It is not easy to find a place to organize your reception room for your wedding, majority of the time the place has been reserved long time ago : months ago and/or may be years ago for famous place.
So it is very important, if you want your favorite place to be reserved, to organize yourself and to start looking the sooner than possible (better to start one year before so you can search in serenity). Don’t forget that the reception room should correspond with the style of your party, you should put in privilege the harmony and to avoid any kind of risky combination.
In practice, don’t forget that in some unusual reception place like museum, you will have some unexpected restriction that can cause inconvenience which should be avoided.
Useful information, take in account that you will need a minimum of half square per person for a standing cocktail and more than 1 square for a sitting reception.