Please help! In need of opinions!!!

kaylanabanana

Hows it goin?

I need some opinions. So we have a generous 8 grand to pay for wedding and honeymoon. Looking to have 30 people plus or minus. We live in beautiful colorado and rent a decently nice house. It has a flat, appropriate backyard with nice paved path down it, plenty of space inside. We have looked at a couple wedding venues here, either they're in the mountains 45 min/hour+ away, or you have multiple weddings at the same time, or they're bloody expensive and we would be pushing it to have a honeymoon, which is pretty important to us. We also love Vegas. We've been 4 times in the 4 years we have been together. I looked at some websites of Caesars, Bellagio, the Mirage. They have super affordable packages and I feel we could get what we want and still have an awesome honeymoon. 

So there's 3 choices. My concerns are:

-if we keep it at home, there's lots of clean-up, set-up etc... but it would be personal, which is us

-if we have a venue here, I feel it's going to cost more but probably be the most convenient 

-if it was in vegas, it would probably be somewhat hard to plan and some people including probably 1 of my bridesmaids, wouldn't be able to afford it 

WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD DO?? ANY ADVICE WOULD BE VERY APPRECIATED! THANKS

-kaylan

direy25

My vote is Vegas (I'm getting married in Vegas next year), but my screen is all screwy so it wouldn't let me vote.  You should check out the Las Vegas message board, most of the ladies there are getting married or have gotten married at the chapels you mentioned above.  There are a lot of great planning bios as well and it seems nobody had a problem planning from a distance - and a lot of them live a lot farther away than we do!   

ETA:  Having the wedding in Vegas will probably also save you a lot of money; if you're worried about your 1 bridesmaid not being able to afford it, maybe you could offer to help her out with the accommodations or something?

joannacolorado

HI! $8k is more than you think!  I live in Broomfield and think an at home wedding is great.  BUT you can do alot with $8k locally!  I am doing a 100 person wedding at either the Renaissance, Aloft, Monaco and also looking at Oxford.  We are spending about $10k.  I decided that the venue was my most important expense.  I have people coming from out of town and need the hotel rooms.  I'm also doing New Year's Eve so venue is important.  Either way, Serendipity is a great caterer and they will come do EVERYTHING for you in your home on your bid day.  Also, you could definitely look at venues locally that could host the event.  30 people is perfect for a brunch, luncheon or even a plated dinner in a few spots I found with amazingly beautiful rooms.  Not sure where you are doing ceremony but you can do that onsite too.  Depending on what your top 3 most important parts of your wedding are, you can have a FANTASTIC day with that amt of money.

jessicaanderik

I have been to three weddings in Vegas and they have all been a blast.  You definitely run a risk that some people may not be able to come but you could always do a local party to celebrate when you got home from the wedding.  And if you give everyone enough notice you may be surprised at how many actually make the trip.  Besides guests can turn it into a mini vacation for themselves. 

amandi34

We totally struggled with the same dilemma. Vegas or CO? We decided on Colorado ultimately...however Vegas for 30 people would be awesome...b/c prob only 20 will come....there are so many options for getting to Vegas from CO (cheaply...drive or via Southwest) and staying there too. The strip is hurting ( i go alot...) so you should be able to find some good deals!

$8k for a 30 person CO wedding is a lot of $$. And you would be able to have a fantastic venue and all the fixings.

If you have it at home then hire the labor to put everything up and take down!

Sorry--i haven't really given you any advice to decide....If you decide to get married in CO, renew your vows in Vegas...that's what our plan is!

Good luck and let us know what you decide!

nhand2206

You can easily hire a full-service caterer who would be willing to do all of the clean up from the party. Between that and a day-of coordinator you wouldn't have to worry about a thing... It's also kind of my dream to have a backyard wedding, but unfortunately that's just not a possibility for us... but don't let me sway you.

SAMURAN

Do it at home or at a venue. We had a wedding planner and did it for 8000 at Mt. Vernon Country Club for 100 people and we were 2000 under budget. You just need to know who to talk to. If we didnt have our planner we would have gone over