10 Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Wedding Venue for an Alternative or Nontraditional Wedding

The world is not a perfect place, and it won’t always be possible to find a perfect venue, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get close.  Below is a list of questions that may help as you research and visit venues for your ethical or alternative wedding.

1. Is this a business that I’m willing to support?  Often nonprofit organizations or community centers offer venues for events, and you may be able to find one that you would like to support. This means that all those dollars that you’ll be pouring into a wedding venue actually end up going to a good cause (which makes that bill a lot easier to swallow!).  It isn’t always possible, of course, to find a charitable organization with a suitable venue, but there are still a number of questions that may help you decide whether or not you’re willing to support any given venue.  Basically, whether or not you are willing to support a business will have to do with how you answer the following question:   
 
2. Is this venue in line with my ethics?  If you are concerned with your impact on the environment, then you’ll want to consider what sort of footprint the venue you’re considering leaves. If you are concerned with supporting local business, then you may want to consider who owns the venue you’re considering. Who profits from your decision to use a particular venue? If you are a supporter of the arts, then perhaps you’ll want to hold your reception in a local art gallery or museum.   

3. Do I have a personal connection to this venue? If you and your partner shared a special moment in a particular place and you are able to book this place as a wedding venue, then your wedding day will become even more special.  Maybe you can book the restaurant where you and your partner first met. Maybe you can hold the reception at the park where you first kissed. Maybe you can hold your wedding in the same place that your grandparents were married. Any sort of personal connection to the wedding venue will increase the degree to which your wedding is meaningful and decrease the degree to which it is commercialized. In short, a personal connection to the wedding venue will help you plan an ethical wedding.  

4. Can I afford it?! This is, of course, a question that is always hovering around almost anyone’s wedding planning decisions.  But it’s easy to get carried away and go into debt, especially if you’re trying to have the perfect wedding.  It helps to keep your priorities in mind. This day is about love. It’s not about flashing money. Some of the best and most memorable weddings are in parks and backyards and church basements.  It’s not the glitz that makes an ethical wedding special—it’s the love shared by two people and their family and friends.  

5. How is the lighting? Will your guests easily be able to see you and your partner? Do you want lots of natural light for a daytime event or are you hoping to go for a soft-light romantic feel? If you picture lots of candles, does the venue allow them? (You could also get the non-flame electric kind, but this will add on to the bill!)  Can this venue accommodate the vision you have for your wedding?  

6. How are the acoustics?  Will my guests be able to hear everything that goes in during the ceremony?  Is there a microphone if necessary?  If not, is there an audio system that could support one or would I have to rent all of that equipment?  


7. How is the climate control? If you’re having a summer wedding, you’ll want to consider things like having your guests sit in the hot sun, air conditioning, and shade.  

8. If this is an outdoor venue, is there a feasible back-up plan in case of bad weather? The last thing you want is a rain-check on your wedding day.  Make sure there is some kind of back-up, even if this means lining up a tent company just in case. Tip—umbrellas make nice wedding favors and pretty pictures.   

9. Can this venue accommodate my alternative, nontraditional, or otherwise quirky vision for my wedding? If you’re planning a nontraditional wedding, you may have some unique ideas about what you want your wedding to be like. For some, this may mean putting thousands of pinecones around your venue, while for others this may mean having your wedding party enter the reception hall on roller skates. If you have any special needs that the manager of a venue couldn’t normally predict, you’ll want to make sure to ask whether or not the venue will allow those poodles to walk you down the aisle.     

10. Can I see myself getting married here? This is perhaps the most important question to consider and the most difficult to explain. Not everyone will have the luxury of choosing a venue based on a gut feeling, but if you do have that luxury, listen to what your intuition is saying. Are you honestly happy with the venue?  Does the venue accommodate your vision for your alternative wedding? When we were planning our wedding, we almost signed on with a venue that was pretty nice…it wasn’t perfect, but it seemed like it would do the job. I ultimately realized that the space felt closed in, that there weren’t really windows and that the ceilings were low.  Though these were minor matters in terms of the big picture, we ultimately went with a space that was much more open. In this case, intuition—a feeling of being “closed in”—helped us realize that we weren’t altogether happy with the first venue. If you can afford it, go with your gut.

Stay tuned for more advice on how to find a non-traditional wedding venue, as well as two common problems that traditional venues may pose for an alternative wedding.