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HAPPY NEW YEAR MY LOVES! I hope you all had an amazing holiday & an incredible start to 2023! I can’t believe it’s been a few months since I last posted, which speaks to both my ongoing inability to grasp time perception.. & how college has completely consumed my life. Now that I have a small break & can breathe a little bit, I’ve got some new material for all the beautiful brides-to-be out there!
The most popular post I’ve written since the inception of BBT was Wedding Tips Every Bride Should Know. The amount of people who viewed it &/or saved it to their Pinterest boards really blew my mind & warmed my little heart all at the same time.. & I was beyond ecstatic that so many future brides found it helpful! Since this blog is dedicated to helping ya’ll live your best lives at half the price, I decided to expound on those tips, narrowing in on one of the most important components of any wedding… THE VENUE, aka the LOCATION of where your big day will be.
Weddings are expensive af, & if you’re ballin’ on a budget (much like my husband & I were) things can get stressful quickly when you initially start planning. I had no idea just HOW expensive weddings were until I started venue shopping. The first place i visited gave me a quote that nearly had me in tears; it exceeded our budget even with the most basic package they had available, & that particular spot was rated as “affordable” online. I immediately felt discouraged; if that was considered cost-effective, most of the other options would be in the same price range or higher. I’d essentially be drowning in debt & stressed as all hell, & this wasn’t how I wanted to feel about what should be one of the happiest days of my life.. nor did I want to kick start my marriage in bankruptcy. I became determined at that point to find the perfect location that wouldn’t put us in the red, & wouldn’t require having to sacrifice what I envisioned for our wedding day.
After a shit ton of research, asking a lot of annoying questions, & over-analyzing the most minor details.. I was able to accomplish my mission, & we had the best day ever. I want YOU to have the best day ever, also.. therefore, I’ve compiled a list of budget friendly venue options, AND some tips/advice about venue-related crap that I picked up along the way.
CEREMONY LOCATION
• Churches are typically an affordable option for your ceremony (if you want something faith-based). If you don’t belong to a church but want to get married in one, call/email the desired location & inquire about cost because this (in my experience) is normally not listed on their website. Do this well in advance, because if you want to get married during peak wedding season, they’re going to fill up fast, & preference will be given to those who are already members of the congregation.
• ALSO inquire about what the church’s PROCESS is in order for non-members to get married there, besides the fee. When I was looking for a church that would marry us, A LOT of them wanted my fiancé & I to attend marriage counseling sessions with the minister for a few months before they would agree to perform the ceremony.
• Besides costs & inquiring about procedure, ask about their audio setup (if your DJ will be doing ceremony music, this is important) or whether or not they have musicians available (if you want instrumental music). Some will not allow outside DJs, and some audio systems in the older churches aren’t the best. There may also be extra fees associated with utilizing their musicians. If this is a dealbreaker, better to know ahead of time so you can find somewhere else that can better accommodate you.
• if churches aren’t your thing, see if any of the reception venues on your list have designated spaces for ceremonies onsite. This is usually offered for an added cost, but isn’t (typically) astronomical, & would eliminate the need to travel from place to place day of (ultimately saving you money on limos/vans & removing the stress of having to find rides for everyone in the bridal party).
• if ceremony location isn’t an issue but finding an officiant is, I highly recommend asking a close family member or friend if they would consider getting ordained/performing the ceremony. We asked one of my best childhood friends if he would do it for us, & he did an amazing job. It made the ceremony so much more intimate & it’s a memory I’ll always cherish. If you’re interested & have someone in mind, have them visit the Universal Life Church’s website. The ordination is instant & free – you can pay to have an ID card printed & mailed to you, but that isn’t mandatory. Most cities/states recognize clergy from ANY church in the country – BUT, you should inquire AHEAD of applying for your marriage license to make sure there’s no additional permits/fees required.
• if you need an officiant but don’t have anyone you’d like to ask, you can find ordained ministers offering services for a fee (typically $200-$300) through sites like Angi’s List. Or, if you visit your state’s website, you can find a list of current justices of the peace who can perform the ceremony for a fee as well.
RECEPTION LOCATION
• I recommend utilizing The Knot & Wedding Wire for reception venue research. Both sites allow you to enter city & state location & will display results within the area, saving you the pain of having to calculate travel times (you’ve got enough on ya plate, boo). I also appreciated The Knot’s categorizing each location based on “expensive”, “moderate” & “affordable”, because it allowed me to skip over venues that were ridiculously outside of my price range. Both sites also allow you to send inquiries to vendors directly through their portals, keeping your email inbox from getting bombarded with wedding shit (which will happen regardless at some point). While The Knot was a strong resource by itself, their venue list consisted of your stereotypical banquet halls. Wedding Wire offered additional outside-the-box locations in their results that aligned with what my idea of affordable is.
