Rental House for the Reception?

artistream

A family member suggested that I look into renting a house/estate/manor for our wedding. Ive been trying to find some sort of website with info on how feasible this is, but my search results keep bringing me to vacation homes. I can certainly go through the lists of these vacation homes but I would have to email every single listing I like to find out if they can accomidate 240 people. Is there a website that showcases how many people these rental homes can hold? Thanks!

Steven and Heather

aragx6

You should ask on your local board for more specific ideas.

AmJam04

If it helps, I did a search for "napa estate rental" for my wedding and it turned up a few large properties that seemed appropriate to host a wedding (though it didn't say anything about max capacity). But at least it gave me about 7 listings as opposed to hundreds, so it'd be easier to call and find out.

Seans Bride

You should check out homeaway.com    I looked into it and if you give them the name of the city/town your looking for you get a ton of listings. I found a few houses that were really nice, and it gave me a direct phone number to the renter. Not sure how big the properties are that the website offers but it's worth a shot!

sherrilocurto

I'm using www.vrbo.com (vacation rental by owner) and I've been sending messages with how many guests, etc.
Good Luck!

BeachBride1216

Finding a nontraditional venue requires a little footwork.  Use a site heavy with pictures to narrow it down to 10-12 properties to contact.  I used the search tool that allowed me to narrow my search to properties that sleep more than 12 people and that seemed to bring up the biggest houses with larger yards.  Some listings are even nice enough to put language that says it's good for a wedding or family reunion.  Contact the 10-12 properties and ask about their policy regarding wedding receptions; some won't allow it at all and it's best to get those out of the way first.

artistream

Thanks for the responses everyone. After doing more searching I realized that a lot of these vacation or rental homes fall under residential zoning which shuts out most of the houses. Estates and ranches which can be found through sites like vrbo.com or homeaway.com seem to be the only places able to hold large events. Another realiziation I came upon is that if you have family or friends coming from out of town, pointing them towards a rental house as opposed to a hotel might be a great way to save money. A few hundred dollars a night split 10 ways or so can save a lot.

S6ix

I had a few days of thinking it would be really cool to have our rehearsal dinner at a big estate, so I went on vrbo.com and did some research. There can be lots of extra fees to rent a place specifically for a big party or reception, enough so that it became a fiscal nightmare for us (like, $100 extra site fee for parties, stuff like that) and we ended up planning for a regular, standard, restaurant RD instead (our parents don't live here and our places are both really small). A lot of vrbo listings down here also require Saturday to Saturday rental minimum, too. However, if you have a lot of guests looking to spend more than a couple of days in town and they all are cool with house-sharing, it could be really awesome! We are renting a house a month before the wedding for a "get the band back together" kind of thing. Open house all weekend for all of the college and grad school buddies.

S6ix

Can't edit, meant to say $1000 site fee for a party, on top of regular rental fees.

Canderland00

Where do you want to have your wedding? I found a place on the big island through my cateror called Honualai. I had the cermoney and reception thier and it was zoned comercial so they could do partties thier. A good catering company will probably have suggestions.