outdoor reception help

smarks8

does anyone know a good place for an outdoor reception? i want to get married at the lakeside rose garden in fort wayne in but i would also like the reception to outdoors and nearby. any ideas? also im on a budget so itd be great to find a place that doesnt make you buy catering, im just going with cake & punch. thanks!

maratea

You could use one of the covered pavilions at a city park. Those are relatively inexpensive and they will allow you to bring food.

Here is the link to the city parks page:
http://www.fortwayneparks.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=137:pavilions&layout=blog&Itemid=421

AmandaFay1

I was just catering a lovely reception at Miller Beach in Gary. Yeah Gary isn't the loveliest of places in the world, but the Aquatorium and surrounding beach is a beautiful lakefront location for the perfect wedding reception. 

Monolayth3

I second their pavillions. My wedding was at foster park bridal glen and I used their pavillion 1. They are cheap and beautiful.

smarks8

thanks! I was looking at the pavillions today online, i will have between 100-200 people at the reception so i was looking for one with a larger capacity, also were they strict on decor or anything? Was there room for dancing?

csm6144

If you were willing to go down to Indy, Avon Gardens is awesome. I know that is a drive, but it is worth it.

lindenheart

just an fyi on the lakeside rose garden - I was at a wedding there last summer and they only had 75 chairs set up and a lot of people had to stand. I overheard someone say that this was the max number of chairs they were allowed to have set up. It really sucked for the people standing. if you are looking at inviting 100-200 people, you probably need to look into this.

Monolayth3

The rose garden while beautiful does have a scrict limit o the number of chairs you can put up. I used foster park bridal glen and it was just as beautiful. I like how it was secluded and quiet, like I was in a fairy tale. I thinkt he busy street at one end of lakeside park would be too distracting. Also how to do your big entrance baffled me. I have heard that people would pull up a car and hold up traffic for the bride to get out but who looks ladylike getting out of a car?

I did standing room only at my ceremony and it had plenty of room and I choose a short ceremony.

I felt I did not really need decorations for the pavillion I used as it was beautiful to begin with. I liked that there was a huge playground very close by so that the kids could go play and there was ample parking.

Foster park pavillion 1 has a lot of picinic tables that are bolted to the floor. It has a clear center aisle which was my b plan in case of rain to have the ceremony there. There is also a lot of space for dancing. And a full and big kitchen if you need it.

We did our own careting and bought food at GFC. Saved us a ton of money and the food was great. I also used nutcracker sweet shop for my cake. Best prices in town and great cake. I did like Courtneys bakery speicfically for their lime cake. But they wanted 300 for what nutcracker wanted 150 for.

I bought bulk roses from scotts gorcery store and make my own flower arangments. Was very afforidable.

Antoher thing to keep in mind is they do not like djs or bands in their pavillions. We were going to use and ipod and dock, tested it and it sounded beautifully, but by the time my reception started the weather took a cold snap and people wanted to eat and go including me. So we skipped music or dancing.

You can see pictures here (Clicky!)

Also a good idea, Lasalle B&B has great guestrooms at VERY cheap prices. That is where everyone stayed at for my wedding.

Hope this helps.