You book the wedding venue. You pay the deposit. You pick the date.
So… what happens next?
For couples planning their first wedding — which is most couples! — it can be surprisingly difficult to understand exactly what a wedding venue does, what you’re responsible for, and where all of your other vendors fit into the picture.
And the answer can vary dramatically from one venue to another.
Some wedding venues essentially provide you with a beautiful space and a set of keys. From there, you’re responsible for assembling the people, rentals, food, beverages and logistics necessary to turn that space into a wedding.
Other venues offer a much more complete experience.
At Abbington Distinctive Banquets in Glen Ellyn, we’ve been hosting weddings since 2002. One of the biggest advantages of choosing an established full-service wedding venue is that you’re not starting from scratch. You’re stepping into a place where an experienced team, culinary operation, service staff and trusted vendors already know how to make a wedding happen.
Here’s what that can mean for you.
Your Venue Helps Turn an Idea Into an Actual Plan
You may arrive at your first meeting with a Pinterest board, an estimated guest count and a general idea of what you’d like your wedding to feel like.
That’s enough to start.
An experienced venue team can begin translating those ideas into practical decisions: which ballroom makes sense, how your guest count affects the floor plan, how the evening might flow and what needs to happen between now and your wedding day.
At Abbington, our in-house planning team works with couples throughout the process. This isn’t our first wedding weekend. Our team has spent years helping couples navigate the hundreds of little decisions that eventually become one very big day.
That experience is particularly valuable when you don’t know what you’re supposed to be asking yet.
Your Venue Helps You Choose the Right Space
Choosing a ballroom isn’t simply about finding one that can hold your guest count.
Your venue needs to consider how you’re actually going to use it.
Are you having a DJ or a large live band? Do you want an oversized dance floor? A sweetheart table? Multiple bars? A photo booth? Elaborate florals? Food stations? A large wedding party?
All of those choices affect the layout.
A good venue team doesn’t just tell you how many people fit inside a room. They help determine how the room should work for your particular celebration.
Abbington’s flexible ballroom spaces can accommodate weddings ranging from approximately 100 to 1,300 guests, allowing our team to configure the space around the size and style of the wedding rather than treating every reception exactly the same.
Your Venue Can Handle the Food
This is a big one.
At some event spaces, finding a caterer is entirely your responsibility. That means researching catering companies, comparing proposals, arranging tastings, coordinating kitchen requirements and determining how food will be prepared, transported and served at the venue.
Abbington takes a different approach.
Our food and beverage program is handled on-site. Food is prepared in-house by our culinary team and served by a staff that already knows our ballrooms, kitchens and service procedures.
That means the people preparing dinner and the people running your wedding aren’t strangers trying to figure out how to work together for the first time.
They’re already a team.
Our menus can also accommodate a variety of service styles and dietary needs, including food allergies and intolerances as well as vegetarian and vegan preferences.
Your Venue Can Handle the Bar and Beverage Service
Food is only half of the equation.
A wedding bar involves inventory, bartenders, glassware, setup, service, timing and plenty of behind-the-scenes logistics. When your venue provides beverage service in-house, that’s another major piece of your wedding that doesn’t need to be assembled separately.
More importantly, an experienced banquet team understands the rhythm of a wedding.
They know when cocktail hour gets busy. They know what happens when dinner ends and everyone heads toward the bar at once. They know how beverage service needs to work alongside dinner, speeches and dancing.
You probably shouldn’t have to think about any of that on your wedding day.
That’s the point.
Your Venue Helps Coordinate the Timeline
A wedding reception is basically a carefully choreographed sequence of events disguised as a really great party.
Guests arrive.
Cocktail hour begins.
The wedding party is introduced.
Dinner is served.
There are speeches, dances, cake, photos, entertainment and dozens of smaller moments happening in between.
Meanwhile, your photographer has a timeline. Your DJ has a timeline. Your catering team has a timeline. Your florist has setup requirements. Your transportation company has arrival and departure times.
Somebody needs to understand how those pieces fit together.
An experienced venue team helps coordinate the parts of the day happening within the venue so your vendors aren’t all operating in separate worlds.
Your Venue Works With Your Other Wedding Vendors
Your wedding venue may be the home base, but it isn’t the only team involved in your wedding.
Photographers, videographers, florists, DJs, bands, decorators, transportation providers and other professionals may all need access to the property at different times.
Your venue helps manage that relationship.
Where does the band load in? When can the florist begin setup? Where should the photographer take the wedding party? What electrical access does the DJ have? Where does the photo booth go without interrupting guest traffic?
