Congratulations. You’re engaged and planning your wedding in Melbourne. You’ve popped the cork on that champagne, planned your wedding budget and now you’re ready to tour some Melbourne wedding venues to find the dream location for your nuptials. As the founder of Hey Lovers, I’ve toured dozens of Melbourne’s wedding venues. And I’ve got some hints and tips to find the perfect Melbourne wedding venue for you both.
What to look for in Melbourne wedding venues
A solid Plan B
We do live in Melbourne right! I know it’s boring, but you really need to know if your venue has a back up plan should the weather turn. Melbourne can truly experience four seasons in one day.
To ease any anxiety ahead of your wedding day, any quality Melbourne wedding venue will be able to explain what their Plan B is, how it will be set up and who will set it up.
The greatest disruption to any wedding day is when the ceremony needs to be moved from an outdoor location to an indoor location. That is because dancefloors or reception tables spaces need to be reconfigured for the ceremony and then “flipped”, or rearranged, for your wedding reception.
Quality Melbourne wedding venues understand the need for a Plan B and are super experienced in executing those last minute changes on your wedding day.
Quality staff
You are going to be investing quite a lot of time and energy in this big event of yours, so it makes sense that you click with the people who are going to be hosting you.
Now I’m not saying wedding venue staff should be showering you with gifts or rolling out the red carpet every time they see you. But there are some positive signs of great venue management to look out for.
Here’s just a few of those signs that you’re working with a quality Melbourne wedding venue:
- Staff reply to your emails and return your calls promptly
- Venue staff are keen to meet with you and hear more about your plans
- The venue representative follows up on any questions you might have with a phone call or a clarifying email
- They accommodate you where they can – of course these should always be within reason (these guys are trying to run a business after all)
Whilst the list above might sound like no brainers, you’d be amazed how many tours I do where there’s no common courtesy or professional communication shown.
And if that happens early in the piece, when the pressure is off, imagine their response on your wedding day.
Public transport nearby
Have a think about how easy it is to get to this wedding venue for your guests. So many Melbournians love a train or a tram, especially where there’s a party involved.
Choosing a Melbourne wedding venue location close to transport options (including ride share and taxi services) should be a consideration for couples keen to party into the wee hours of the morning.
Noise Curfews at melbourne wedding venues
Everything good must come to an end. Even the most epic of wedding parties. Wedding venues in the centre of Melbourne are likely to have different noise curfews to that 100 acre property you’ve set up a marquee on in the middle of woop woop. Ask venues what time music gets curtailed.
Most Melbourne wedding venues will have some form of noise curfew they need to comply with. Venues in dense residential living areas are more likely to have earlier curfews than those venues in industrial or less densely populated Melbourne locations.
Now, you don’t need to party until 1am to have the best wedding ever. Believe me, it’s way better to mic drop and leave your wedding on an absolute high. But you certainly want those tunes rolling past 9pm.
So, if music’s your thing, check out this detail STAT.
Parking options
Having talked about public transport I have to talk about the accessibility of parking. Unless your guests are proficient in the Constanza method (nod to all the Seinfeld fans out there), they are going to get super frustrated if you can’t find a car park at your inner Melbourne wedding celebrations.
Talk with your venue about any parking they have of their own. Alternatively see if they have any arrangements in place with local car parking companies.
If you are getting married somewhere particularly tricky to park, take a look around the venue itself and advise your guests on the best parking options. Or encourage them to hop on PT.
Many Melbourne wedding venues have discount parking arrangements in place so don’t forget to ask about this when you are touring wedding venues.
Making hook turn after hook turn across the Melbourne CBD looking for parking, whilst needing to be somewhere super important, like at your wedding, will ensure your guests are feeling way less love for you on arrival – even though they know the Melbourne CBD is notoriously bad for parking!
Parking fines and good times don’t mix. Enough said.
Other Melbourne shenanigans
We all know that Melbourne rocks. There’s a reason we’re voted as one of the most liveable cities in the world. That means that there’s always cool stuff happening in this great city of ours. Keep in mind that some Melbourne wedding venues that host weddings, might also host other humans celebrating events.
For exclusive use Melbourne wedding venues, this won’t be a problem. You will have the whole place to yourselves.
Thinking of hiring a Melbourne wedding venue that has a number of event spaces? Make sure there aren’t other major “happenings” in their venue on the same evening as your wedding. Unless you are a “more the merrier” kinda couple. In which case you won’t mind running into complete strangers in the bathrooms and common areas of the building.
Local produce and suppliers
Melbourne has some amazing producers in its midst! And many Melbourne wedding venues love supporting local companies doing amazing things with food. When you look at menus for each venue, ask them if they source any of their produce locally.
When Melbourne wedding venues use local producers, it means their food is fresher and tastier, local producers flourish and everyone’s carbon footprint is small. A winning combination.
The same goes for other wedding vendors like florists, photographers. If wedding venues are able to provide you with some local options, you are going to be doing your bit for supporting local.
Off peak deals at melbourne wedding venues
Melbourne is awesome all year round (yep, I am sure I carry some bias being a Melbourne native). However many couples choose to marry here through Spring and Summer. That doesn’t mean that Melbourne has nothing to offer in Autumn and Winter.
In fact, choosing a wedding outside the peak wedding season offers some ridiculously good deals. When touring Melbourne wedding venues, ask whether they have discounted rates at specific times during the year. Venues often offer discounts across a specific month range or on particular days of the week.
Don’t close your minds to a moody Winter wedding or Autumn nuptials. You might be surprised by just how great a wedding celebration in those seasons might be.
There are so many Melbourne wedding venues ready and raring to go, complete with a red wine list as long as your arm, roaring fireplaces and cosy nooks for wedding guests. It’s not like people in Melbourne people don’t know how to move around in cooler months.
There you have it. Armed with this list you are bound to shortlist Melbourne wedding venues that are perfect for showcasing your love story on your wedding day.