The first order of business when planning a New England wedding: pick a venue. With endless options to consider, Ashley Kirouac from Fairmont Copley Plaza has wisdom to share!

You’re engaged. Congratulations! Now, when and where will you get married? How will you start the search? Well, there’s a formula that you can follow all the way to the perfect venue. Step one is to do the numbers. Step two is to identify your style, your vibe, your vision. Step three is to consider the New England weather. I’ll elaborate.     

Let the numbers be your guide

Before you begin touring venues, before you even start researching venues, there are two sets of numbers you need. The first are those preceded by a dollar sign. Ashley points out that a budget is extremely important. Right off the bat, how much money you have to spend will eliminate all of the event spaces that don’t fall in your range.

This leads us to the second set of numbers: how many guests you plan to invite and how many guests a venue can accommodate. For example, at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, there is a wide variety of spaces, with capacities ranging from 40 to 1,100 guests. Of course, headcount will change as the day nears, but starting with a ballpark estimate will point you in the right direction.

Identify your style

Now, it’s time for personal style. If your ideal wedding looks “iconic, innate, and set in history, then you might consider a hotel like ours,” says Ashley. “But if you’re looking for a barn field, that’s not us.” The bones of your venue should match your vibe, and then you customize. At Fairmont Copley Plaza, for example, they invite couples to “dig deep on what’s important to you; put your twist on the day. Bring in any vendors that you want.” If you start with a space that mirrors your theme, you can then enhance it with the details. Take, for example, a New Year’s Eve wedding where a couple chose to personalize the room by eliminating formal seating and incorporating a variety of high and low tables and soft seating. This encouraged dancing, echoing the couple’s New Year’s theme.   

Another benefit of picking a venue that matches your style is that an all-out transformation is not always necessary. “Where a space is already unique and ornate,” says Ashley, “you don’t have to go wild with décor. You can do something limited and still make an impact. You can fully customize a space, or leave it as is.”

Jill Person Photography

Jill Person Photography

Jill Person Photography

Jill Person Photography