Winter is the largest discount available at almost every venue in both markets served here, and it is not a free one. The room costs less because nobody else wants it, and the things that make a winter wedding work, light, heat, a shorter day and flowers that are in season somewhere else, cost more. The net is still usually a saving, and it is worth knowing which way each line moves.
Ask three suppliers for a price
What the date saves
Venues that will not move a penny between May and September will negotiate in January, February and November, and the same is true of photographers, bands and cars, who are competing for far fewer bookings. Off season is also where a venue you could not otherwise afford becomes reachable, which is a better use of the saving than banking it. Ask each venue on the shortlist for its off peak figure explicitly, because many do not publish one.
What the season adds, from lighting to winter wedding flowers
Short days mean the photography happens indoors or in the dark, which raises the requirement on the venue's lighting and often adds a lighting hire. Heating a large old room is a real cost and some venues charge for it separately in winter. Flowers grown out of season are imported and priced accordingly, so a florist who works with what is actually in season in December will produce something better for less than one asked to reproduce a June arrangement.
Long tables, rounds or cabaret style seating: the room each needs
Long banqueting tables, round tables and cabaret style seating all use floor space differently and change the capacity of the same room. Long tables seat more people in a narrow room and make conversation linear; rounds use more floor and seat everyone facing in; cabaret style, which is rounds with one side left open towards a stage, uses the most floor of all and is the layout conference venues quote. Ask the venue to price your guest count in the layout you want rather than in the one on their chart.
Questions people ask about winter wedding venues
How much cheaper is a winter wedding?
Venues rarely publish an off peak figure but most have one, and suppliers with empty diaries negotiate. Ask for the off peak price by name; the saving is usually large enough to buy a better venue rather than to bank.
What costs more in winter?
Lighting, heating where a venue charges it separately, and flowers that are out of season locally. A florist working with what is in season produces better results for less.
Do long tables or round tables fit more people?
Long tables fit more into a narrow room; rounds use more floor but seat everyone facing in; cabaret style uses the most space of all. Ask the venue to price your numbers in the layout you actually want.
How do private christmas party venues differ from an ordinary winter booking?
They are the one part of the off season that is not a bargain. December is the corporate market's peak, so the rooms that are quiet in January are sold out and dearest in the first three weeks of December, frequently on a fixed package with a per head minimum. The genuinely cheap winter dates sit either side of it: late November, and the whole of January and February, when the same building will negotiate.