Picking the right wedding venue for your wedding day will set the overall theme, tone and vibe for the wedding and reception, trust us, we know! With almost 500 weddings approaching later this year, Carole and I wanted to share with you some great information about choosing the right wedding venue here in our part of Virginia.

Wedding Venues Average Costs 2019

78 Venues, data from Wedding Wire

Many couples that get married in our region will choose the “country rustic” theme although there are a few other types of themes lying in the region including urban (think downtown Roanoke or Lynchburg), then you have “luxury rustic” which is country rustic but with luxury in mind, then you have the “glam style” theme as well.

Well, if you can’t decide, this article will help you narrow things down, so let’s begin.

What are the Typical Price Ranges of Wedding Venues in the Roanoke Region?

We’re starting off the blog today with price, as it’s going to be a heavily weighted item to consider when picking a venue.

Here in our region of Virginia, the Southwestern and Central portions of the commonwealth, you’ll find venues that range from $1,000 all the way up to $10,000!

What’s surprising is that neighboring markets like Charlottesville for example has venues that reach into the $35,000 range and when you head to the Northern VA/DMV area (thats DC, Maryland and Virginia for those that don’t know the acronym), you can easily reach into the $50,000 price range.

I will tell you that the average price point based on about 86 wedding venues that we found online tend to be in the low $3,000 range. We suggest that you use our online wedding budget calculator to help figure out how much you should be spending for the venue.

Wedding Budget Calculator

What Should We Look for in a Wedding Venue in our area?

That’s a good question because a lot of venues may sound the same, but truth be told they’re not all equal when you pull back the curtains. Let me give you a quick story here, I filmed a wedding at a local winery and the wedding was set with an outdoor tent near the vineyards.

It was August, so it was already pretty hot and the facility they rented was far from the actual tasting room, so far in fact the venue had those blue port-a-johns as bathrooms. The DJ, well, he had to use one of those generators with a gasoline engine to make enough power to keep his music going.

Needless to say it was hot, stinky and loud around the wedding tent, blah!

And that’s the downfall right there, the wedding venue really wasn’t a wedding venue and didn’t really have the best interest in mind with regards to simple things that all venues should have in common.

Here is what we highly suggest that you look for in a great wedding venue in or around the Roanoke region.

An indoor or backup location in case of rain/bad weather
Power for things like the DJ, the catering and general lighting
Two rooms for getting ready, each for one of the couple and the wedding party to prep
Enough bathrooms to accommodate the amount of guests at the wedding/reception
A kitchen prep area for the catering staff, cake baker
Enough parking for your guests

Consider these the bare minimum that you need to have, there is much more but these are things that every wedding venue should have.

When is a Wedding Venue Not a Wedding Venue?

Well, there IS an answer to that because not all venues as well, venues.

Many places are simply farms converted to a venue in mind, wineries or hotels that offer weddings, but very few places are indeed true, dedicated wedding venues.

Here in Roanoke, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of places that call themselves venues and they’ve done that to try and cash into the wedding business.

Here in SWVA, weddings are a roughly $55 million dollar a year industry (from The Wedding Report, 2018) and while that sounds like a lot, truth be told, it’s really not when you compare that other parts of the state.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad thing for couples looking to get married, but those that are not dedicated to the craft will often times find themselves in a pickle when it comes to offering a smooth wedding day and thats something to remember when selecting the right one.

Tell me the Different Types of Venues in our Region?

Sure, lets start with the barn style, it’s the most popular and it goes along with the “country rustic”, sometimes the “luxury rustic” theme I spoke about earlier.

Barn Style

Most of the wedding venues set outside the city are going to fall under this category. It’s usually a barn of some sort thats been converted to keep out the weather and has tables and chairs with a few areas for the couple to get ready. Just about all will have a concrete floor, although there are a couple that have dirt floors with wood shavings.

Pros:

It’s usually on the cheaper end
There is a lot of venues popping up with this style
Can fit a large crowd of people

Cons:

Many in the region are cookie cutter
Several lack the basics that a wedding venue should offer
None in the region have A/C, so try to have the wedding/reception in the early Spring or later Fall if possible
Because of the influx in recent years, many will not be able to handle issues as they arise

Tent Style

The tent style wedding seems to be a great alternative to the barn style and just about all of them in the region are going to be of professional grade, with steel poles, stakes and most have a dance floor.

