What is the Venue responsible for?

It’s really easy to confuse the venue’s responsibilities with those of your planner/coordinator, or the other vendors. Hopefully, this article provides some clarity on what our role is for your big day.

Our primary duties are to manage and maintain all things venue-related. We keep the grounds and facilities clean, safe and beautiful. We continuously improve the venue to suit the needs of our clients—from major landscaping projects to lighting to drapes and linens. We provide guidance, support and consultation to the clients and their vendors as needed throughout the planning period.

Once wedding day arrives, we make sure that the venue is show-ready. We enact your floorplan as provided (plus any necessary tweaks) and set everything in place for your vendors to seamlessly perform their designated tasks. Most importantly, we work to make sure that the timeline can be followed as written.

It is important to know that the venue staff should not be expected to act in any capacity as the planner/coordinator (unless agreed upon EARLY in the process). While we know everything about the venue, we usually know very little about the minute details of your wedding day (like what time lunch will show up, or where the ink pens are for the guest book). We will also (try to) avoid making any high-level decisions regarding the design, intricacies, or execution of a wedding, as it is simply not our place do to so or the role we were hired to fulfill. In that regard, we can not take time away from our venue-related duties (like transporting disabled guests, or keeping the bathrooms clean, or hauling off overflowing trash bags) to make sure that the DJ is playing the right song, or to pick up extra ice from the gas station for the bartender.

Understanding everyone’s role at a wedding, and having a planner/coordinator that ensures that the vendors and contributors are fulfilling those roles properly, will ensure a seamless wedding day experience.