How can venues attract wedding business?

On the most important day of most people’s lives, it’s up to the providers to make sure everything runs smoothly...planner and venue included. I have organised literally hundreds of weddings over a 30 year career and worked with some of the UK’s leading hotels and inspirational venues. So it's time for me to share my thoughts on what hotels and venues need to offer in order to attract wedding business, and deliver great events.

“The country has a wealth of fabulous hotels and independent venues – country house to contemporary chic. It’s crucial for me that a hotel or venue capitalises on its uniqueness such as spacious gardens, gothic architecture or a huge conservatory dining space. By offering me an unusual or dramatic backdrop, and matched with TLC’s stunning room dressing and lighting, I am able to present a vision of the venue to my clients that maximises this unique element and injects their big day with creativity, style and WOW factor. 

This may sound obvious, but I always ask that when I visit a hotel that they have their wedding spaces and unique elements free to show me - you will be surprised how many don’t and expect me to be psychic! My first line is always – how is this hotel or venue different to any other?  I am searching for a great USP to help me plan an event with uniqueness, and sell the idea to my client. Good venues will also have digital images of the rooms on I-pads to show me on the day, and email later for me to look over at the office.  Good quality images of your venue in my proposal will help me to win-over my client, and secure you the booking, so I would encourage all venues to invest in a good photographer!

It is also by understanding what a wedding planner needs in terms of logistics and service that for me makes the relationship with a venue work. Having a great wedding space is fine, but how do I get my lighting-rig installed? Where is the service access? How far are the kitchens from the reception room? I will look at a venue firstly in terms of location and style, but then the operational support and logistics of the place, so a venue needs to have this nailed. If in any doubt – ask a local wedding or events planner to visit the venue and give their opinion of what will work and not. Nothing like advice from ‘the horse’s mouth’. But this feedback will also allow a good venue to develop its offering in a way that is relevant and will ultimately sell.

My clients are demanding. They expect every detail to be managed, so being able to communicate my high expectations to the venue and receive a flexible and accommodating response, is crucial. Several meetings and briefings are often needed with the venue to ensure service is seamless and timings met. It is so important that hotels are on the same page as me in terms of expectations. SKYPE, Facetime or telephone conferencing– technology has meant meeting is much simpler so hotels and venues need to be on board with this. In return, I will deliver a wedding that showcases their venue perfectly. It’s a win-win relationship.

The food and drink offering has to be first-class too, and I always like to add a little creativity and drama to the menu - whether that be a series of mouth-watering international food carts reflecting the global trends in food, interactive cocktail stations for developing the couples bespoke Champagne drinks or a series of giant sharing platters that are served on long tables to bring that social, informal-dining feel to the evening. It’s vital that venues work with me to be inspired and creative with the catering. I need a chef that is open-minded and prepared to be challenged in terms of what he/she can create. 

Entertainment is at the heart of the evening reception so investing in a top-notch sound system that provides concert level sound is important for me – we won’t work with anything less. The more hotels and venues can invest in providing the latest A-V technology, the more a wedding planner will look at using them in 2019.

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Liz Taylor offers an exclusive marketing consultancy for UK event venues. If you want to increase revenue from wedding and events, or need to refresh your venue marketing to reach an excluisve audience of event buyers, email [email protected]