If you’re planning a wedding, a fashion or art show, a birthday party or any other event, among the top critical factors that you have to get right is the venue. Let’s say you’re planning a wedding, for instance, and you’re looking to find venues and function centres to hire in St Kilda. What kind of venue do you need? You need a place with catering facilities, a large hall for the ceremony, space for the reception, perhaps attractive outdoor surroundings or gardens for the photographs.

In other words, you can list several things that you know will make it the ideal venue. What about event spaces more generally? What are the features and qualities of an event space or venue that make it attractive?

1. Venue Location

First and foremost, the venue needs to be located somewhere that is accessible to your guests, easy to find with or without a sat-nav, and with nice clear road access. If you have eldlery or disabled guests, they also need to be able to get in and out of the venue easily. It’s not a great idea to have a venue somewhere that requires guests to ford rivers or drive off-road, for example.

The other aspect about location is the aesthetic. Does it have great vistas? A rooftop with views of the city? Are you surrounded by natural beauty? Is it by the ocean? The setting and background of the venue are very important both for things like taking photos to remember the event, but also to create the right kind of atmosphere.

2. Facilities

Your venue needs to have all the things you need to manage your event. If you’re running a corporate retreat, for instance, you’ll need good accommodation either at the venue or nearby. You’ll need conference spaces, smaller workspaces, outdoor facilities for sports or outdoor pursuits, and so on. If it’s a wedding then the bride and bridesmaids need make up rooms, and there needs to be catering facilities either with an in-house staff or a service kitchen that a third-party provider can step into.

The venue must accommodate your every facility need, down to the last detail. One facility people sometimes overlook is parking. If people are driving to your event, you’ve got to make arrangements to ensure there is adequate parking.

3. Ambiance

When you’re looking for the perfect venue, ambiance is another essential thing to look at. You can detect ambiance by looking at the interior decor, the views from the windows, the lighting, and what it looks like both during the day and at night. Ambiance helps to create the atmosphere that you want for whatever type of event that you are planning.

You might want something upscale and fancy, or perhaps leaning more towards decadent like a Versailles-style feel. On the other hand, you might prefer a simpler, more rustic ambiance with natural or reclaimed wood, rural surroundings and greenery as far as the eye can see. The list goes on, it’s all a matter of taste. What makes the event space perfect is the right ambiance for your event.

4. Service

When choosing a venue, we need to be clear on how much service we are going to get from our particular location. Is this just a shell with a skeleton staff? Do they provide a full service with setting up and cleaning up included? Will they serve food and drink there, or do we need to bring in other staff? Can they provide in-house catering or do they have a service kitchen a third party can use?

All of these questions and more need to be answered. The perfect venue is the one that provides the most comprehensive level of service for the price you pay, and all backed up by a pristine reputation.

So here are some of the important things that make an event space the perfect one for you.