Planning an occasion? Choosing the proper venue is arguably your most essential choice. It units the stage (actually) for the whole lot else to observe!
With numerous gorgeous areas accessible, the place do you start? If discovering the right venue feels overwhelming, don’t be concerned—we have got you coated with this important information to occasion planning 101.
Our venue necessities guidelines covers the whole lot you’ll want to know—from price range and capability planning to catering and A/V capabilities—making certain your planning course of begins on strong floor.
Whether or not you are organizing a company gathering, wedding ceremony reception, or milestone celebration, these standards for venue choice will provide help to navigate the method like a professional. 😉
At EventUp, we have helped 1000’s of planners discover their good match by our intensive venue market. Profitable occasions begin with choosing the proper venue—and we’re right here to make that call simpler and extra satisfying.
Prepared to search out your dream venue? Let’s dive in!
High Issues to Contemplate When Selecting a Venue
Newer to occasion planning, or want a refresher on finest practices? We’ve received you coated with our occasion planning 101 information about how to decide on the right venue.
Finances Issues: Understanding Venue Prices
Your venue will sometimes eat 30-50% of your complete occasion price range, so understanding pricing buildings is essential earlier than falling in love with an area that is financially out of attain.
Venues use 3 main pricing fashions, every with distinct benefits:
Flat-fee venues cost a single charge no matter visitor depend, making them best for bigger occasions.
Per-person pricing scales with attendance, offering flexibility for unsure headcounts.
Meals and beverage minimums require you to spend a certain quantity, which works effectively when catering is a precedence.
At all times look past the bottom charge to establish hidden prices that may shortly inflate your price range. Look ahead to service prices (typically 20-25%), obligatory gratuities, safety personnel necessities, time beyond regulation charges, and so on.
💡 Professional tip: For negotiating leverage, take into account reserving throughout off-peak seasons or mid-week dates when venues are wanting to fill their calendars. Bundling providers or guaranteeing a better meals/beverage spend may also safe you a decrease base charge!
On EventUp, it’s straightforward to filter venues by value vary and establish which venues provide essentially the most worth inside your particular price range constraints.
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The Sagamore South Seashore | Miami, FL
Location, Location, Location!
The right venue in an inconvenient location shortly turns into the incorrect venue. Contemplate your friends’ commute—purpose for a location the place most friends can journey inside half-hour.
Key transportation elements to guage:
Obtainable parking (free or paid, capability, valet choices)
Public transit accessibility (distance to stations, frequency of service)
Distance from main highways or airports for touring friends
Rideshare availability within the space
For multi-day occasions, examine close by lodging and request venue-negotiated resort blocks to safe higher charges. Analysis surrounding eating places, espresso retailers, and points of interest that might improve the general expertise.
💡 Professional tip: Location immediately impacts attendance—the farther your venue is out of your friends’ central location, the extra doubtless you will see a drop in participation!
EventUp’s location filters make it simpler to search out gorgeous, well-located venues, with choices to go looking by metropolis, neighborhood, and distance.
Torch & Crown Brewing Firm | New York, NY
Excellent Timing: Date and Season
Timing considerably influences venue availability and your price range. Peak seasons (sometimes spring and fall) command premium costs—typically 20-30% greater than off-peak dates.
Plan your reserving timeline strategically:
Company conferences: 6-12 months forward
Weddings: 9-15 months prematurely
Social gatherings: 3-6 months prior
Vacation events: Guide by July/August
Earlier than confirming your date, analysis potential conflicts with main native occasions, holidays, or business conferences that might have an effect on attendance or lodging availability.
Keep flexibility when potential—shifting your occasion by only a day or two may safe you a greater venue at a lower cost! For outside or partially outside venues, have contingency plans for season-specific climate challenges.
💡 Professional tip: Saturday evenings are the most costly time slots throughout most venues—take into account Friday evenings or Sunday afternoons for vital financial savings.
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5Church – Buckhead | Atlanta, GA
Proper-Sizing Your Occasion: Capability Issues
The dimensions of your venue could make or break your occasion. Too giant, and your occasion feels empty and lifeless. Too small, and friends can really feel crowded and overwhelmed.
Step one is to realistically forecast attendance. Company occasions sometimes see decrease attendance charges than non-public celebrations like weddings. At all times construct a buffer into your estimates based mostly in your occasion sort and viewers.
Totally different occasion setups have completely different area necessities:
Seated dinner: 12-15 sq ft per particular person
Theater/classroom model: 8-10 sq ft per particular person
Reception/standing: 5-7 sq ft per particular person
Don’t neglect to account for practical areas that eat into your capability. You will want room for registration tables, meals service stations, leisure, show areas, and so forth.
Additionally, bear in mind to substantiate occupancy limits by referring to the venue’s hearth code. At all times talk about these laws immediately with venue administration throughout your website go to.
Don’t waste time on unsuitable venue choices—EventUp’s filtering system makes it easy to search out appropriately-sized venues. Merely enter the variety of friends you anticipate to attend, and whether or not friends shall be seated or standing.
👀 Need assistance visualizing the structure of your venue? Tripleseat Floorplans is right here to assist.
Resort VIA | San Francisco, CA
Setting the Scene: Look and Really feel
The ambiance of your chosen venue units the emotional tone on your total occasion. In any case, a contemporary loft feels very completely different from a historic ballroom or outside backyard!
Start by visualizing the ambiance you wish to create:
Is your company retreat all about collaboration? A vivid, fashionable area with pure gentle is likely to be best.
Planning a romantic wedding ceremony? Contemplate venues with inherent allure—suppose historic buildings with architectural particulars or venues with spectacular views.
