When it comes to planning a wedding, one of the most important things to consider is the wedding venue. The wedding venue you select has a huge impact on the bride, groom, and all of the friends and family that will be in attendance, so it pays off to find one that is fully suited for your needs.
If you’re getting married in the area, we’re proud to be Tulsa’s #1 wedding venue. We have one of a kind decorations with hundreds of nostalgic Tulsa signs, a fully customizable space, plenty of parking, and free cleaning services included with every booking. We invite you to come and see for yourself why we’re known as Tulsa’s #1 wedding venue!
Tips for Finding the Best Tulsa Wedding Venue
Read Online Reviews
One of the best things about living in the information age is being able to quickly and easily read up on the places you’re considering doing business with.
If you’re currently looking for a wedding venue in Tulsa, one of our number one recommendations is to spend some time reading reviews of the different venues in the area before booking. While you can’t count on every last online to review to be entirely truthful, you can often get a pretty good idea of the type of experience that people have had.
Here are some of the best websites to find reviews of Tulsa wedding venues:
Google Business Wedding Venue Reviews
When you Google the name of a venue, the venue’s Google Business will typically show up on the right-hand side of your search window. Google Business shows basic information such as the venue’s contact information, address, hours, and most importantly, reviews.
Because Google is so popular, you’ll almost always be able to find a number of reviews to help you gauge whether or not to pursue a particular Tulsa wedding venue or not.
If you’re interested, you can see our Google Business reviews here.
Facebook Tulsa Wedding Venue Reviews
Another great place to do some wedding venue reconnaissance is Facebook! With millions of businesses using Facebook, the wedding venue that you’re considering more than likely has a Facebook Page available for you to connect with and find out further information about the event experiences that attendees have had.
While not quite as popular a review platform as Google, you can still find plenty of valuable insight on Facebook. You can check out the Facebook reviews for Stokely Event Center here.
Yelp Wedding Venue Reviews
Another place that you might be able to find wedding venue information is on Yelp. Yelp has a huge review library, however, they typically lag behind Google and Facebook in terms of review volume. They also have unusual restrictions about the types of reviews that they’ll actually display on their site, so we recommend comparing what you find there with some of the platforms we’ve already mentioned.
Always Get a Tour of the Wedding Venue Before Booking
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when looking for a Tulsa wedding venue is not visiting the venue in person BEFORE you book it.
No matter how many pictures you might find of a venue online, nothing compares to visiting a venue in person. You’d be surprised how many little details you’ll begin to remember when you actually visit a venue.
Because every Tulsa wedding venue is different, it definitely pays off scheduling a tour with your favorite ones so that you can be confident that you have the entire picture before you make your final booking decision.
Most Tulsa venues allow you to sign up for a tour online or by phone. At Stokely Event Center, we’re always happy to show off our unique venue! You can schedule a tour with us here.
Be on the Lookout for Special Wedding Venue Rates
Something you should most definitely consider as you’re searching for the perfect wedding venue is the price! Everyone has a different budget, so it’s important to find a venue that suits your ideal wedding while still leaving enough left over to pay for all of the additional things you’ll need.
As you’re searching for a Tulsa wedding venue, here are some of the other cost factors you’ll want to keep in mind:
-
-
- Wedding Dress
- Photographer
- Catering
- DJ or Live Musicians for the Reception and Ceremony
- Videographer
- Rehearsal Dinner
- Wedding Cake
- Florist
- Groom’s Clothing
- Rings
-
While these certainly aren’t all of the expenses that go into a wedding, they should hopefully get you thinking in the right direction concerning how much of your budget you can allot towards a Tulsa wedding venue.
Some wedding venues offer special rates, especially in slower seasons. A good way to stay informed about these rates is to subscribe to any mailing lists that venues offer, or follow them on social media if they can be found there.
If there’s a wedding venue available that you think might be out of your budget, it never hurts to reach out to them to inquire about their rates. You never know! They might have a special deal available that they don’t advertise publically.
Ask What Amenities Are Included with the Tulsa Wedding Venue
The last thing you want to be worrying about on your wedding day is a last-second charge for 50 extra chairs or a few additional tables. It isn’t always the clearest what is included when you book a Tulsa wedding venue.
Because of this, one of the key factors for choosing the right one is doing your due diligence upfront so that you know for certain what you’re paying for when you book your venue. For most venues, you’ll be able to find the majority of their amenities listed on their website, however, we still recommend asking about what amenities are included when you’re getting a tour of the venue.
