Help to choose between 2 venues!

Hiya

I'm in Liverpool, so not been to either. I'm a former wedding coordinator for the National Trust, and I always focus on the staff first and foremost.

What I would say, is ask yourself which one is more interested in YOUR special day? Who's asked the questions about your vision for the day and what is important to you? Who has shared your excitement and showed you a great level of customer service and attention to detail?

The difference between a good venue and a great one is the staff. Everything else can be adapted, tweaked, customised, decorated, moved, worked around, but inattentive, disinterested, slapdash staff cannot!

Hope this helps,

Ali xx

View quoted message Hi Ali,


Thanks for that. This is the thing, both have made us feel so special and taken time to get to know us and what we want and have tried really hard to accomodate us. We're going to go back to both on the same day to have a side by side comparison to see if that helps but might still be stuck after that!

Love the bridge at the Winters Barn!!!

I had a similar issue choosing between two venues (although they were completely different styles) - thankfully for me, my fiance hadn't seen either of them, so his opinion made our decision for us.

If you can't decide based on the venue itself, have you looked at the suggested menus or the menu option for both? One might appeal to you more than the other, so you can use the menus to help you decide... Alternatively, have you thought about accommodation nearby each venue and whether that will have an impact on your guests?

View quoted message Bridge is lovely, especially when lit up at night!


Yep, both menus very similar, both mean we can offer our guests choices and we can have what we want at no extra cost.
Winters will have 8 guest bedrooms by the time we marry whereas OKB only has 2 which is one of the only big differences. Both have seals with nearby hotels for guest rates.

I went through the same thing. I narrowed it down to two choices. One I felt like they had it down to T and it felt like I just needed to show up on the day. They had lots of options for renting things like log burners, etc so I wouldn’t have to think about it. They had bridal prep room which was big thing for me because I’m always late and just the vibe. The other place I would have needed to bring in more vendors for rentals and lightening but the coordinator, I’ve never met a more warm person. It was the little things that I went with my choice. Incidentally I did look at both those places but they were too far out for me. I prefer Old Kent Barn out of the two. But I would say go with the place that will make your life easier depending on how much you want to have to do on the day and the venue that will be more accommodating with how you want your day to be. Also maybe whoever has the better Covid policy since you won’t get wedding insurance right now.

View quoted message Oh that's interesting. What did you prefer about OKB?

View quoted message I just like the aesthetics better. I didn’t view but it was in the list places because I specifically wanted a barn venue.

You can make lists of pros and cons until the cows come home, but there are so many beautiful venues to choose from that can offer the right feel for how you want your day to look. Just a thought, but have you tried putting the list, the websites, the sums, away, closing your eyes, and thinking about your day - imagining what it will feel like. Where are you?