Lighting transforms areas greater than virtually another aspect. Harsh overhead fluorescents create a completely completely different temper than heat uplighting or twinkling string lights. Ask about lighting choices and controls throughout venue visits—and remember to contemplate how lighting will have an effect on pictures.
💡 Professional tip: Benefit from present décor to scale back prices! Venues with standout options like chandeliers, paintings, or landscaping require minimal enhancement.
EventUp makes discovering the suitable aesthetic easy. Browse photographs and floorplans, and use our filtering system with over 25 descriptive phrases like “rustic,” “fashionable,” or “cozy” to shortly discover areas matching your imaginative and prescient.
The Move Issue: Structure and Area
How your venue’s area is organized immediately impacts your friends’ expertise. A packed dance flooring creates vitality, whereas tight seating preparations can depart friends feeling trapped.
Totally different layouts serve completely different functions:
Theater-style works for shows however limits interplay
Spherical tables encourage dialog however take up extra space
Cocktail setups maximize mingling however provide restricted seating
At all times stroll by your venue earlier than reserving to visualise visitors patterns. The place will bottlenecks type? How will friends transfer between meals, bar, and restrooms?
For multi-room occasions, take into account transition areas. Will friends know the place to go subsequent? Are there pure gathering areas between actions?
Do not forget accessibility! Guarantee enough area for wheelchair navigation and take into account sightlines for seated friends.
EventUp gives detailed flooring plans for many venues, letting you map out your occasion earlier than your website go to. Use these to establish potential circulate points and maximize your area.
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Preserving Everybody Fed: Catering and F&B
Meals and beverage could make or break your occasion—and considerably impression your price range!
Many venues provide two choices:
In-house catering simplifies planning with one level of contact and sometimes consists of setup, service, and cleanup. Nevertheless, you are restricted to their menu and pricing construction.
Exterior catering gives flexibility to decide on your favourite restaurant or caterer, however might incur further charges like kitchen use prices or corkage charges.
Pay shut consideration to F&B minimums—the quantity you need to spend on meals and drinks. A $10,000 minimal at a luxurious venue may appear affordable for 200 friends however may break your price range for a 50-person gathering.
When planning your menu, request lodging choices for frequent dietary restrictions and take into account how meals shall be served—whether or not buffet, plated, or at stations.
EventUp’s detailed venue profiles spotlight catering choices and F&B minimums, serving to you shortly filter venues that align along with your imaginative and prescient and price range earlier than making that first inquiry.
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Cheekwood | Nashville, TN
Supporting Your Occasion: Providers and Facilities
Do not underestimate the worth of included providers—they’ll save 1000’s in rental charges and numerous planning complications!
When evaluating venues, create a guidelines of what is included:
Fundamental requirements like tables, chairs, and audio tools
Setup and breakdown providers (is there an extra price?)
Cleanup provisions (who’s accountable for what?)
On-site coordination throughout your occasion
Ask about often-overlooked facilities that improve visitor expertise like coat examine, safety personnel, and valet parking. These seemingly small particulars could make a big impact on the visitor expertise.
Remember the fact that many venues keep most popular vendor lists. Whereas some provide options, others require you to make use of their companions solely. Be sure to perceive these insurance policies earlier than reserving, particularly when you have particular distributors in thoughts.
💡 Professional tip: Request an in depth facilities checklist in writing. This prevents misunderstandings and offers you leverage if anticipated objects aren’t supplied!
EventUp makes evaluating venue providers easy with standardized amenity listings, serving to you establish which areas provide essentially the most worth on your cash.
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Moxy South Seashore | Miami, FL
Straightforward Entry: Parking and Accessibility
First impressions matter—and for a lot of friends, that impression begins within the parking zone! Company who battle to search out parking arrive pressured and pissed off.
Assess your choices fastidiously:
On-site parking (what number of areas can be found? free or paid?)
Close by parking garages or tons (distance? safety considerations?)
Road parking (availability? time restrictions?)
Valet service provides a contact of luxurious however will increase your price range. Self-parking works effectively for informal occasions however requires clear directional signage.
💡 Professional tip: Creating an inclusive occasion means going past fundamental ADA necessities. Search for venues with accessible restrooms on the identical flooring as your occasion, clear pathways between occasion areas, and enough lighting for friends with imaginative and prescient impairments.
EventUp’s accessibility filter (Superior Filters > Facilities) immediately narrows your search to accessible venues, saving time and making certain inclusion for all friends.
The Crystal Gardens on Navy Pier | Chicago, IL
Expertise Wants: WiFi and AV Capabilities
Let’s face it—even essentially the most lovely venue falls brief with out the right tech.
When evaluating a venue’s tech capabilities, ask about:
WiFi power and capability (Can it deal with your visitor depend? Is there a separate community for occasion operations?)
Constructed-in AV techniques (projectors, screens, sound techniques, microphones, and so on.)
Backup plans for technical failures
Obtainable energy shops and their places all through the area
For hybrid occasions, affirm the venue has adequate bandwidth for video streaming and whether or not they have expertise internet hosting related occasions.
💡 Professional tip: Check the WiFi personally throughout your website go to—do not simply take their phrase for it!
EventUp’s detailed venue profiles spotlight tech facilities, making it straightforward to search out areas with the infrastructure your occasion wants—from fundamental WiFi to full manufacturing capabilities.
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Occasion Planning 101: Let EventUp Streamline Your Venue Search
Discovering the right venue would not must be overwhelming. EventUp’s user-friendly platform places 1000’s of fantastic areas at your fingertips, with highly effective filters to slim your search based mostly on each issue we have mentioned.
Cease stressing about venue choice and begin planning your dream occasion at present with EventUp!
