Firstly, what on earth is dry hire, we hear you ask? Good question but don’t worry, we are going to explain it right now. Dry hire is simply the term used for a venue that just offers the building or room for hire, without any other facilities such as staff, entertainment, catering, and decoration, etc. It simply offers a blank canvas. Wet hire means that everything is included, and flexible hire means the venue offers either option.
With planning any event or wedding, it is important to consider wet or dry hire when choosing and hiring the venue. Is an all in one package required or would it be better for other outside services to be brought in? Which would suit the theme of the event better? Which is more cost effective? Let’s go over some of the benefits of having a dry hire or flexible venue for your upcoming wedding or event.
Control
With a flexible or dry hire venue, you are in complete control. This is great if you have a vision in mind of exactly how you want your wedding or event to be. You can envisage the way it looks, the lighting, the atmosphere, all of it. The venue is yours to mould into your perfect event.
Décor
Whether it’s a large marquee in extensive gardens of a posh mansion, or a large function room of a club, you will be able to decorate the space exactly how you see fit. This includes furniture, tables and chairs and lighting. You can hire out all your furniture and décor externally according to your vision.
Only Yours
Rock my Wedding states that ‘some venues hold more than one wedding on the same day resulting in you having to share your venue with another bride’. Having a dry hire venue in this situation will prevent that entirely as the venue and everything you have hired for it is completely yours until the end of your contracted time. Nobody else can hijack it.
More Variety
This is by far the biggest advantage of having a dry hire venue. For example, if you are contemplating having a wedding reception with various food stations, each offering different types of food, being restricted to just the venue’s catering could really scupper your plans.
Save Money
Obviously, hiring a blank canvas of a venue is going to cost far less than hiring out an all-inclusive event space. But surely, by then hiring in everything you need, from services, to furniture, to suppliers and décor, you will spend more money? Not necessarily. If you are savvy and shop around, you might just find some deals that you would never get otherwise!
Corkage
Our favourite point! There is nothing more irritating than handing over a big fat fee to a venue just so they can serve the alcohol you have already bought. If you go dry hire, there is no corkage to pay! You just bring in your drink at cost price. You can hire out a bar with staff to serve your guests drinks for the whole of your event. Better yet, you can hire a gin bar with a horsebox trailer! Do you know anyone with one of those?
