You booked your wedding venue eighteen (18) months in advance, to lock in your Saturday date during a popular month, thinking that you would have that date exclusively, only to find out that six (6) months before your wedding, your wedding venue slipped in another wedding and reception in the morning at the same site, on the same date, your date. Now your dream of coming in early and putting those special touches on your reception room, of not being rushed, of having the time to make the room look special is not possible.
Why? Because the wedding before you has that location until shortly before your wedding, and that the staff is going to have to “turn around” that room, clean it up, change the linens, move tables and chairs, vacuum carpets, and air out the place. Saturdays are the most popular date for weddings and wedding venues try to maximize their profits by “double booking” those dates. At Saguaro Buttes we make a promise to every bride and groom that when you book with us on a certain date that date is yours exclusively and nobody else gets that date.
The reality of “double booking” a date is the venue has to cut corners to fit both weddings into place. Carpets don’t get cleaned properly, windows have hand prints of the kids from the first wedding, the room still has the odor from the food served during the last reception, etc. The staff also at these places work longer shifts, are human like the rest of us and get tired after working 12 to 14 hour shifts. So, if you are the second wedding of the day you get them at the tail end of their day. It is important that when you book with a venue that they disclose this detail before you sign or put a deposit down.
This is one of the questions that you should ask and see on a contract before you put money down. If this is not important to you then by all means proceed with the venue, but you may also want to use it as leverage to reduce the price of your wedding. Simply put into the contract that if the venue books another wedding on that day, you receive a thousand dollars off your wedding package. This way both parties are happy.