To book reception venue without a ceremony venue booked?

[Herbert1234]

Just that really. I'm dying to get a date and be able to start planning and we're off to see a lovely venue this weekend that I think might be perfect. Would it be unreasonable to book the reception venue before we find the ceremony venue. I'm sure we could find something in the area for the ceremony. Or is this not very clever at all?

I'm sure we could find something in the area for the ceremony

It would be an idea to simply ring around and ask the wedding ceremony venues if they have any dates free around your preferred time. Once you have a few possible dates you could then book your reception venue with confidence. Or you could book a celebrant to do the ceremony at the reception venue . Good luck !

A lot of places will allow you to hold the date for a few days (mine offered two weeks) before paying the deposit.

Failing that, I'd ring round ceromony venues to check.

Or you could book a celebrant to do the ceremony at the reception venue .
In England and Wales the venue would have to have a licence. Or you have a quick wedding at a local registry office on any date for the legal bit and a ceremony (non legal) at your chosen venue.

Agree with the others - find out potential availability of legal ceremony, and then agree a pause for a couple of weeks between first booking and confirmed/pad for booking so you can sort it out.

Don't book your wedding unless are sure there will actually be a wedding!

We had the nightmare scenario of having to book the venue 18 months in advance (we got the last Saturday available next year, and 2 other people wanted the date so had to book it when we saw it) but only being able to book the registrar for that district 12 months in advance as they won't except bookings any earlier than that.

That was a recipe for stress as we had an expensive venue but couldn't guarantee that we could actually have a ceremony on the date - so if you have an option of avoiding the same kind of worry I would

Luckily we managed to book our registrar this week so can now relax 😃

Thanks for all the advice. The hall we went to was fine but would take a hell of a lot of work to pull off so we're going to be more sensible and book the ceremony venue first!