Having some trouble finding Officiants & Locations

wicked_faery

I'm on a REALLY Tight budget! My whole wedding can only cost $5,000.

For a location I want something outside w/ a natural setting. Flowers & trees & possibly a water feature...

for an Officiant I need someone who does Non-Denom or Interfaith (christianity not involved)

chels131

Where are you looking to have the ceremony?  How many people do you plan on inviting?  I am also on a fairly tight budget and searched all over the place for officiants and a location.  If you give me an idea of the area you want (northern vs southern DE) I can probably give you a few links to places I've looked at.  My search was mainly focused in Sussex County, DE.  Let me know if I can help! 

veganbunny

Natalie from Soul Mates would be your PERFECT officiant!  She is who my Fiance and I are using.  She is about $300 but it depends on what ceremony you want.  She is also really nice.

http://www.soulmatesceremonies.com/

Also...I wanted a small budget too but its not my reality.  BUT you can do it as long ans you expect something more like a BBQ type party.

 For location look into parks.  I looked into Brandywine State Park, they have a pavilion which is near a volleyball net and fields and trails through the woods.  There is another area IN the woods with a little wooden stage type thing and wooden benches (for ceremony) also near a field where I really want to have my ceremony.  The would'nt rent it to my on my day tho, so I had to go with another venue.  

My venue is Rockwood Park.  Ceremony outdoors in a field for $250.  Reception inside Carriage House for $1500 just to rent the space.  Its beatiful inside, wood floors, stone walls, light green barn doors.  If it rains our ceremony rain plan is upstairs there in the Carriage House. But we have to use thier catering which is about $50pp so that will be a lot of money.  If you do something like that, maybe one of your family members could pay for catering. 

If you arent renting any inside area, you will also want to think of a rain plan, you may need a big tent. tents can also be expensive (my tent quote for Winterthur was $7000 included kitchen and bathrooms though) but just rent one without a floor, without electricity hook ups, etc and hopefully your guest list is small so you wont need a big one.

I would tell you to expect all your money to go towards rental of tables, chairs, tent. Food. Decorations. Offiiciant. Rental of a park or venue.  Dress, rings, groom attire, etc.  It will add up fast.  Have guests take pics and video. Use ipod for music. 

Good luck and let us know how its going!  We're here to help!

wicked_faery

I live in Kent, so i can go either way. as for what i'm looking for in a venue, i don't right care too much. i'd love it to all be outside, but i can deal w/ inside as long as there's windows to see outside. Also somewhere full of flowers...if not flowers, at least trees & greenery.

my guest list is hopefully going to stay at or below 30 pp...(though i hate to cut people out)

@veganbunny - THANK YOU for the rockwood suggestion! they sounds perfect! & i think it'd be just inside our budget ^_^

as for officiants...300's a bit much but it doesn't look like we can get away from it...

luckily i'll be having a friend do my photography & possibly my FI's friend do DJ. so that'll help even it out a good bit.

veganbunny

Have you been to Rockwood Park?  Its a nice park.  You can walk dogs or walk or bike around on the trails.  I picked it because I want my ceremony in a field with no views of a parking lot, roads, etc.  There are trees surrounding the field.  And electrical outlets for music. 

Interior is $1,500 for my reception on a Friday night. But we have to use their catering, which he will work with you on price, $50 i think is average pp. So, for 30 people yours would be $1500. Then you also have to pay for tables, linens, china, waitstaff, bartender, and buy your own alcohol.  That adds up to a couple more thousand I think. It would round out to about $5000.  I would still recommend this because then it would be really nice, take care of a lot, and you would have an interior in case it rains.

If you could fit your rings, dress, his attire, flowers, decorations, etc into less than $1,000 (possible) then you wouldn't go over $7,000.  I know thats more than your budget, but it's one option without having a tent outside type thing.

wicked_faery

no i havn't. but i google mapped it. it looks really pretty.

luckily my FI is gonna just wear a suit he bought last year for my sister's wedding & I'm looking at a couple dresses online so far for only $300. As for rings, I work at a dept store so we'll be getting a discount on them. I'm going with a basic silver band (far cheaper than gold), & we're looking at tungsten for him (it's durable & it doesn't conduct electricity) (it's also slightly cheaper than gold). So hopefully both rings shouldn't cost more than $100.

MAMA41206

Check the delaware state parks website, they offer rentals of some of the parks and I think some of them have tents, etc.

A really cool place is St. Anthony in the Hills (its actually in PA though right over the DE line).  It's a huge park with pavillions.  Its $400 to rent the pavillion that has bathrooms, electricity, & tables i think

wicked_faery

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_delaware_having-trouble-finding-officiants-locations?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:77Discussion:eb75beda-a1db-4ad9-93ec-fa87713d4154Post:24338766-5562-454c-8d9a-fb791d35ebff">Re: Having some trouble finding Officiants & Locations</a>:
[QUOTE]Check the delaware state parks website, they offer rentals of some of the parks and I think some of them have tents, etc. A really cool place is St. Anthony in the Hills (its actually in PA though right over the DE line).  It's a huge park with pavillions.  Its $400 to rent the pavillion that has bathrooms, electricity, & tables i think
Posted by MAMA41206[/QUOTE]
thanks for the suggestion...but that place looks too religious for me...

i've been in touch with rockwood the past few days & because i'm planning on a wednesday wedding for so few people, they really took the prices down. so i think i'll be going with them.

now i just need to find an officiant that is hopefully under $200. Worst comes to worst i think we'll use Taya (she did my sister's wedding last year) but she's $200, & i didn't really feel that i connected ith her.. but her prices are better than others i've seen.

Donnalynn

I just wanted to throw out another recommendation for Natalie from Soulmates.  I think for a Wednesday wedding, she would be able to work with you on the price.  I used her for my wedding, and she was amazing.  I got so many compliments on my ceremony, and on her in particular.