A few in the region also have concrete floors and built-in lighting which is a bonus.

You’ll usually find them as a few wineries or dedicated wedding venues in the area.

Pros:

Great for bad weather as a backup for the ceremony
Most are built to handle rain and some wind
Can fit a large crowd
Keeps the sun off people at the reception

Cons:

It can get hot
Only one in the region has air conditioning, otherwise people get sweaty when there is little to no breeze
People don’t like tents without a floor. Most have a concrete or paver stone floor in our region, a few I know of still have grass.
Can be hard to get power to them depending on where they are located

Historic Home Style

These are older homes that have been converted into venues and many are within the Roanoke City limits, a few like Sundara in Boones Mill for example are located in the country. Here, you will typically find ample room to get ready, plenty of power for wedding prep like doing your hair or equipment for lights and DJ’s. Most of these locations will have some parking and a backyard for an outdoor ceremony.

Pros:

These locations have plenty of decor and period style furniture or accents to help make the venue feel more ‘grand’
They are typically great for smaller weddings with less than 100 guests
Most have nice landscaping and lots of history to the homes and most are kept up pretty well

Cons:

Space is limited in these venues, so having a smaller wedding is best for these places
Most have small restrooms and limited space for the reception/dinner

Big Box Style

A big-box wedding venue is one that offers weddings in a large hall, like a hotel. Places like the Hotel Roanoke, the Patrick Henry and Charter Hall and the Rooftop of Center in the Square are all examples of a big box venue.

Most are able to easily house more than 100 guests, will have air conditioning for the summertime, will have a place for catering to prep and ample power for the DJ, Lights and us wedding photographers and videographers to charge anything if needed.

You’re going to find pretty much all of them in the City of Roanoke or in the suburbs.

Pros:

Most are great at hosting a wedding
Most will have parking and A/C
Most will have large restrooms with multiple stalls

Cons:

They are very cookie cutter. Meaning if you had two weddings back to back, other than the decor, linens, vendors and attire, they are pretty much the same.
They are generic so while they are great for weddings, they also host other events during the year. That may or may not be of concern depending on the time of year your getting married at.

Multipurpose Style

Multipurpose Style wedding venues are different than the Big Box style because they offer many micro sites on the property to get married and they are truly dedicated to only weddings. A couple of places that come to mind here are The Seclusion and Silver Hearth Lodge with SHL being the closet to Roanoke on top of Bent Mountain. Here, you will find that you have many options on their properties to get married at and you can have the wedding pretty much the way you want.

Since they are designed with weddings in mind, you’ll find plenty of parking for guests, they’ll be able to easily hold 300+ people, they will have both indoor and outdoor options for the ceremony and reception and plenty of amenities.

Pros:

They will have plenty of amenities for the wedding couple to get married
Plenty of parking, restrooms and things for guests to do
They will be dedicated to weddings only most times
They will have multiple “micro” sites as I like to call them on the property to get married, not just one place
They are large in size and very accommodating, think “luxury rustic” as a their style.

Cons:

They may be bit more expensive than other venue styles
You may have to travel a bit further to get to them

Our personal favorite is the Multipurpose style because they literally think of everything for the couple but also for vendors like us too in mind.

How Can I Save the Most on Booking a Venue in the Roanoke Region?

Believe it or not, there are a few ways to save some money at the venue when it comes time to book with them.

Be flexible on the wedding date first comes to mind. If you are on a limited budget, consider having the wedding on an off-peak day, a Monday through Thursday typically. Some venues will offer you better rates if you get married on these days.

Second, try to book during the off season, in our case thats October Through March. About half of the venues in our region will close for the wintertime and those that stay open, roughly 30% of them will offer you a discount if you have the wedding during the late Fall through early Spring.

Finally, check and see if they offer discounts with the preferred vendor list. Some will have these lists and some will not. In either case it doesn’t hurt to ask the venue as well as the vendor too, some vendors like us for example will offer 5-10% or more depending on the venue.