Lesner Inn has been in business for quite some time now and we thought it would be helpful to share with you some insights that we’ve learned throughout the years of being a wedding venue! From things specific to the venue side of weddings or just some generic tips, we hope you can take at least one or two of these and use them during wedding planning!

Hiring Help for your Wedding is Important

You may not need a wedding planner or assistance designing your wedding, but having someone to put all the pieces together on the day of, and get you down the aisle is crucial! Enjoy the day you’ve worked so hard on planning, and spent so much money on. Let your hired vendors do what you hired them for – and hire a day of coordinator to make sure they do!

_{Right: Sweet Adeline by Jenn Marie}

Do’s & Don’ts for Booking Vendors

1. Do decide on your entire wedding budget BEFORE booking vendors. Once you decide on an overall budget, select your catering (sometimes your venue includes your catering). The scariest number you’ll see while planning your wedding will be from the food and beverage. About 80% of your entire budget should go towards the food and beverage, and the remaining towards other vendors such as flowers, music, photography, etc.
2. Don’t commit to a specific date until you book your venue. Definitely come up with a season or month that you like to have your wedding but sometimes if you narrow it down to just one date, you may have a hard time finding a venue that has it available depending on how close that date it is.
3. Do book your venue first THEN start booking other vendors based on the date that you booked your venue.

Trust Your Vendors

Once you’ve booked your vendors, be sure to actually use them and the knowledge they’ve acquired from previous weddings. Your vendors do numerous weddings a year so they are aware of how things go and the best ways to do things. Go to them for advice and listen to them if they have a recommendation for certain things to make your wedding perfect!

_{Above: Paige Ryan Photography}

Be Open with Your Vendors

Trusting your vendors and being open with your vendors go hand in hand. Being open about everything from the start will make the process with your vendors so much easier. Discuss with them your vision, your budget, what you would like from them the day of, and so on. If you’re not open with them, then you may not be getting the best of the best of what they can offer you!

Always Do a Tasting

You could think you have your heart set on certain food until you taste it – everyone makes things differently or you could be pleasantly surprised and love something you usually wouldn’t order. It is also important to keep your guest’s taste preferences in mind, it’s your wedding but you are hosting them and want to make sure there is a little something for everyone. Also be conscious of your guest’s dietary restrictions – if someone has a shell fish, gluten, peanut, etc. allergy that will be super helpful to tell your catering company beforehand so the meal can go as smooth as possible.

_{Left: Echard Wheeler Photography}

Allow for Hiccups

You’ve worked really hard to plan an event, but with every event, there’s always the risk of things not going exactly as planned. That’s okay! You’re having a wedding and reception to invite friends and family to celebrate the love between you and your fiancé. So enjoy the time together and prepare to be a go with the flow sort of person for that day!

Have a Support System

As fun as wedding planning can be, it can also be very stressful. Planning an event anywhere from 50 – 200 guests is no easy task especially when you may be doing it for the first time in your life. You’ll want to celebrate with them on the good days and have their support on the more stressful days of wedding planning!

_{Above: Jessica Boudreaux Photography}

We have truly learned a lot over the course of our years as a wedding venue! We have seen almost everything you could possibly see at a wedding and just wanted to share what we learned with our future couples! If you’re just starting out or nearing the end of wedding planning, we hope you can use these to your advantage!