I’m engaged! My fiancé and I were on a 4th of July weekend getaway in Steamboat Springs, CO. After celebrating all weekend, I used the 3-hour drive back to Denver (where my fiancé lives) to start wedding planning. I use the term “wedding planning” loosely, because I really began to venue source – something I’ve been doing for DINEvent since 2016.
At first, people thought I was crazy to not wait and soak in our engagement before researching destinations and venues. They now understand that the need to jump on this was critical. Being an event professional, I know how booked venues are from the 2020 wedding postponements due to COVID-19. In addition, all the 2021 engaged couples are in search of venues – plus, with corporate events returning, availability is limited!
When it came to location, we had many potential options. We knew we didn’t want to get married in either of our hometowns, but that we would strongly consider both cities we are living in – Phoenix and Denver. We met at Arizona State University, so I felt we have a stronger connection to Phoenix, but to make things interesting, we also wanted to look at a beach destination. For ease of travel for our guests, we wanted to keep our wedding within the U.S. Given that no matter which state we picked, it would be a “destination wedding” for nearly everyone, we established that our venue must be within 20-30 minutes from a major airport.
Based on those requirements, I reached out to over 30 venues. We knew we wanted to get married in 2022 and springtime was best for us and our families. There were a handful of Saturdays that would work – the only day of the week we chose to consider – but I was finding that availability was limited at best. Additionally, not every venue even responded back to me, which we’ve been experiencing often lately when sourcing for our clients.
I was grateful for my event planning background while sourcing, because I was quickly able to navigate venues’ websites and Request for Proposal forms. Being familiar with industry lingo made for quick and easy responses between the venues as I was hearing back from. When I went on site visits of properties (images below), I knew what to look for and which questions to ask.
On the flip side, although I have been handling the bulk of DINEvent’s venue sourcing leads for the last several years, sourcing venues for your own wedding is different. Not only are weddings and social events handled differently than corporate events – the majority of what we do at DINEvent – but I am personally attached to these venues as I am not doing the sourcing on behalf of a client.
Upon hiring our wedding planners, Kris & Tyler with Konsider It Done, we came to the conclusion that since my fiancé and I are already living in different states, planning a destination wedding would be much more added work. So…. Arizona was made final! We selected the Omni Montelucia in Scottsdale, Arizona and couldn’t be happier. Anayis was a tremendous help when it came to contract negotiation and facilitation from all her experience with our DINEvent Premium clients.
Although there were many considerations during our venue sourcing process, we know we made the right choice and now the countdown officially begins! 🍾
If it weren’t for my event planning background and venue sourcing experience, I believe this would’ve taken much longer and availability would’ve been even more limited. Now I can let Konsider It Done handle the rest of the planning, while I continue to work on sourcing the perfect venues for DINEvent’s clients.
XO,
Rachel
