How The First Look works
Where the numbers come from, who checks them, and why you can trust them.
You should see real prices before you reach out
Wedding venue pricing is hidden on purpose. Most venues won't publish a number until you've handed over your email, your date, and your phone number, and then the sales calls start. We think you should be able to see real prices before you reach out. That's the whole site.
Every price comes from one of three places
The actual brochures and pricing PDFs venues send to couples. We collect these through couples who share them with us. When you see a Pricing Guide badge, you're looking at the venue's own document, not an estimate, not an average.
Real quotes submitted by real couples who contacted or booked a venue. We strip anything that identifies the couple and keep the numbers: total quoted, guest count, and what was included. Quotes are normalized to the extent possible and tagged with callouts like day of week or venue fee only, so you're comparing like with like.
Our best in class, some venues publish their pricing openly on their own websites. We flag these with a gold star. If transparency matters to you, give them your business.
Every submission is reviewed by a human
Nothing goes live automatically. Each pricing guide and quote sits in a review queue until our team checks it: is it the right venue, is the document legible, does the year check out, is the website right, do the numbers make sense? Only approved submissions reach the site. That said, we are human! If something slips through, every listing has a Flag this listing button, and we look at every flag.
Stale pricing is worse than no pricing
You can't rely on a 2020 number. Wedding pricing has moved fast. Every guide and quote on the site carries its pricing year, and we prioritize current information. When a venue's pricing is older, the year is right there on the card so you can weigh it accordingly.
Structure over a single misleading number
For each venue we aim to show: the starting price, the peak price, the pricing model (per person minimum, venue fee, all inclusive, etc.), guest capacity, the pricing year and one plain language note on what's included, or the pricing guide directly. Venue pricing is complicated; we'd rather show you the structure honestly than flatten it into one misleading number.
The data is the product
It only works if you can trust it.
Help us build it
Got a quote or a pricing PDF from your venue search or eventual wedding? Adding it takes one minute and helps the next couple skip the runaround.
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