Historic Venues in downtown St. Augustine,FL??

nessielady24

Hello All

I am newly engaged to my boyfriend of six years. We are from Jacksonville but really want to exchange vows in historic St. Augustine which is a very special place to us. I have done some research but am wondering if anyone has insider tips of affordable historic venues in the heart of St. Augustine. We are getting married on our anniversary which is Jan 22, 2012 so it will be off-season which is a plus!

Any venue suggestions?? I'm just starting so please give me all the info you have. Pricing, hear-say, vendor restrictions, thoughts

Thanks,
Janessa

PuppiesAndRainbows

Have you looked into the Government House?

LouWho19

Congrats on your engagement!

I don't know about the cost, but I've heard great things about the Oldest House and the White Room.  A1A Aleworks has two banquet rooms that looked pretty affordable to me.

I'm getting married in St. Augustine also - May 22, 2011! We are having our ceremony at the Cathedral Basilica.  Our reception is at the River House, which is awesome and you can also do ceremonies there but it is pricey...we are splurging on our venues but making up by not getting a DJ (doing music ourselves on iTunes DJ) and using invitations from Michael's that we're printing ourselves.

As far as other vendors, I'm using Sally's Roses...Winnie was very understanding that I had a budget and worked with me and I'm getting our cake from Defore's for a great price.  Of course my wedding hasn't happened yet, but I've had great experiences with those vendors so far

jessa1226

We are getting married in St Augustine this Oct 7th its our ann.
We will be getting married in the Otttis Castle.
We will be staying at the Cedar House Inn B&B
There are many places to married there its a wonderful town with so many options.
I know they have a very nice chaple in the lighner musum too.
Congrats and have fun planning!

KappaUCF20

I had my wedding at the Government House and highly recommend it!  There are lots of pictures in my married bio for you to look at (the link is in my siggy). 

Catherine, the site manager, was wonderful to work with, and they're pretty flexible as far as rules go.  You can do almost anything you want (except the music has to stop at 10:00PM due to local laws).  Best of all, if you're getting married in January, the Night of Lights festival will still be going on so you can take advantage of all the beautiful Christmas lights everywhere!  That's why we got married in January, and it was gorgeous.  We actually hired Old Town Trolley to take our guests on a tour downtown before the reception (cost was $150).  Our ceremony was held outside in the courtyard (we lucked out because the temperature was perfect), and then the reception was held inside the sala room.  But you could even do both the ceremony and reception inside if you wanted to.  The Gov't House is most ideal for smaller weddings (it fits a maximum of 50 people comfortably... you could possibly squeeze in up to 60-65 but it would be tight).  There are any number of ways you could set things up there.  You could arrange stuff outside like the dance floor, cocktail tables, the bar, etc.  You can also set up the buffet or bar in the lobby.  There's a lot of freedom.  It's also one of the cheapest venues in St. Augustine, and they let you bring in all of your own vendors which can help you save money as well.  Look into it!

ETA: Getting married in the off season won't necessarily save you money.  It just depends on the vendor.  I think most locations in St. Aug charge the same price regardless of what time of the year it is.  We saved a little bit of money on our photographer but that's basically it.  Unfortunately St. Augustine is generally not the cheapest place to have a wedding, especially if you want to be close to the historic center of town.  The Gov't House was pretty much our only choice due to our budget, but it was meant to be because all of our guests loved it!  It's right next to the Casa Monica hotel but without the insane CM prices . 

I'll warn you that if you decide to have the ceremony outside in the courtyard, be very careful of what time it starts.  The museum doesn't close until 4 or 4:30, and the church across the street rings its bells constantly!  Our ceremony started around 5:10 and just as I was about to walk down the aisle, the bells started playing Christmas carols.  They continued for over 30 minutes!  We begged the church to delay them for a little while, but they wouldn't (how nice lol).  But that was the only part of our wedding day that even remotely sucked (and at least it gave our guests a laugh lol).    

KappaUCF20

Okay, after reading my post, I guess I should somewhat modify what I said about the guest limit lol.  I do know of people who were able to fit over 100 guests at the Gov't House; however, they had to set up the dinner tables both inside and outside to make it work so I don't know what they would have done if it rained because there's no way you can squeeze that many people inside.  Just something to think about.  You can also rent outdoor heaters at the last minute if it ends up being really cold, but fortunately we didn't have to worry about that (it was actually pretty warm for us!).

If your wedding is going to be bigger than that, your only other budget option close to the historic area might be Oldest House and Gardens.  Most other affordable venues are farther away.  

nessielady24

Thank you so much ladies. Great advice! I will look up all these venues especially the Ottis Castle because I've never heard of that one.
 
Ashley your pictures were gorgeous at the Government House and that is one of our favorities so far.  Thanks for sharing all of the details, it really helps!

We are going to view venues in two weeks so fingers crossed, we'll fall in love with one.

Thanks again ladies.

KappaUCF20

Thanks for the compliment .  Let us know what you decide!

jessa1226

Good Luck and have fun there are many places to get married there. Take care!

AlysonParker07

We're getting married this October at Laterra Resort and having our reception at Casa Monica Hotel. We're having about 200 guests so our options were really limited. Most of the options in st. augustine are for 100-120 guests but we love it so much there thankfully we found some great places. I've heard great things about  A1A ale works and Amici fo receptions though as well. good luck!

meganc182

We're getting married at The Oldest House and reception at The White Room....The Oldest House is very affordable....The White Room is kind of expensive but it's really nice and the food is AMAZING!

jokennedy

We're getting married at the Hilton Historic Bayfront Hotel.  It's a cluster of historic buildings.  Their pricing is much more reasonable (surprisingly) than alot of the other venues in St. Augustine.  White Room will run you around $60 and up per person plus $1000 for ceremony.  Oldest House is really pretty but also kind of pricey.  Of course, Casa Monica is beautiful but very expensive.  You can also get married at Lightner Museum - rent the whole museum for $10,000 or you can opt one of their packages to have your ceremony only there at the bridge.  We asked about having our ceremony in the front gardens in front of the fountain.  They said that is owned by the City and the changes of them agreeing to that were pretty slim, because it's a public space.  We also looked into Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth gardens, but, as with many of the spaces in St. Augustine, we weren't thrilled with having to rent tables, chairs, tent, etc and go through all of that setup and tear down.  In the end, we went with the Hilton because, for the money, we're getting a great deal.  Our ceremony is going to be in their courtyard and the reception is in the ballroom that has a balcony overlooking the historic district.  If you call Chris or Melonie, they have alot of pricing options based on your budget.

erininjax

If you are looking for pricing information like I was when I started I will give it to you straight. You need to budget around $30,000 for a wedding in St. Augustine if you plan on having around 120 guests. That isn't just the reception or ceremony but invitations, dress, hair, makeup, decorations, wedding coordinator, food, cocktail hour, hotel room for your stay on Friday and Saturday night, rehearsal dinner, shoes, veil, alterations, attendants gifts, favors for your guests, cake, flowers and much MUCH MUCH more!!! lol

I look at the cost like I due investing. This is an investment in my future and will be split over a 30 or hopefully 40 period of time while I am married to this same man for many years.

My Best-

richa4

We are interested in getting married at the Castle Otttis but there is next to no information online regarding the venue.  I saw one other couple was planning on getting married there in Oct and hoping to get info from them or anyone else who has pricing info etc.  We live in Clearwater, FL and is quite a drive for us so I dont want to waste our time if it is out of our budget range.

Thanks

Colowedding2009

Does anyone know what you need to get married on the beach?