financial decision they’re making together. It’s going to be hard and there is no way around it.
I’m in my forties, and I still call my dad to consult with me before buying a car. But who do engaged couples have to turn to? Either you hire a wedding planner right off the bat (if you can afford it), or you spend hours upon hours searching on the internet, emailing sales people who may or may not email you back, and trying to make sense of costs and variables that are impossible to compare.
So where does one start? Season, Source, Size, then Sales.
Consider Seasonal Factors
When it comes to season, let’s first think about you and your family.
What time of year is most convenient for you and those who you absolutely want at your wedding? For example, are you a school teacher and the idea of planning a summer wedding would be a lot less stressful than during the school year? Is your fiancé and his groomsmen obsessed with college football and likely to complain if God forbid your wedding schedule overlapped with a key game? Maybe you simply hate sweating and really want a late fall or winter wedding because that’s when you feel happiest. All good reasons to hone in on a preferred season.
From there, you can evaluate what type of venue will best suit your needs.
- Spring in Central Texas is typically considered March to May. While you benefit from blooming wildflowers and fair weather, be sure to watch out for increased pricing and decreased hotel availability due to SXSW. Also, May is technically the rainiest month in Central Texas (that’s why SXSW is in March). For clients looking for a spring wedding, I think April is the best month on average.
- Summer is June through September. Yes, I know most people consider September fall, but not for purposes of outside weddings in Austin. September is just a less-hot summer wedding. If you’re looking at June, be sure to have a good rain-plan. July and August weddings need to be inside or you will have people fainting (I have several true stories to back this one up). September is the best summer month, but you still need to be mindful of shade and cooling fans if you’re going to have guests outside. There are definitely indoor wedding venues ideal for summers in Texas.
- Fall is my favorite season for weddings. The temps start dropping in early October and the leaves don’t start to fall too much until the last week of November and keep falling through mid December depending on cold fronts. Late October and early November are consistently the MOST POPULAR wedding dates in Central Texas. You just have to watch out for Formula One, ACL Fest, and UT football.
- Winter is the most underrated season in Austin. Your guests are already in a “most wonderful time of the year” spirit and there are large swathes of dates where students and teachers are off of work. I encourage you to consider wedding venues that truly shine in winter months before writing off this season. Those sparkly clear tent weddings are some of the most gorgeous weddings I’ve ever designed!
Sometimes the best way to approach a rainy wedding day is to simply embrace it. Photos by Leanne Funk Photography
Determine Your Budget Sources Upfront
Once you have a preferred season established, let’s think about the source. Where is the money coming from, and how much do we have to work with?
I know it’s an uncomfortable topic, but you need to establish a clear budget before you start your search to avoid overspending and to narrow down your options effectively. Look at it this way– you’re getting practice for marriage. Money is an uncomfortable subject for most marriages, especially when involving in-laws. Welcome to the rest of your life! You may as well lean in now and get to know the landscape.
Don’t be surprised if your parents put the question back on you, “well I don’t know honey, how much do weddings cost these days?”. It’s true. They probably really don’t know. The American wedding industry has ballooned (some would argue out of control) in the past ten years thanks first to blogs, and then social media.
WeddingScout can help. Every venue that we feature comes with a Cost Calculator based on venue specifics and your guest count. You can even choose if you want to budget for economical food and bar choices, or opt for more high-end fare. Our Cost Calculator gives you the information and detail you need to make sound decisions, prioritize your spend, and amaze your fiance, parents, and future in-laws. The Cost Calculator also gives you insight on how to compare venues that may not be on WeddingScout so you can book a venue with confidence.
Estimate Your Guest Count Size Early
WeddingScout’s Cost Calculator helps streamline how to pick a wedding venue by offering detailed cost estimates based on your guest count. No other variable will move the needle more when it comes to your wedding budget.
The hardest discussion you’re going to have with your parents (and future in-laws) is guest count. Guest count and budget go hand-in-hand and you need to have a general sense of what’s comfortable for everyone before continuing on your wedding venue shopping adventure.
Generally speaking, the popular wedding venues in Austin and the Texas Hill Country will accommodate 50 to 180 guests. There are many venues that fall in that max capacity range of 180 to 220.
Once you climb past 200 guests, your options are more limited. Hotels are typically built with the larger weddings and conferences in mind, and can climb from 200 to 500 guests with ease.
If you’re envisioning a smaller, more intimate wedding, there are several restaurants and private dining options that you may consider in addition to a more traditional venue search. Remember that smaller weddings struggle most with F&B minimums. Catering companies, hotels and resorts are going to have revenue goals they need to meet regardless of your guest count.