• Send an inquiry/email the venue & ask for a menu/PDF of their services/costs BEFORE you book any appointments/visit the venue. If your budget is tight, there is no point in going to check out the location, falling in love with it, then being disappointed when they give you a quote that’s outside of your price range. You’ll end up wasting your time & stressing yourself out, & seeing as venue shopping is usually step one of wedding planning.. conserve your precious time & expendable frustration for later stages.
• Depending on the season you’ve chosen to throw your wedding, you can rent out public parks, pavilions, campgrounds, etc in your town/surrounding areas. Recreation centers, school gymnasiums, etc. are usually available for public rental as well, which would be more comfortable for fall/winter weddings. Go to the department of recreation website for your town, & find where it says “facilities”. You should be able to see a list of all park areas owned by the town, & see costs for rental. At the very least, you should be able to find a contact from the municipality that you can email for more info. Some will only charge a small rental fee, & require that you clean up afterwards.
• if you choose a park or community center that doesn’t have a catering service (& before you become discouraged with the cost of private caterers), contact a local grocery store. A LOT of them offer catering services that are a hell of a lot cheaper than hiring a restaurant/catering company, with the same food quality (sometimes better) & more flexibility with menu options. Many of them will deliver it to your site, set it up, & break it down for you, too.
• Elks Lodges are EVERYWHERE, & some of them are gorgeous inside. When we scheduled our first wedding date (it was supposed to be in December of 2020, but we were forced to move the date as a result of the pandemic) we rented an Elks Lodge. They provided their own catering (their most expensive plate cost was $22), had a full service bar, & could fit up to 300 people. We only had to put down a $150 deposit. Look up Elks Lodges in your area, & depending on where you live, photos should be listed of their event hall. Even if the one in your town isn’t the prettiest, you can find a different one in a town nearby that may appeal to you. Here are some examples of Elks Lodge weddings I found:
• The Knights of Columbus also offer hall rentals, so check them out too!
• You can also choose to utilize your own backyard for your wedding, or throw a block party! Had our backyard been larger, I would’ve done this without hesitation. Keep in mind though, you then become responsible for every little aspect of the day from renting port-a-potties, buying liquor, event insurance & renting/setting up tables/chairs. It really will depend on how much of the operational side of your wedding you want to be involved in, so definitely consider this aspect before making a decision.
• Another outside-of-the-box venue option that’s worth exploring/can be reasonably priced is Airbnb & Vrbo. There are beautiful houses sitting on huge pieces of land that homeowners place up for event rental, whether it be by renting a tent & setting it up in their yard or using the space within the home itself.
• If you’re going to hold your wedding in a park, your backyard, or even a standard banquet hall – you may be required to purchase event insurance as a condition of your contract. I purchased ours through Wedsafe, & it was around $130. You can also ask whomever your home/car is insured with: Progressive & Travelers are two major players that offer event insurance, & it may come at a discount if you hold existing policies with them.
• If you can, arrange to come in & decorate the reception space the night before your wedding, & have a plan set with event staff for the breakdown process. If your venue is handling all of the decorating, put all decorations/table crap in storage bins labeled by table number so this way it’s a quick & easy task regardless of when it happens & who does it. Put together a mock table at home & take a picture of it. Print a few copies of the picture & place it in each storage bin so there’s a visual reference available. If you don’t have an event coordinator that will be involved in the setup/you’re not there to oversee it, this will guide event staff as to what you want each table to look like.
• Speaking of event coordinators.. while many banquet facilities offer a point person for you to go to if you have questions or need help, it’s not often that the extent of the coordinators’ responsibilities are specified.. Ask the venue what exactly this person will be doing/responsible for the day of, if anything. One would think that the venue’s event coordinators will be there by your side to ensure everything goes perfectly once it’s go-time, or at least present at the wedding, should anything go wrong, but not every facility does this.. sometimes the coordinators don’t even come to check in on the event they supposedly coordinated. Avoid any bullshit by having this clarified for you before you make a deposit or sign any contracts.
• Do not be afraid or feel uncomfortable about emailing/calling with questions, wanting to do a walk through of the reception area a second time before your big day arrives, telling your venue staff exactly how you want something done, or telling them what you DON’T want. Yes, they may have a ton of experience with weddings being held at their location, but every couple is going to be different in how they direct the flow of the day, whether or not they incorporate certain traditional aspects, etc. YOU are the one who has spent the time & the tears planning the event, & it’s going to be YOUR lifelong memory, not theirs. Wanting that memory to be a beautiful one doesn’t make you a Bridezilla.
What was the most valuable piece of wedding venue/location advice YOU received?!
