YIKES! Please Help!

ChrisAngel!

Hello Ladies!! Well I've been engaged for 2 weeks and I am already ready to toss in the hat and elope to Vegas! lol. Not quite, but I am an out-of-stater trying to find a reasonable venue for a wedding ceremony and reception. My Fiance is from Parkville, MO and the bulk of the wedding guests will be from his side, so we decided on Kansas City for the wedding location. Problem is, I live in Dallas and will pretty much have to rely on y'all because I am going to book the venue "sight-unseen" for the most part. I've already called on some venues and I am amazed at how fast these places book up! I don't have my heart set on a specific date... sometime in Sept or Oct would be awesome though! Here's the catch... I'd really like to have a Saturday Wedding since my friends and family are located in Dallas/California and will have to fly in for the event. His family is huge so we are looking at 125-150 guests. We are on a bugdet of just under 15k, so the venue must be affordable. I'd rather spend little to nothing on the venue and splurge on food, alcohol, DJ, decrations, etc. I am open to any ideas, suggestions, advice, etc!

arcampbell

Congratulations!I have a few ceremony/reception venues for you to look into.  Of course I don't know what your style is so I tried to think some different places.  The Loretto is an old church that also has a reception place - it is downtown.  So is the Sawyer Room and the Hobbs building both of which seemed great to me.  I have also heard great things about the Hawthorne House in Missouri.  I don't know pricing for any of these but I do know that sometimes when the setting is stunning you don't need much decor.  Happy searching!

caroljg2001

15k is our budget too...The Loretto is way above that.We are using The Villa Kansas City (website: www.villakc.com) for both the ceremony and reception.  It is located between the Plaza and Westport, and the size is perfect for your guest list.Good luck!

Tarana_b

I would suggest the Hawthorne House or Loose Mansion.  I'm not certian of the cost with Hawthorne House, but we are getting married at Loose Mansion and you can have both your ceremony and reception there.  Also, it is a full service venue which helps to cut down on cost.  Another nice thing is that Loose Mansion requires very little floral because the Mansion alone is a show piece.  Good luck!

vallsass

I was going to suggest hawthorne house as well. It is just gorgeous, has a chapel and reception space on site. It might be a little pricey, but as pp said... it is a full service place, so there is a lot of upfront cost, but it usually ends up being a better deal in the end than working with lots of different vendors.

erinmarie2831

I want to clarify -- is $15,000 the budget for your entire wedding, or just for a venue?If that is the budget for your entire wedding, I think most of the venues mentioned in previous posts will break your budget. I've pretty much looked into them all. With the exception of The Villa, I calculated costs for every one of them -- just for venue, catering and bar -- at more than $10,000 (I was estimating 150 people).  Although Hawthorne House would be convenient and beautiful, they have a minimum of at least 200 adults guests for Saturday weddings (or you pay the difference), which was a deal-breaker for us. I would recommend looking into The Villa, though. It would fit better into at $15,000 budget.If that is your budget for just the venue, then you should definitely check out some of the venues already mentioned. Most should be able to stay under that number. And they all would require little additional decoration -- they have character and beauty as is.

amandap85

Check out the Vox Theatre & Studio 2131.  Both of those should fit into your budget & the owners are great.  We went with The Vox because our event is big, but Studio 2131 is very cool too!  You could have your ceremony & reception both at either of these locations.  Good luck!

ChrisAngel!

Ladies, Thank you sooooo much! I can't explain what a huge help you are/have been with venue ideas. I will probably call on all of them just to see what the various prices are. The Villa sounds like an ideal location. My Finace loves the Westport area! And Ms ErinMarie, in answer to your question... our entire wedding budget is 15k. If only we had 15k to burn on a venue... I wish! lol. Thanks again for your input. Y'all have fabulous ideas and sounds like all will have absolutely beautiful weddings!

erinmarie2831

I thought of another place to recommend -- Californos in Westport (since your fiance likes the area). It is a restaurant but they have a back part for private parties and access to an outdoor patio area as well. It is a pretty neat building -- I think it was a trolley station back in the day.  Anyway, I've read some very good reviews, and I really liked the woman, Eve, who coordinates everything. They charge a certain amount per person (I think it was around $50) and that includes the space; tables, linens, etc; food; alcohol; and so on. Also, if you are interested, I have information on many of the places discussed here that I can easily forward to you if that will help. Just let me know.

caroljg2001

We looked at Californo's also and it was a great venue--we loved their price structure.  We decided against it because it was a little too "urban loft" for what we were looking for (not that there's anything wrong with that!) and parking, lots of steps to get in...we will have lots of older guests and didn't want to risk the years of complaining about how far they had to walk, etc.

ChrisAngel!

Hello ladies!  So I wanted to give y'all an update on our ceremony-reception venue search... we are heading waaayyy North and decided to do it in Platte City.  His mom was able to find a cute, yet historic non-denominational church called First Christian Church and the reception is going to be at the Seven Bridges Clubhouse.  Everything will be DIY, so we can attempt to keep the entire wedding under 15k.Thanks for your help!

Cuppy Cakes 09

I would say Hawthorne House...I am a bit partial though since that is where I am getting married.  I found very quickly how easy it is for the budget and guest list to get out of hand.  I talked to my mom and she was more than willing to help me out a lot (my original budget was 15k as well).  I figured we are only doing this once and might as well splurge a bit to have the wedding of our dreams.  Hawthorne House has absolutely everything...catering, bar, DJ, and wedding coordinator.  But like everyone else said a bit pricey...well worth it though. 

Another place you may consider would be The Elms in Excelsior Springs.  They may be a bit more affordable and pretty much do it all as well.