Open Air Business August/September 2017

FUNCTION VENUES
An Insider’s
Guide to
Wedding
Spend
Kelly Chandler explains the importance
of finding out a couple's budget
DO YOU FEEL you sometimes
don’t quite get it spot-on for your
wedding clients? Or are you not
getting the right weddings for your
venue, or not achieving enough
revenue for your hard work? There
may be numerous reasons for this
but one I come across time and
again is where a venue is not truly
understanding the demands and
needs of its couples and reflecting
these in its offering.
While it’s certainly not all
about pounds and pence, the
level of spend on a wedding is a
huge indicator of the style and
requirements of clients, yet very
few venues seem to know their
overall wedding spend so can
be doing a lot of guesswork.
Venues need a better grip on
what their couples are investing
overall. There needs to be a much
more open approach towards
budgets and costs, and much
more discussion about it. So,
I’ll be sharing some facts and
figures in this feature based on my
considerable experience putting
together hundreds of detailed
event budgets for my independent
planning clients at The Bespoke
Wedding Company.
You might well ask, what is the
point? Our venue hire is what it is
and we leave the clients to plan
their event details and extras,
and set their overall budget
accordingly. Why do we need to
know their budget?
This might be partly true, but
particularly if you offer a ‘blank
canvas’ venue (with an element
of ‘create your own wedding’ via
marquee structures and more),
you will find that budgets, size
and scale of weddings will vary
enormously, and it’s not always
guest number related - I’ve
planned weddings with bigger
budgets for 40 than for 200. While
a lot of places and spaces tend
to attract a certain client with a
certain budget, that is not always
the case and I see venues that offer
a bespoke approach right from
the outset achieve a more luxury
(and higher spending) client base
as a result. This is worth thinking
about before you fix yourself to a
finite venue hire fee and keep your
involvement set to that.
MATCHING TO YOUR
DREAM TEAM
By having some idea of a couple’s
budget, you can direct them to the
best suppliers at the most suitable
price point to meet their needs,
and this does reap its rewards
for you as a venue. Couples are
often very time short and your
GETTY IMAGES
recommended supplier list can
be like looking for a needle in a
haystack. While some wedding
professionals are able to adjust
what they provide according to
budget, there are quite a few
companies who have minimums,
appeal to a luxury budget or, on
the flip side, are not geared up for
jobs of a certain size or complexity.
Be sure to ask your supplier
partners for typical and guideline
pricing for the sort of services a
client would choose at your venue
and see if you think it’s a good
match.
There should still be choice so
you need to have an interesting
range of suppliers on your list.
The smart money is on your team
really knowing which company to
recommend for which client.
Your suppliers will be a lot
happier with the relationship
if they are getting the ‘right’
enquiries coming their way and
your couples will be much more
satisfied and less anxious if they
are seamlessly referred to the
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