An intimate small wedding at Cactus Moon Lodge | Photos by Ruet Photo
Contact Sales Team to Inspect Venue Availability
There is really no convenient way of checking on venue availability. You have to reach out to them. Warning, this can be a heartbreaking time if you’re inflexible with your date.
I recently had a client who was hell-bent on the date November 11th, which of course fell on a Saturday that year. Well guess what, you and everybody else! It took the couple weeks of intense research and venue tours to find the perfect space. It was a bit off the beaten path– an expansive private residence on a gorgeous hill overlooking the Texas Hill Country. Anything is possible if you have the fortitude, but generally speaking it’s best to be flexible with your date of choice and approach venues asking about a season as opposed to a specific date. I’d recommend having four or five dates that work for you before checking on venue availability.
I encourage clients to be open to Friday weddings. When you pick a peak-season popular Saturday date you really lose all negotiating power with vendors. You simply have no negotiating room because they know they’ll book that date and will hold-out to make sure they hit revenue goals. Conversely I see vendors bend their minimums or offer discounts for Friday weddings.
So let’s say you found a few venues that may fit-the-bill and you have a list of dates that might work. The next step is to start touring, but how will you know which venue is the “the one” and how do you make sure you’re avoiding any unforeseen pitfalls or budget surprises?
Well if you’ve made it this far in my article, I’m going to assume you’re really committed to your venue search, and therefore you are surely already a member of WeddingScout. If not, it should go without saying I think you should join now. It’s not too late. On average we save couples 40 hours of time spent touring venues because you can take a tour from home and either rule it out, or add it to your short list.
WeddingScout’s virtual tours are designed to guide couples on how to choose a wedding venue that meets their criteria without spending endless hours on-site visits. Each virtual venue tour covers the five topics that are most important when evaluating venues: Service, Capacity, Outdoors, Utilities and Travel.
Using the SCOUT process as a guide, here’s a little checklist to guide you through the final decisions as you are touring your final list of candidates. The following tips are divided into the five SCOUT chapters: Service, Capacity, Outdoors, Utilities, and Travel.
Service: Understand What’s Included
Before you commit to a venue, get a detailed list of what’s included in the rental fee—like chairs, tables, and table-top items—to assess true value and additional costs. If you’re not a trained wedding planner, I get that this step is confusing. That’s a big part of why I created WeddingScout.
Generally speaking, here is a list of average cost savings:
- A stage costs approximately $1,200
- A dance floor costs approximately $1,200
- On the open market, tables cost around $10 each and chairs start at $4 each.
- If your venue provides table-top items like china, glassware, flatware and linens, you’re saving around $13 per person.
Check for Vendor Flexibility
Some venues require that you use vendors on their preferred list. The most common one is catering. Note, some venues even charge a percentage on top of the catering company you select. You’ll see it as a 10% markup on your catering bid. Ask about this in advance.
More commonly, they are restricting your list to caterers they are familiar with who know the property. At best, this is so they have fewer headaches with newbies who have to ask a lot of questions. At worst, they are getting a 10% kickback from the caterer you ultimately book. It can’t hurt to ask so that you know how to budget moving forward.
Not surprisingly you will save money if you can BYOB. A handful of venues who are not hotels/resorts require you to use their bar program. It is what it is, and you probably can’t get around it, but know that the venue is likely getting a kick-back if it’s a third party bar service they require.
Understand Payment and Cancellation Policies
Get clear information on deposit amounts, payment schedules, and cancellation terms to avoid financial surprises. If anything, you want a clear understanding of your cash flow. Sometimes there is a discount if you pay in cash, allowing the venue to circumvent credit card fees, which can add up quickly.
The Act-of-God clause is a common paragraph that clients will flag when reading contracts. Post-COVID, most good wedding industry vendors have consulted with lawyers to tighten this up, and for good reason– they nearly went out of business during covid. The best tactic to employ here is to get your own wedding insurance.
If you google my name, you will quickly learn that my wedding venue was struck by lightning and burned to the ground a few months before my wedding. Most recently I have a client whose wedding was in Asheville, NC the weekend after the huge flooding of hurricane Helene. In past years I had a client whose church roof was ripped off by a small tornado on the morning of her wedding, and another client who had to reschedule her wedding due to roads being washed out by a big Central Texas storm.
Spending a couple hundred bucks on wedding insurance is a must-do in my opinion.
