We held our wedding on October 8th in Brown County--ceremony at the Brown County State Park and the reception at Salt Creek Golf Resort. See below for reviews of our vendors. When we were planning our Brown County wedding, I searched all over for advice/tips about the area (because we're not from the Brown County area) and couldn't find a whole lot. I hope someone else can benefit from our experience! Overall we were so extremely happy with everyone.
Please feel free to email me directly with any questions (I don't get on here a whole lot.) I'm happy to help with anything that I can for someone planning at the State Park or Salt Creek! julia dot petro at gmail dot com
BROWN COUNTY STATE PARK, CEREMONY SITE B-We booked the Park for our ceremony site in late winter/early spring. The ceremony was held in the amphitheater behind the Abe Martin Lodge. As far as the ceremony goes, pricing here can get a little steep for a half-hour ceremony. The rental of the amphitheater is $300 plus you pay $2/chair that you'd like for your guests. We decorated a little bit, but honestly you dont need to decorate at all because it's so beautiful here.
CONS - The park staff are not 'coordinators' so they aren't overly helpful with a whole lot. Don't expect to get any suggestions/advice about a whole lot. They don't really do much of anything to keep hikers away from your wedding (although we were told there would be 'wedding in progress' signage up.) Up until the music started for the ceremony, there were hikers EVERYWHERE, just trudging through the area. I think that the music scared them away when it began though. If you're doing the ceremony in the fall during their busy time, parking for guests can be a total beast. We hired a couple college kids to shuttle people from the lower parking lot up to the amphitheater because there were limited spots near the lodge. Just be prepared for how busy the lodge may be during your time of year. There was actually a bicycle rally going on the same day as our wedding which had traffic backed up A LOT, putting pictures behind. If you choose the amphitheater, be mindful that there are a lot of steps to get down into it. If you have a lot of older people, this would not be ideal. The other downside--if you don'ot have your reception at the Abe Martin lodge, they don't give you free admission into the park, so you'll either need to pay for your guests to get in, or they'll have to pay themselves. I actually think that some of the park people didn't know that we were supposed to pay--we set up a 'tally' so that we could pay for everyone that came through, and our final bill wasn't nearly as high as it probably should have been....just one more cost to incur here.
PROS - It's absolutely beautiful here. Our ceremony was so incredibly unique and everyone loved that it wasn't just like every other wedding that they had ever been to. There are a lot of really pretty places for pictures. Even with all the cons listed above, I wouldn't have changed a single thing and I would definitely have it here again.
SALT CREEK GOLF RESORT, RECEPTION VENUE A-
Salt Creek is located right next door to the State Park so it was really convenient for everyone to get to. Room rental for a Saturday is $1000 and menu prices are fairly comparable to other reception venues. Donna is the contact here and she was GREAT to work with. The venue holds about 200 people. We had around 150 and the space was the perfect size. 200 would be quite tight.
CONS - Our first tasting wasn't great at all. We didn't like the food, but, they were very accommodating and let us come back for a second tasting. In fact, we were told we could come for as many as we'd like until we decided. There are condos at Salt Creek that are rented out to wedding guests, much like hotel rooms...but, they are EXPENSIVE! Granted, we did stay during peak season, so I can't vouch for pricing in the spring/summer/winter. We were also held to a two-night minimum in October. These condos are really great for getting the bridal party ready though--very spacious and includes a kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, living room and patio.
PROS - Everything else! There wasn't a group in the banquet room on Friday so we were able to set all of our decorations up the day before which was SO helpful. In our planning, we were able to negotiate our menu and pricing to fit our budget, so keep that in mind when choosing your meal. Everything was set the way it was supposed to be and the bartender was fantastic.
JAMIE VESTER PHOTOGRAPHY + DESIGN A+
I LOVE Jamie and the work she does. She arrived to take some 'getting ready' photos early in the afternoon and did all the rest of our posed photos prior to the ceremony like we wanted. She was extremely easy to work with and incorporated a lot of our ideas into the pictures that she took. I even printed out a sheet of photos I had seen online that I loved and she did many of them. She made the bridal party and family photos go by really quickly and was awesome at being kind of 'invisible' during the ceremony--I didn't even remember that she was there! Jamie's from the Indianapolis area, but will travel for weddings. She's almost completely booked for 2012, however.
www.jamievester.comDJs DIRECT, BRIAN WHITIS A
We booked our DJ in late spring/early summer. At the time, our date was completely open on their schedule so we were able to get a little bit of a discount for this. Brian was confirmed as our DJ in late summer. We met with him about a week prior to the wedding to finalize all the details and make sure that he had everything that he needed. Brian came to our ceremony location and played the pre-ceremony and ceremony music and then left for the receptionand had everything set up before we got there. He was an excellent announcer and played all of the music that we listed on our must-play list. He was great at keeping things moving along and keeping us on schedule and he helped to keep everyone out on the dance floor for the entire evening. We and our guests had an awesome time.
OTHER NOTESSalt Creek allowed us to bring in our own cakes which was awesome as we have a baker in the family. We were also able to choose what kind of wine we wanted served at the reception. We chose a local wine--keep in mind though, that this will jack the price up A LOT if you don't go with something on their menu...even if it's an inexpensive wine in the stores. The keg prices are low compared to other venues that we looked into. If you choose a beer that they serve in the bar downstairs, and you don't tap all the kegs that you order, they'll refund you the money for the ones you didn't use.