If possible, ask for a printed amenities list that you can reference as you proceed with the rest of your wedding planning. Doing so will help ensure that you don’t forget to plan for anything important.
Ask for Wedding Venue Recommendations
If you’re new to the Tulsa area or you’re simply not familiar with the wedding venue options available, a great thing to do is ask your friends and family for venue recommendations.
While online reviews can certainly be helpful, getting information directly from people that you know can add an extra level of authority to what you learn about a venue.
Chances are, the people you know will have attended events at a few wedding venues in the area. If no one that you interact with on a day-to-day basis seems to have any info, you can also post on social media that you’re searching for a Tulsa wedding venue to get recommendations.
How to Avoid the Wrong Wedding Venue
Now that we’ve gone through some of the best ways to find the right wedding venue, let’s go over a few of the best ways to avoid the wrong wedding venues!
Avoid Wedding Venues That Don’t Allow Tours
A major red flag for booking a venue is if they don’t allow you to tour the facility before booking! There’s likely a reason they want you to sign papers before seeing it for yourself, so exercise caution in this type of situation.
Avoid Wedding Venues With Too Many Restrictions
Some wedding venues have very tight restrictions for any events that they host. While some restrictions are necessary for safety purposes, others are completely unnecessary.
Here are some of the main restrictions that you’ll want to ask about when booking your venue:
How Late Does the Wedding Venue Stay Open?
If a wedding venue closes way earlier than you were aware of, then everyone will be disappointed when they’re kicked out. Make sure that you know when the party needs to wrap up and give all of your guests notice in advance.
Am I Allowed to Use My Own Wedding Vendors?
Wedding vendors are professionals that provide various services to people having weddings. Being able to choose your own wedding vendors means you’ll have full control over things such as the food, beverages, and music for your event.
Some wedding venues only allow you to use a list of preapproved wedding vendors that they provide to you. This is in their best interest because they can work out special deals with the vendors in the area to get a cut of the profits when they’re hired.
If you want full control over your wedding, don’t use a venue that places restrictions on the vendors that you’re allowed to work with.
Is Real Fire Allowed?
If you plan on having a candlelit ceremony or reception, you’ll want to ask beforehand whether or not real fire is allowed. If not, you’ll have to depend upon fake electric candles to do the job.
Is There a Limit to the Number of Wedding Guests Allowed?
Due to fire codes, every establishment should have a limit to the number of people allowed at one time, and wedding venues are no different. If you’re planning on inviting your extended relatives and every friend you’ve known since kindergarten, then it’s vital you choice venue that allows you to have plenty of guests! Ask what the limit is before booking.
Am I Allowed to Rearrange the Venue?
Some venues can be particular about how you rearrange their facilities because this results in additional work for them later when they’ll have to reposition everything. If you’re planning on overhauling a wedding venue’s layout, then make sure this is allowed in order to avoid any issues!
Are Children Allowed At the Venue?
Some higher-end wedding venues have policies in place that restrict where children are allowed to go within the venue or simply restrict them from attending at all. This can be detrimental if you don’t have a childcare backup plan in place, so read the fine print to make sure children will be allowed!
Are There Any Additional Rules Concerning Decor?
If you’re thinking of hanging streamers or Christmas lights all around the venue, check to see what decor restrictions there might be in place. If a Tulsa wedding venue doesn’t allow you to decorate the way you have in mind, it’s probably in your best interest to look elsewhere.
Why We’re Tulsa’s #1 Wedding Venue
We hope these tips will help improve your venue selection process! If you’re in or around Tulsa, we would love to show you our facility and do everything we can to make sure that your big day is a success. Here are just a few of the things that people love about Stokely Event Center.
“We had our wedding and reception here and it was a great decision. Everyone there is so easy to work with and very laid back. They help you set up and tear down and do everything they can to accommodate your special requests. Our guests were surprised at how well the space worked for a wedding. It’s really great for any type of event. The pricing is great as well for what is included. Highly recommend!” – Debra
“The absolute best-hidden treasure in Tulsa for events, anything for family weddings, birthdays, baby showers, any type of an event you want to set up or have set up, this place can handle and is so amazing, the bartender is one of the sweetest and best bartenders to handle any event, she can handle it, the owners are absolutely wonderful people, this place is just amazing with shuffleboard and a bunch of arcade games!” – Rebecca
“I am so glad that we decided to use the Stokely Event Center for our wedding reception! From the very first time that we toured it, we knew that it was a cool space that had tons of personality and that would help our guests have a really good time.” – Alyssa
Thank you for reading! You can learn more about our venue by heading here. You can schedule a tour by going here.