Ask About Staffing Support
Find out if the venue provides event coordination, setup assistance, and staffing during the event. As a veteran wedding planner, I will always recommend a wedding planner in addition to any event coordination a venue provides.
Oftentimes that event coordinator is not only selling weddings, but also helping plan and execute them. They are juggling a lot of priorities and responsibilities while trying to help you with your wedding. Given the expectations and workload placed on the event coordinator, a good wedding planner who is hired to represent you will make your wedding a top priority and help avoid confusion, frustration, and keep your vision as their focus.
Read Reviews and Seek References
This is SO key. I wish more people would leave negative reviews, honestly. The reality is that you get married, and you’re on cloud nine and the last thing you’re in the mood for is to go online and trash vendors or venues.
It’s easy as a venue shopper to get wrapped up in the heavily edited photos and videos you see online. Wedding planners are scared to death of putting anything negative online because you risk the venue black-listing you, and you risk retribution.
Get some wedding planners a few drinks and you will be shocked at the stories. However, these venues keep feeding us business. As the old adage goes, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
I’m much more likely to share my real opinions on a venue on the phone with a client than online. Do your best to get an experienced planner on the phone and pressure-check your venue choice before you book. I’ve caught myself several times saying, “ohhh good… I’m glad you haven’t signed with that venue yet. Let me tell you a few stories…”
Capacity: Evaluate Space Layout and Flow
Evaluating space layout and flow is honestly a job left to the professionals. That’s why at WeddingScout I have included recommended layouts of each venue based on guest size. These layouts were created in conjunction with other local wedding planners so that you can visualize what your guest count will look like in that space.
Maybe they say the capacity is 200, but a professional who knows the space can quickly call out that 200 guests only works if you have a DJ, not a band, and if you are doing family-style service. Why do those factors matter?
Band vs. DJ
Most bands will request a 16×24 stage. You can get away with less, but for a moment think about this. Doesn’t it make sense that nearly 400 square feet of stage space is going to have a huge impact on your layout? To help you visualize, the average bedroom size in the United States is 11 ft x 12 ft, or 132 square feet. So if you plan to have a band, ask for their recommended max capacity taking into account a full-size band and dancefloor.
Food Service
Food stations take up the most space. Not only do you want food-service tables set up around the dining area, you need extra space for traffic.
Buffets require slightly less space because you probably only have one or two buffets setup. However, you still need some overflow space for all your guests to physically get up, get their food, and make it back to their seats.
I love plated meals because your guests are staying put. It’s only the waiters who are making their way through the crowd to deliver food, or refill water and wine.
Family-style is great for events that are super tight on space because you require less staff to deliver the food and take care of the guests. The more limited you are in space, the less you want people walking around during dinner.
Outdoors: How to Handle Inclement Weather
We have entire sections of our website dedicated to rain plans because honestly, they are that complicated, especially in Austin, where everyone wants a perfect-weather outdoor wedding.
In short, ask a lot of questions about your venue’s rain plan. An ideal rain plan accounts for the following:
- Are the roads leading into the venue protected from flood waters (a big issue in Texas Hill Country).
- How the guests get from their cars to the venue. Are they sloshing around in wet grass or mud before the ceremony even begins?
- How guests move from ceremony, to cocktail hour, to the reception. Ideally you have concrete or gravel walkways and coverage from the rain.
- How is the drainage system in key gathering areas? Do you have slip-resistant rugs available?
- Is the band or other entertainment provided a secure area to set up in the event of inclement weather?
- If your wedding is in a tent, what are the protocols for lighting?
These questions will get you most of the way there. I’ve included an entire chapter on “outdoors” in each of our venue virtual tours because I’ve learned from experience that this can make or break a wedding.
Tented weddings can be absolutely magical | Images by Jenny DeMarco
Utilities: Lighting, Power and Acoustics
Good lighting is crucial for ambiance and photography; assess natural and artificial lighting during your visit. I’ve had many clients fall in love with a venue that features gorgeous lighting on all their portfolio images, only to learn later that’s an add-on cost.
Adding lighting at hotels and resorts is extra-expensive. Most of them contract with third-party AV companies because their weekday revenue is based on conferences and corporate events that require projectors, massive wi-fi availability and complicated rigging systems. Sure, these companies can jack-up prices for big corporations that don’t flinch at massive lighting and AV bills, but it’s different for weddings.
A lighting and AV package through one of our usual third-party “wedding companies” will be ⅓ of the price you’re charged by the hotel in-house AV team. There are ways to get around this… mainly to avoid installing anything in the ceiling, but I highly encourage you to work with an established wedding planner who understands the space and what you can get away with by avoiding in-house AV teams.
