One of the first big steps in planning an event is choosing a location for your event. Along with the date this should be one of the first decisions made, and the two often go hand in hand.

Choosing Your Venue Route…

With this important and exciting choice comes a fork of usually two choices, (A) at home or (B) finding an established venue. There is also the lesser know alternative to these two choice, (C) The Blank Canvas Venue.

A. At Home

You (or your family/friends) may have a lovely garden, paddock/field or event barn that with a bit of creative event planning would be the perfect location for a wedding or party. This is great as you then already have what we recommend is vital to the perfect event – a blank canvas!

If this is you you’ve jump straight forward to the next exciting part, choosing the perfect team to help you create it. This can seem daunting! How to use the space best? What size tent to use? What will it look like? How do you power it all? What do you do in case of rain? … There’s a lot of these questions to consider.

Luckily getting on to someone who knows all the in’s and out’s of creating an event from scratch (from marquees to the hosepipe for the caterers) is the very next best step and makes the experience a whole lot easier and much more enjoyable. This is what we at Human Nature Events specialise in – creating something from nothing – so give us a call. We’ll help you make the best out of what you’ve already got and advise on the the most cost effective way to do it, only working with the very best suppliers that we’ve gotten to know over our years of experience in planning events.

B. The Mainstream Venue

Maybe your garden is lovely but not just quite big enough, or you’re worried about upsetting the neighbours. Or often is the case that you live in a town or city. If this is the scenario you need to find somewhere beautiful to house you and all your guests for a epic time!

There are plenty of mainstream venues out there. Beautiful estates, country houses and spa hotels. I’ve worked with a number of these and they are all particularly pretty in East Anglia. They often have rooms for you and your guests to stay in, an in house catering team with bar and staff and are generally well set up to take care of you for the day.

Although this isn’t always the case, over the years i have personally found and been told about through stories from clients that although these seem like the perfect one stop shop for your event, there are usually a lot of rules involved! You are often only allowed access the day before (not leaving much time for personal touches or creating an once in a lifetime look) for your event and you’ll need to be out with everything your brought by the morning after (when you’re probably feeling pretty groggy!). This can make the day before and of your event rushed and stressful. There will also be pretty strict rules in terms of bringing along your own suppliers (i.e. caterers) along with noise and how long your event can go on for.

Don’t get me wrong! These venues are perfect for those looking to have everything wrapped up in a nice, well organised bundle! But for those of you who don’t already have space but still want to create something bespoke and unique in a space that is solely yours for the weekend (and a few days leading up), there’s an alternative which we aim to champion spelt out below…

C. The Blank Canvas Venue

This is what we do! One of the big idea behind Human Nature Events is finding our clients unique, blank canvas locations for them to build their event completely how they’d like it from scratch! We’re constantly on the hunt for “non-venue venues” that offer beauty, flexibility and possibility. This could be a wild flower meadow on a rural farm, a clearing in an ancient wood or a hilltop overlooking a magnificent country view. Check out some of the  event locations we’ve already found.

The reason we’re so passionate about using untouched wild locations for events is that it gives you ultimate freedom to create something unique every time. Building from nothing allows you to design and refine everything! It starts from creating the layout and guest flow that ensures your event will be the very best it can be. This is done through choosing the right marquee for you, coming up with the interior design that compliments your personal style or theme, choosing the table layout and what furniture it consists of, the type of bar and where it goes. This goes on and on including choosing your caterer, florist, band and also any extra special surprises you may want to include (fireworks?).

Some people may say this sounds exhausting, but it’s a whole lot of fun and with the right help (Us!) you’ll barely notice it.

The event venues we’ve found aren’t completely empty though. They all have their own unique add-on offerings which you can select from. Luxury lodges for you and your guests to stay in? Glamping space (which we can help you organise), dinners for the evening before or safari style lunches on recovery day to melt away the hangover. We can also help organise a range of activities such as bike hire, gin tastings, yoga wakeups, bonfire parties and anything else you could possibly think of.

All in all we’re saying the Blank Canvas Venue is perfect for those who want something exciting and different but still organised to a next level standard!