How to Promote a New Venue
It is always a blessing when a new venue opens up in town. It makes me excited to plan weddings at a gorgeous new property that allows for a change of scenery. When Rancho Guejito opened early last year, I was excited to be asked to help promote it. When it comes to showing off a new venue the main motivation is to get people to the property. Now how do you do that, you ask? See our tips below to get the most of your open house.
How to Promote A New Venue:
1. Decide if you want to do an open house for all wedding vendors or just the wedding planners. While any wedding vendor can be an asset to getting clients to the venue, wedding planners are typically the ones referring couples for weddings and events. Budget and size of venue will have an impact of your decsion.
2. If you do an all industry event you can expect about 100-150 people to show up on a given night so think about doing cocktail style appetizers, desserts and a bar. If you want to do wedding planners only, look to expect around 25-40 on a given day. This will be more intimate and perfect for a sit down meal to show off what the chef can do. Make sure you pick a day in the middle of the week as to not interfere with weddings on the weekends. You can choose to do a lunch sit down or an evening cocktail party after 6:30PM, those are the times I see work the best.
3. Whatever you choose, treat your guests to good food and a cocktail or two. This always entices people to show up and feel like they want to stick around for awhile and chat. If you are a venue that doesn't offer in house catering, choose a caterer you want to be on your preferred list to come in and show off.
4. Make sure there is time to have a guided tour of the space and answer questions people may have. Include pricing, guest count maximums, and any regulations you maybe implementing that are important to note.
5. Send your guests off with something they can remember you by. Whether that's a bottle of wine from your vineyard, a wedding package with a discount code for your first couple, or even a fun dessert.
For this particular event, I wanted to create a intimate setting in a large blank space so I chose to use More Rentals cabanas over one long table setting. I can't even begin to tell you how fun this was to design using my favorite rental companies, More Rentals and Hostess Haven and florist Splendid Sentiments. I really wanted to use their Bentwood chairs as you don't see them often, so that was the start of how I created the rest of the design. I absolutely love their concrete tables mixed with the wood of the chairs and the feminine accents of the place settings. After that I gave the florist a color pallet and told her to run with it. Bethany did not disappoint! Everything was warm and inviting, just like the perfect spring day. We enjoyed the sunshine, delicious food, wine and the company.
Thank you to these additional amazing vendors:
Photography: Amira Gray Photography
Live Music: Thomas Giglio Catering: Behind The Scenes
