cheap, but nice venues for wedding AND reception

biggun7303

I'm looking for a place to get married and have a wedding reception.  I want something really nice (that doesn't look cheesy or cheap) but won't cost an arm and a leg (or more than $2000 for the location, tables, chairs, place settings, AND food)

I know this is a long shot, but everything I've found thus far, my parents think is too expensive.....

Purple&7

I would try the Gatherings of Dorchester. They were the cheapest venue I found.

biggun7303

I need to keep it a little closer to the North Chuck area, all my FI's family will be staying on IOP with family 

Melissa&ChadBoettcher

See about renting a beach house on IOP and get married on the beach and have the reception right there at the beach house.  Good luck!

biggun7303

I could, but 1) I don't really like the beach and 2) everyone would say I was copying my little sister, who is getting married 6 months before me...

Purple&7

Have looked into the hall in Wannamaker Park? I can't remember the name of it. I attended a wedding there and it was really nice and not too expensive. The Charleston Yatch club was nice and not to expensive.

biggun7303

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_south-carolina-charleston_cheap-but-nive-venues-wedding-reception?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:600Discussion:614170a2-7c2e-47d9-9b52-09c548646a4bPost:f248a9e2-731f-4c4a-8f90-60e95bc809a0">Re: cheap, but nice venues for wedding AND reception</a>:
[QUOTE]Have looked into the hall in Wannamaker Park? I can't remember the name of it. I attended a wedding there and it was really nice and not too expensive. The Charleston Yatch club was nice and not to expensive.
Posted by Purple&7[/QUOTE]

I haven't looked into the wannamaker park thing. The yacht club, however, is "too expensive" for those who are contributing money to the wedding.....

stickby

How many guests will you have? 

You could try Tidewater Chapel, or one of the restaurants downtown - McCrady's, Cypress, Sticky Fingers, Southend Brewery.  One nestie on here did hers at Gilligan's.  For the restaurant you'd probably do the ceremony at one of the parks downtown.

I don't think any of the more commonly recommended venues rent for under 1,000. 

katydid2014

Your "under 2000" statement may be hard to find if you are having more than about 40 people if you want that amount to cover everything for ceremony and reception.  That is just the nature of Charleston weddings.  However, if you are creative then you could get close to that number.  We had our reception at McCrady's on a Sunday at lunch time, which of course is MUCH cheaper than a dinner reception.  We had 30 guests and our bill at McCrady's was under $2000 including open beer and wine bar for our 3 hour reception and sit down lunch.  That did not include decorations (a lot of which I did myself), flowers, dj, and cake.

We had our wedding in a garden elsewhere, but I have seen pictures where a couple had their ceremony in the more formal of the two private rooms at McCrady's and then had their reception in the other private room across the hall.  If we did not really want a garden wedding, then I may have done the same thing.

The room fees are under $150 I believe, they have their own event planner woman, Sunday Tuk, who is great to work with, and you don't have to pay for the additional cost of chair, table, silver, linen rentals because the restaurant already has all that.  And then the rest of the cost just depends on your menu choices and what type of alcohol you offer, if you offer any at all.

katydid2014

Oh an additional bonus, McCrady's is not open for lunch hours and ours was the only event so we had the entire restaurant to ourselves.  If you also did lunch time and got both upstairs rooms for ceremony and reception, then you would also have it all to yourself.  And the great thing about a lunch reception is that if anyone drives in from out of town then they can drive back after if they want and not have to pay the additional cost of a hotel room.  A lot of our guests drove down from Columbia just for the day and went back right after the reception was over without having to drive late at night.

CarolinaMiss

Check out the Citadel Alumni Center... it is very reasonably priced for being downtown Charleston.  The food is also very good.  The Renken Room is so cute... there are already picture hangers in the walls so you can hang your own decor.  I went to a wedding there once where the bride had black and white photos of her and her fiance blown up, matted with a thick black mat, and hung from a wide black satin ribbon.  I had an event there and collected all of my friends' "Chicken Man" pictures and hung those.  It looked great!  Also the rental of the room includes use of the adjoining courtyard that is all brick and has a fabulous tree that I hung flowers from using colorful ribbons.  So many ways to make this venue work for you.  I hope this helps some. Good luck!

Bsmom

You might try Runaway Bay restuarant at the River front park in North Charleston. Beautiful place and we had my daughters graduation party there and it was perfect. They did an outstanding job.
http://runawaybayrestaurant.com/TRB/Welcome.html

You might also want to try Polar Grove boat house we my other daughters wedding reception there and it was beautiful. It has a covered dock on the water and the boat house is beautiful with hardwood floors and wrap around porches. We had no problem doing food stations and accomadating two hundred guest. Our food stations were set up on the porches and the bar was set up on the screened in porch on the back. They have small tables and rockers on the porches and the inside has quite a bit of leather furniture and more tables. It rented for 1000.00 and the nice thing is the inside has heat and air.
http://www.poplargrovecharleston.com/

amandap1130

We are using the gazebo at Hampton Park in Charleston. To rent the venue is only about $380. I found a party rental close by in Mt. Pleasant where we are renting 50 chairs and a few other items that includes delivery for around $200. The gazebo needs minimal decoration because there is so much natural beauty. The gazebo is surrounded by rose bushes and in a clearing that is surrounded by gorgeous trees.
Our reception is at Upstairs at 39 Rue de Jean in downtown Charleston.
With 50 guests having a sit down dinner with a salad, appetizer, and an upen bar, it will be about $3k. Not too bad when comparing to other places.

cougarette

Okay I'm way late to this but...

Have you looked at Old Santee Canal Park in Moncks Corner?  My friend got married there and it's beautiful.  It doesn't include food, but the venue was really affordable.

Also, we got married at Alhambra Hall in Mt.Pleasant and it was wonderful.  If you live in Mt. Pleasant it's $1,500, otherwise it's $2,500 (doesn't include food).

Both my friend and I used JB's Smokeshack for food and it was awesome.  The food is really good and it wasn't that expensive at all.