Budget wedding in Sarasota, fl

dwest823

I need any suggestions in planning a budget wedding of 6000 including everything in the Sarasota area.... I definitely want a beach ceremony and maybe a beach reception.... I priced out one resort and they wanted to charge 12000.... I am so confused and don't know what to do.... Any suggestions would be appreciated....

[Deleted User]

How many people are you wanting? My fiance and I decided to rent a house on the beach on Anna Maria Island for the wedding. The house has a rooftop deck that is going to be perfect for the reception, and we are going to have the wedding on the beach right out front! We are only having about 40 guests (most of them from out of town), so the house rental route worked perfect for us. We asked all our guests to come out a week early to visit and vacation with us while we are in the house. The house is $4000 for the week which is kind of pricey, but it's a big house (5 bedrooms). We needed a big house because I wanted my parents, bridesmaids, and brother and sister in-law to stay at the house with us. I'm sure you could find a smaller house in the beach for less $$, that would still have room for a reception. Lots of the houses on the beach have nice patio areas that would be perfect for an outdoor reception. Since it's a house, we really don't need to do much for decorations, just center pieces (bowls with floating candles and sand and shells at the bottom) and maybe some lights strung up. We are grilling out, so no need for a cater. Also, since it's a small wedding, we are just going to hook up an ipod. Being able to go cheaper in all these other areas, made getting the house cheaper than doing a traditional (renting a venue) type of wedding. Also, we see it as having a week long wedding rather than just one day of fun.

Sorry this is so long. Just excited I guess.

dwest823

I want to have at least 50-60 ppl... I'm so confused and discouraged because I dont know if I can afford the weeding I want with this budget....

M1ssJ

You can 100% afford 60 ppl for 6,000. I would check out the place the pp recommended then look into the parks in sarasota. Getting married on the beach is pretty much free, besides chair rental, then look at a local restaurant to do the reception (Mattison's is awesome!) or a church hall, legion, or shriner's club, these places often let you bring in outside catering that will help keep the cost low. BBQ or small restaurant catering will be cheap or even italian

Use vistaprint for invites 

Have beach centerpieces made with candles and stuff from the beach and dollar tree

You can do it!!!!

[Deleted User]

Yeah, 50-60 would probably be a little too much for the house idea. I agree with M1ssJ though, you can definitely pull it off! Just decide what is really important to you and what you can go cheaper on. For me, the photographer was really important, so I hired a really good one that had an avg cost. Having it catered wasn't that big of a priority to me, so we decided we would just cook ourselves. Flowers can be pretty expensive, so I'm just getting the wedding party flowers (boquets and boutonnieres). The center pieces will be the bowls with floating candles. Have you tried looking at the venues listed on this site for the west coast FL area? I know with the photographers, they let you filter by price which was really nice. I just clicked on the $$ icon and didn't have to look at any of the crazy priced photographers. Oh, and Publix is great for cakes. I just went to talk to them yesterday. I'm doing cupcakes with one small round cake at the top. She said it would be like $60 for 40 cupcakes and one 7in round! That's not bad at all!

You can do it!

MJBJEG

It is totally possible. I am doing a 60 guest wedding, for under 5k. I had trouble finding reasonable locations in Sarasota though, the Sarasota Garden Club was VERY beautiful and reasonable ($800 including tables/chairs) but unavailable on my date. I decided to go further north to Palm Harbor and am having mine at White Chapel and Harbor Hall, the venue was only $765 and includes tables and chairs.

Sarasota Catering company and Nellie's Catering have very reasonable prices and good food! You may want to do a heavy cocktail style or BBQ reception.

If you are wanting alcohol, do a wine and beer service rather than a full open bar.

Avoid using flowers by incorporating Florida citrus into your centerpieces, lemons and limes in glass cylinders you can purchase at a craft store on sale or at Goodwill.

Do not rent your linens, buy them!! I saved $400+ buying my linens instead of renting them.

Rather than doing a cake, do cupcakes - no cake cutting fees, no mess. Cupcakes are a very affordable alternative to a cake.

If you need any help, I am a local, let me know! I have a lot of tricks I can share with you and love, love, love planning!

MJBJEG

As far as photography goes, I am trying to figure that part out still but we are fortunate to live in such an artsy area! Try contacting the photography department at Ringling College of Art to see if a student photographer would be interested in building their portfolio, having a free meal and making a little extra cash! I plan to do this!

dwest823

Thank you for all the information I'm still looking and yet to find something...