The licence is yours, the breach is yours, and the request sounds negotiable

Separate what you decide from what is decided for you

The room layout is yours. The licence end time is not. Decibel limits, capacity, whether alcohol may be served after a certain hour, whether an outdoor area may be used late: these are conditions attached to a permission, and treating them as house rules invites negotiation that cannot go anywhere. Say which category each answer belongs to and the request stops being an argument.

Say the consequence, not just the rule

"We stop at midnight" reads as a preference. "Our licence ends at midnight and a breach puts it at risk, which would affect every event after yours" reads as a reason. Clients push back against rules and accept consequences, and the consequence here is genuinely serious, which most clients have never considered.

Capacity is a safety number, and it is not flexible by two

Guest counts drift upward and clients assume a stated capacity has slack in it. It does not: it is a fire and safety figure tied to exits, and the venue cannot trade it. Publishing the number alongside what it is based on makes it a fact rather than a position, and it is far better understood before the invitations go out than after.

Fireworks, open flame and amplified music outdoors each need their own answer

These are the four requests that most often need a permission the venue does not already hold, and each has its own lead time, cost and possibility of refusal. Publish what is possible, what needs applying for, how long that takes, and what it costs. The client asking in the last fortnight before the date is the normal case, and the honest answer is usually no rather than expensive.