How far in advance did you book your dw venue?

I haven't experienced this personally. I wonder if this is because they want the ability to raise their prices if need be (inflation etc)? If you are comfortable with the general ballpark, maybe see if they will accept a deposit to secure the 2024 date on the understanding that prices won't be finalised until January 2023?

Hi Naomi!

A big congrats to you on your engagement! I'm Hannah the Community Manager here at Hitched- so please feel free to message me any time with any questions or queries!

In regards to the above, I would definitely still keep an open mind and explore other potential options as leaving your venue that late does not leave a lot of room to book other elements such as caterers etc. as this usually revolves around the destination/venue of the wedding.

Keep an eye out with the venue and see if they update their policy any time soon. In the meantime, please feel free to explore other potential options

I hope that helps!

Hannah x

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Thanks so much Hannah! If we weren't to book the venue until January 2023 do you think that's not much time to arrange a wedding for May 2024? How long do you think you generally need to plan a destination wedding?

Will definitely keep our options open and we are also now considering September/October next year

Yes good idea! Thank you will check

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Hey Naomi,

Based on the UK National Wedding Survey we conducted, planning usually takes between 12-18 months. However, I would factor in extra time for destination-based weddings as certain elements are not as easily accessible as it would be if you were getting married locally.

However, if you have a reliable wedding planner- they can hopefully take that off your hands! Alternatively, allow yourself plenty of time to plan the elements in between booking the venue and the wedding day. In the meantime you can use the time to start putting together your inspo! Very exciting!

Hannah x

Hi Naomi
Congrats! So exciting! What I can tell you from my experience (floral and event designer) is that there are many places who do not have many dates available for 2023, unless you want to get married on a Monday. We have two couples who wanted to get married this year in Italy (lake Como and Tuscany) and now we’ve moved to 2023 and that even is difficult. You have to be flexible. Some locations are too small, others too big. Some only allow the ceremony and reception and then you have to move. Same goes for partying. Lake Como especially but also in Tuscany there are places where you can’t have an open end party due to restriction by the area. It gets quite complicated. There are still gems to be found but you should connect with someone who can support you. Even a florist could do that 😉 another thing that we also came to realize is that venues are raising their prices by an average of 15% for next year. So the sooner you can get there and have a look at the venues and are able to secure your date the better.

View quoted message Hi, Naomi,


I booked my venue 18 months in advance and, to be perfectly honest, it was pretty much fully booked so we were lucky to get the date we wanted.
I’m a bit surprised your prospective venue wouldn’t open up any dates for 2024 until January 2023… Does that mean people wanting to get married in January 2024 only get 12 months to plan and book suppliers? That doesn’t sound ideal to me.
Not helpful, I know, but I would definitely look at other places as well (and maybe view this one asap?) as it’s not crazy to imagine booking a venue 2 years out. Xx