Outdoor Venue HELP!

kacieeh4493

Newly engaged, and my fiance and I have two seperate ideas for our "dream" wedding, he wants relaxed no time limit and no one really bossing us around, me on the other hand not really that worried about that as long as I can be outside for the ceremony. Any ideas on where we can have this "extravaganza" as he likes to call it. Looking more for just a venue that we can supply our own caterer. Also any other advice would be wonderful.

Thanks in advance
Kacie

sgdc2011

Rutgers Gardens maybe?  Parks? VFW halls near a near? Most places are going to have a time limit.

JessicaLB2

At Rutgers Gardens, you can be there for 10 hours. 

ETA: I'd also look into parks and such.  I've been to catered parties at local parks over the years.  You'd just need to be certain of their rules concerning alcohol and music/noise.

uppereastgirl

How many people are you thinking of having, what is your budget per person, and how formal/traditional do you want the wedding to be?

Having it outdoors on a property that isn't yours (like a park) can be difficult for several reasons -- you may not be allowed to have amplified music, alcohol may be tricky, and while you may be able to have the party for a long time you'll likely have to leave when the park closes (typically at dusk, which is way earlier than night weddings end).  And if you want to have it be somewhat fancy, catering + rentals can get really expensive -- renting tables and plates and flatware and glasses and linens and tents and such really add up (so it would probably be cheaper to just go the wedding hall route).  Of course, if you're looking to have a bbq with paper plates and such it wouldn't be as expensive.

There aren't many wedding venues in NJ that are outdoors -- a lot are very typical halls and hotel ballrooms.  But if you're willing to go that route we can point you to more outdoorsy ones.  But number of guests and budget would be helpful to give you good suggestions.

Venues that only have one wedding a day should let you have a party for as long as you want.  Ours did -- we were told that even the night of, if we were having fun and didn't want it to end we could let it go for as long as we wanted (of course there was a cost involved).  Another thing to think of is that if your wedding is super long, you'll not only have to have a lot more alcohol, but things like DJ and photographer (if not unlimited hours) and such will cost more because they typically only include x hours in their packages.

A few friends from high school have had gorgeous backyard weddings recently and I've been drooling over the photos -- I love outdoor weddings.

 

Peacefield

What area of the state?

A friend of mine had their wedding at High Point State Park.  A beautiful setting.  You're at the mercy of the weather as the alternatives to move inside are not especially attractive.