These aren’t glamorous questions, but somebody needs the answers.
One advantage of working with Abbington is our longstanding relationships with Chicago-area wedding professionals. Our preferred vendors have been selected based on experience and reliability, and many already know our team, spaces and procedures.
You’re also not locked into using only those vendors. Couples can bring in outside professionals while still benefiting from Abbington’s experience coordinating with wedding vendors.
Your Venue Handles the Part Guests Never See
This may be the most underappreciated part of choosing a full-service wedding venue.
Think about what your guests experience.
They walk into a beautiful room. Drinks appear. Dinner arrives. Plates disappear. Water glasses are refilled. Tables stay tidy. The room transitions from dinner to dancing. Something spills and then somehow it isn’t there anymore.
Ideally, your guests never stop to wonder how any of it happened.
Behind that experience is a banquet staff working throughout the evening.
Great wedding service should almost feel invisible. The details are handled before they become something you or your guests have to think about.
Your Venue Helps You Prepare for the Unexpected
Every couple hopes their wedding will unfold exactly according to plan.
Most of the time, it does.
But weddings involve people, weather, traffic, vendors, timelines and hundreds of moving parts. Things change.
A vendor runs late. A guest needs a special meal. Someone unexpectedly brings a plus-one. A timeline shifts. A family member needs assistance. The speeches take longer than expected.
Experience matters most when the plan stops being perfectly predictable.
An established wedding venue has seen enough celebrations to know how to adjust without turning every little surprise into a crisis.
In fact, if the team is doing its job well, you may never even know there was a problem.
Your Venue Can Make Vendor Shopping Easier
Once you’ve booked a wedding venue, the next question is usually: Who else do we need?
That’s where an established venue’s network can save you a tremendous amount of time.
Instead of starting every Google search from zero, you can ask your venue which photographers have worked there successfully, which DJs know how to keep the room moving, which florists understand the space and which transportation providers regularly serve the area.
Abbington has developed relationships with trusted wedding vendors throughout Chicago and the western suburbs. Many have worked here repeatedly, which means they aren’t learning the property on your wedding day.
That familiarity can make coordination considerably easier.
Your Venue Helps Take Care of Your Guests
You’re planning your wedding, but you’re also hosting a lot of people.
Your venue plays a major role in their experience.
Is parking easy? Can guests find the entrance? Is there enough room to move comfortably? Are there hotels nearby? Can older relatives navigate the property comfortably? Is the staff welcoming? Is dinner served efficiently?
Abbington offers parking for more than 400 vehicles and is located near several major hotels, with convenient access from I-88 and I-355. Our Glen Ellyn location makes us accessible for guests traveling from Chicago, Naperville, Downers Grove and communities throughout the western suburbs.
For guests flying into Chicago, we’re also conveniently located in relation to both O’Hare and Midway airports. You can find additional travel and accommodation information on our location page.
What Doesn’t Your Wedding Venue Handle?
This is just as important to ask.
No venue handles absolutely everything, and services vary considerably from one property to another.
During your tour, ask exactly what’s included in your wedding package and what will still need to be booked separately.
Depending on your wedding, those outside professionals may include:
- Photography and videography
- DJ or live entertainment
- Specialty décor
- Transportation
- Hair and makeup
- Officiant or ceremony services
- Specialty entertainment
This is also why comparing wedding venues strictly by the initial price can be misleading.
A lower-priced venue that requires you to separately arrange catering, beverages, rentals, staffing and coordination may ultimately be a very different proposition from a venue where much of the infrastructure is already included.
Ask What’s Included Before You Compare Wedding Venues
When you’re comparing Chicago-area wedding venues, don’t just compare ballrooms and package prices.
Compare what you’re actually getting.
- Who helps you plan?
- Who prepares the food?
- Who serves it?
- Who manages the ballroom?
- Who coordinates with your vendors?
- Who is there when something changes?
And perhaps most importantly: how much of this are you going to have to figure out yourself?
A Wedding Venue Should Be More Than a Room
There are plenty of beautiful rooms in the Chicago area.
But a wedding isn’t just a room.
It’s hundreds of decisions, dozens of people, an entire team of vendors, a meal for everyone you love and a timeline that needs to come together on one specific day.
At Abbington, we’ve been bringing those pieces together in Glen Ellyn since 2002. Our experienced planning team, culinary professionals, banquet staff and trusted vendor relationships give couples something that’s difficult to measure in square footage: a team that already knows how to do this together.
Explore our wedding packages, meet the Abbington team or schedule a tour to see what having a full-service wedding venue on your side can mean for your celebration.