Test the Acoustics
If music and speeches are important, check the venue’s sound quality and whether it meets your needs. This is especially important if you don’t have a band or DJ.
Nine times out of ten, I’m using the band or DJ for toasts and ceremony audio. You’re already paying for a sound engineer when you hire a good band, so you may as well use them for the other wedding related events, like your ceremony acoustics.
Some venues are known by bands and wedding planners as having horrible acoustics. You know how you can go to a restaurant that’s large and has concrete or hardwood floors and you can’t hear the people across the table from you? Conversely, we all love date nights at the small boutique restaurants with carpeting and few tables? Same thing with event spaces.
I hate the aesthetics of hotel ballroom carpets, but they are there for a reason. Acoustics.
Travel: Transportation and Accommodations
If hosting out-of-town guests, consider venues with on-site lodging or nearby hotels to simplify logistics. Otherwise, you’re going to be paying a lot of money in transporting your guests. If you decide to host a wedding in Dripping Springs, but have a hotel block in Downtown Austin, I highly recommend bussing your guests. If not, they are going to leave early. Rideshare is often available during the day on the way to the wedding, but the later you go, the harder it is to rely on rideshare out in the middle of nowhere.
As a wedding planner I’ve personally given rides to people who were stranded. It’s not worth the uber driver’s time to come out to you. As a wedding guest, I often rely on my husband who doesn’t drink much, but do you think he is too keen on partying till midnight as the designated driver? No. We leave before the party has wrapped up.
If you choose to have your wedding in one of these areas, that’s fine. Just be sure to budget for buses or plan to wrap up on the earlier side…
Executive buses are an elegant way to arrive at your wedding | Images by Lindsey Thorne
Check for Accessibility
This is something I learned from my older experienced mothers of the bride, and I’m super grateful. Accessibility is important. If you’re lucky enough to have grandparents who are still alive and willing to attend your wedding, think about their comfort and accessibility. It’s the least you can do.
Inquire About Parking Facilities
Just because you are in central Austin, or even Downtown Austin, doesn’t mean parking is a non-issue. Sometimes it’s a big issue.
Ensure there’s adequate parking or valet services to accommodate your guests comfortably. If not, it’s up to you to organize transportation, or manage your guests expectations and make sure they ride-share.
Also, be mindful of what’s happening in the area. One of my favorite venues is Laguna Gloria. They share a property line with Mayfield Park and Westwood Country Club. If there are events happening at all three locations on the same night, parking is a nightmare. We always check with these venues leading up to the wedding to see what is going on. Any other weddings? Austin High School prom? Tennis Tournaments? Know what you’re getting into by asking the right questions.
FAQS
What is the most important factor while selecting a wedding venue?
If you’ve made it through this page, you’re probably aware there are A LOT of factors. Regardless of your budget, it’s up to you to assess the degree to which you are a risk taker (throw caution to the wind and book that outdoor venue) vs. risk-averse (keep it safe with a hotel or resort that’s dependable and reliable). Your individual personality and how you handle emergency situations is a big part of picking the venue that is best for you and your family.
At WeddingScout we do our best to show you photos and videos of venus in all types of weather and many different seasons.
Do you pick a wedding date or venue first?
Couples are split 50/50 on this topic. For example, some couples have always dreamed of getting married on New Year’s Eve, or as referenced above, “11-11”. In that case, start with the date. It’s your vision and no one can tell you otherwise.
If you are flexible, I recommend picking a season and starting from there. Work with a handful of venues that you like and find the date that works for you both.
If you are getting married in a church, you have a third party to negotiate with. It’s not uncommon to have a list of dates that work for your church, and then match them to the dates your favorite venues are available.
Do people negotiate wedding venues?
Absolutely yes. You have more negotiating room if you’re willing to go off-season, or hold your wedding on a Friday or a Sunday. At WeddingScout the database that feeds our Venue Cost Calculator provides both peak-season and off-season pricing so you determine what’s best for you and your budget.
What percentage of your wedding budget should go to the venue?
This varies based on venue-type. Check out our free Budget Base Camp video for a more comprehensive breakdown of your wedding budget and a clear understanding of how your venue choice impacts over 50% of the rest of your wedding budget moving forward!
What is the number one rule as the host of a wedding?
I like to remind my clients not to over-stress about their guest experience. You’re providing a great party, typically with dinner, drinks and entertainment. Let’s keep the focus on the people getting married and make sure it’s a great experience for them. Your guests have opted to join in this special event and it’s not your job to micro-manage their experience.