With that background knowledge, here is our hiccup. We finally got in contact with the location we wanted, the Long Tom Grange. It's pretty, and woodsy, more or less just what we want. We were anticipating a very inexpensive price, about $200. And we were right, it's $200/day. However, for weddings (and I KNOW I shouldn't have said that it as a wedding) they make you rent it for three days. One day for the rehearsal, one for the ceremony, and then clean up the next day. To me, this is reasonable, and they even give you a $50 break, and charge $550 for the three days. I think this sounds great. FH, wants to see if we can find somewhere cheaper.
The Long Tom GrangeThe other issue is alcohol. I know a girl who got married at this location and they had a kegger. So I figured it would be no problem, but when I asked about alcohol, the woman said no alcohol, except for a champagne etc. toast. So obviously my friend was a bit dishonest about what they did at their wedding... Now we aren't having a bar at all, open or cash, but we are planning on supplying two or three bottles of wine per table, enough for people to drink it with dinner. I told her this was out plan, and she seemed to think that that might be ok, but we're looking into different insurance options (insurance is the reason they don't allow alcohol). So with the potential added expense of extra insurance, FH really thinks we should keep looking. Whereas, though I am willing to keep looking (and by we keep looking, that really means I keep looking) I am also pretty satisfied with the options laid out.
One thing I was thinking about last night was that if we had our ceremony at like 2pm, and then served a wide variety of hors d'ourves (sp?) with a small amount of wine, and then, at 9pm had a party back at our house (we have a huge back yard and a July wedding) for our friends, where people could party more, and drink more heavily if they wanted. I really like the idea, although I also recognize the issues with it, like paying for a location that we aren't using to its fullest extent, travel/driving time from the first location(for the ceremony and reception) to our home (about thirty minutes away), as well as the logistics of throwing a party in two different locations, the second of which we would be supplying minimal amounts of food and drink.
So what do you guys think? Anyone find a venue that wasn't a private residence for less then $550? (There are a variety of reasons we can't use a private residence which I'm happy to outline if someone wants me to) How about running into issues with alcohol? Any experience with event insurance that covers alcohol consumption? How about after parties? Especially of the BYOB&F variety. Thanks for any advice, and kudos for making it through my whole narrative!
Have you thought about forest service or BLM campground/recreation sites?
ReplyDeleteWe're booking our ceremony site for $10. It's a covered picnic area in a beautiful outdoor setting.
It is something we've considered, although we would prefer to have an indoor facility at the venue as well for getting ready and stuff. That does sound lovely though!
ReplyDelete$550 is a wonderful deal, although I get why your fiance is concerned about the cost of the insurance added on top. How much would the insurance be?
ReplyDeleteMy fiance and I had the same conversation when I showed him the sample wedding budget, with way more money than he'd anticipated put into photography. After I showed him a few websites (some for photographers whose baseline price was almost 2x my suggested budget!) he understood and agreed that my proposed amount was a good balance between high quality and reasonable cost. But there's a lot of sticker shock involved with weddings! (I actually cried when I received our first catering estimate from an actual caterer. In my defense it had already been a rough day, but still, yeesh.)
@Bride in Exile Yea, when you think about it, you can't expect the per person cost to be much less for a catered event then for an equally nice dinner out, and there is the added expense of getting it all out to your site (if that is applicable).
ReplyDeleteWe actually just heard for my Fiance's insurance proider (though not his agent) and got a quote at up to $500,000 liability insurance for one day, for $35, which is WAY less then I expected. We still have to make sure that the venue approves the policy and that it actually would cover accidents due to alcohol intake, or drunk stupid people (not that we are providing enough booze to get totally drunk). But still, we both were able to take a deep breath when we got that news.