My small wedding list has just doubled - need venue help. long.

RaquelS

Hi ladies!

Okay so my wedding list just jumped from 50 to 100. My budget however has not doubled, but has gone up a little from $6k to $10k to cover everything from ceremony to reception minus wedding attire and accessories. I am also trying to broaden my options a little. Originally I wanted a small beach ceremony with a restaurant close by for catering. Now I am thinking of not limiting myself to just that option, but to expand it to maybe doing a garden wedding. Therefore the area in which I am looking is expanding as well. I am now looking at the West Coast and Central Florida areas. I kind of feel like I'm working backwards here as I just went from knowing I was having a beach wedding on west coast to a possible garden wedding in central Florida. I am feeling a little stressed, and have stayed away from the search engines and wedding websites for the last week because of it. 

I am going to the Anna Maria Island Wedding Festival this coming weekend, and I am hoping that I will have a better idea of what I want when I am there. But meanwhile, does anyone have any venue ideas that are within my budget? I did find a place in Mt. Dora that looks pretty affordable. It is called Lakeside Inn. ( lakeside-inn.com ), anyone familiar with them. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks and sorry this is so long.

bananafanafofashley

Your budget is very do-able. Don't panic. Beach weddings can definitely be much cheaper than ballroom weddings so you are definitely in luck. I don't know much about any of it because beaches really aren't my thing, but i know some girls here use the rusty pelican, some use clearwater rec center. there is sunken gardens in st pete and ybor city museum garden in ybor. there is honeymoon island in dunedin as well.

questvc

I got married last year at the Westin Hotel.  I had a guest count of 80 people and a budget of 10K and we totally did it without a problem. 

GL!

Rhea1115

I am doing my whole wedding at the Venetian in Venice for About $9000 with 80 people.. I would check it out if I was you. You will love the coordinator there too.

ellentravis

Hi there. That is a very stressful situation to be in. Sorry to hear you're dealing with that.

If you don't yet have a date, I would look at doing a Sunday or doing February (we are doing both and got HUGE discounts on everything). Often there are no minimums during that time, or if you play a little bit of hardball, they'll lower their minimums as many places did for us.

We have a small budget too and are having a friend do our photography, a friend do our invitations and are getting creative with flowers.

Sorry things are so stressful, but the more you make it your own, the more you'll enjoy it and be able to afford it! GL!

msphil32

Wow!! You sound just like me, and yes, it can be very overwhelming...I knew I wanted to either do beach or garden. Then I thought I narrowed it down to beach...I went from destination in Jamaica, to beach in S. Florida, back to Central FL where I live at Leu Gardens. However, the point (which I initially thought) was to keep the budget down and guest list to about 50. We figured we would "go away" in efforts to keep the list down. However, I am coming to the conclusion that I will just have to give a brief explanation of the purpose of our small ceremony. I am also looking at Clearwater, Daytona, and other Central FL venues. Keep me posted on what you find because I am already pulling my hair out. FI is in Iraq and won't be home until atleast July, leaving me to do it mostly alone. We will see. I hope that things come together for you real soon.

RaquelS

Hi ladies, 

Thanks for all your ideas, I have a couple places scheduled to see towards the end of this month.

@msphil32: After going to that festival I was talking about, I decided against a beach wedding, it took me being there to realize that wasn't what I wanted. I'm not sure what your guest list or budget is but if it is anything like mine, you may want to check out these places I'm going to go see:

Taproom at Dubsdread - Orlando

Lakeside Inn - Mt. Dora

St. Johns Golf & Country Club - St. Augustine

Winterbourne on St. Johns - Orange Park

I'll keep you posted on what happens!