Oh, crap, I haven't chosen a location yet!

We were at a bridal fair recently and I was blown away by the number of brides who were telling me that they hadn't booked their ceremony or reception locations yet. And more importantly, their dates are within 10 months. If you are one of these brides without a location, you might be thinking this is an "oh, crap" moment, but don't settle for the first hall that is available, just yet.

Did you know that you can negotiate with your ceremony/reception site? Not all are willing to entertain offers, but consider that if they don't book your wedding, they may not have any income coming in that night. They are just as desperate to book you as you are to book them. Since most brides book their venues 8 - 18 months in advance, you may be able to score a discount by booking your location less than 6 months out. Sundays - Fridays are often less popular than Saturdays, many places have discounts for these days, but if they don't, ask!

If you haven't even started looking at locations, these are a few things you need to consider to help narrow down your thousands of choices:

- Do you want to be married indoors or outdoors? If indoors, at a church or in a ballroom? If you want total control over your decor and the weather, an indoor location might be a better choice. However, if you are flexible and don't mind postponing the wedding a few minutes due to weather conditions, outdoors generally has better lighting and will give you much more color on a limited budget.

- Do you want a location that provides everything, just the space, or something in the middle? Some locations provide everything from the food to the flowers, and everything in between. Some locations will charge you what is called a site fee and you have to bring everything yourself including tables and chairs, waitstaff, etc.

- What time of year do you want to be married? If you want to be married in a snowy setting, choosing a November date in Denver might not be the best choice. (Colorado is probably one of the flakiest states when it comes to snow.) Likewise, if you are set on getting married outdoors and you hate the cold, April is probably not a good choice. You can't count on the weather being similar to the previous year.

- Of course you need to make sure your date is available, however, the choice of venue should be more important than the date (unless you have chosen a date for a specific reason, like being a grandparent's anniversary date). If you know you want to be married in June, the venue may not have your perfect Saturday available, but Sunday might be open, and, sometimes, CHEAPER!

- Do you want to have your ceremony and reception in the same location? If there is a location you dream of being married, but they are out of your budget, it may be possible to have just your ceremony there and travel to another location for the reception. Consider the distance between the locations... the further it is, the more likely your guests may get lost.

- Do they have what you need? Do you need dressing rooms for the bride, bridesmaids, groom, groomsmen, parents, anyone else? Is there a bar if you want alcohol, dance floor, buffet table, cocktail hour space, room for your DJ or a band, places for great photos indoor and out, etc?

- Do they provide chairs, tables, linens, etc? And is there an additional fee for those? (I talked to a bride who told me they got a great price on a location, but then they charged her like $10 per chair they set out.)

- If you choose an outdoor location, try to visit it at the time of year when your wedding will take place. You want to make sure the types of trees, flowers, grass they have will be beautiful for your wedding. Also, if you choose an outdoor location, it may be a good idea to make sure they have alternate plans in case of inclement weather.

- Ask your location if there will be another wedding at the same time as yours. I have unfortunately been a part of a wedding that was starting at the same time as a wedding about 200 feet away. The officiants were trying to talk over one another, you could hear the music from the other wedding. It was just terrible.

- If you are getting married in the summer, ask when their air conditioning was last serviced. There is nothing worse than getting dressed in a 90° room, going outside to do formals in 95° weather and coming back into your reception area to find it is also at 90°.

- Does the style of the location go with the style of your wedding? For example, you would not want a rustic barn if you are going for high class elegance. Does their decor go well with your wedding colors? Some locations have out of date carpet and curtains that clash with almost everything.

- Finally, ask to see photos of the areas set up for weddings.

Your venues set much of the theme for your wedding day, make sure it is what you want. And, as I always tell my clients, do not let them push you! It is your wedding day, if you want to be married outside, their staff can go wipe the rain off the chairs 10 times, if that's what it takes.

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Jennifer Duval is the owner of Duval Digital, a Colorado Springs based wedding and portrait photography studio. She loves outdoor weddings and homemade wedding favors, preferably food based. She has been asked on occasion to help with wedding planning because she loves to focus on the little details and is a photoshop wiz. However, her primary love has always been photography. You can see more of our wedding photography work here: http://duvaldigital.com/home.