Sell your wedding venue business.

The booked calendar versus the property

Wedding venues sell on booked events with assignable contracts, a property that can keep its occupancy and alcohol permissions, and a weekend crew that is not only the owners. Buyers want a pipeline with deposits, not a highlight reel of last year’s Saturdays. On-premise ceremony-and-reception, lodging on site, and a room that is really a restaurant with a lawn are different labor models.

If you also run catering or a rental inventory, we draw a line around what is in the sale. Mixed hospitality businesses get mispriced when everything is one revenue number.

Liquor, preferred vendors, and weather

Liquor—venue license versus outside bartenders versus a dry property—is a transfer and insurance issue. Some counties treat a change of entity as a new hearing. Preferred-vendor lists and exclusive-caterer arrangements may be personal to you. Weather and seasonality are the underwriting problem: a year that was three huge Saturdays in October is not the same as a twelve-month book with Friday and Sunday product. Tents, parking variances, and outdoor-amplified-music permits often die on transfer if they were issued to a person.

Deposits, rain dates, and who honors next season

Unearned event deposits are a liability. The purchase agreement has to say who honors which dates and who keeps which deposits. We would rather schedule that in the letter of intent than argue about a Saturday two weeks after close. A seller who will attend the first few large events is common. A seller who must stay a year to keep the coordinators is a different deal. Occupancy, assembly, and fire-marshal capacities have to match the guest counts you have been selling. A tent that was blessed as a one-off variance is not a second ballroom a buyer can count on. Menu costing and staffing ratios need to be written down if you cater. If only you know how many servers a 180-person Saturday actually needs, the buyer is buying you, not a venue.