Venue Dilemas

mlb5484

Okay ladies, I've still got a year and a half before my wedding but I'm a big planner. We went and checked out our first venue today. I liked it, it was very nice, the people were sweet and really assured us we would have nothing to worry about on our special day. However, we do have a budget, one that's probably on the low side ($10,000) and when our meeting came to an end we were told the cost would be around $8,000 to quote on the higher side. The quote includes the following:

$3-4k for set-up, clean-up, tent, linens, florals, glassware, cake, chairs, pa system....pretty much everything besides what I will tell you in a second

Then another $3-4k to pay herself and employees

What this does not include is our DJ, caterer, bartender, my dress, accessories, my fiances suit, our childrens outits, limo, photographer, bass player for ceremony, invitations, thank yous, save the dates, gifts.

Adding everything in my head, if we were to choose this venue I can see it totalling somewhere around $15,000 and thats just not what we want to spend. So, here is where I need your advice. I want to find a place where we can have our ceremony and reception with an outdoor ceremony and possibility of outdoor reception as well. Do you ladies have any suggestions? It's a must that we stay within budget but I still want us to have the wedding we ae dreaming about.

If you read this far thank you so much!

hcorr34

Do you mind telling us where you went today?  And are you looking in a specific area?

Southern Maine Community College in South Portland controls the area around Spring Point Light House and has a number of different options for weddings. 
http://smccme.edu/business-community/conferences-special-events/
They partner with Black Tie Company for catering if you want to have the reception outside but you can also work with the college to reserve the dining hall and bring in your own caterer.

I have no idea what they charge (beyond $500 for the ceremony on the bunker) but when I inquired back in October, the guy in charge got back to me very quickly with information.

mlb5484

Thank you for your reply! The place we looked at today was called A Highlanders Garden, right in Saco. Gorgeous place and if money werent a determining factor we would have gone for it. My fiance was all for it and maybe we can talk prices with them again but we are going to look around more first. As far as SMCC, the area u are speaking about is a place we used to visit at night frequently at night. Unfortunetly, we dont favor the daytime view and the area is a little small (where the ceremony would be). I actually threw it out as an idea to him and he didnt like it. I have tried contacting Josephs By The Sea in Old Orchard Beach. Does anyone have experience with them? Theyre online photos look beautiful but they dont open until March 17th and it seems they will be unreachable until then. Im just so stuck. It seems impossible to have a nice wedding for under $10,000.

mlb5484

Oh and I was something within 20 mins to a half hour of Saco. I would prefer a water view but at the least a nice area with gardens or nice landscaping.

hcorr34

How many people for the 10K? 

I think it's very possible to have a nice wedding for under 10K...I'm only working on an 8K budget and I'm thrilled with how things are turning out.  I originally had my heart set on having our reception somewhere on the "water" side of Portland.  Unfortunately, I quickly realized that places over here (I live on the East End) with water views were going to be way beyond my budget.  My reception is going to be costing me somewhere around $4000 for approximately 110 people (that includes room rental, food, cocktail hour, service, set up, clean up, etc.).  I sacrificed location, but it will still have the same elegant feel that I wanted.  We are getting married at Fort Williams, so we still have the outside water view location that FI was really wanting. 

I'm not really famliar with places where you can have an outdoor ceremony and reception in the same place, and I'm really only familiar with the areas between Portland and Brunswick.  I remember seeing some country clubs that offered outdoor weddings, but I'm guessing they will be expensive too.  Possibly Sable Oaks in South Portland...if my memory is working properly.  Peaks Island?  DiMillos?  I know they all have outdoor/indoor options in the same place, but I know the price is up there.

Seeing as how you have quite a bit of time, I would honestly suggest removing some of your "must haves" and see what else is out there.  I think you will find that you can have a really nice wedding for 10K if you are a little more flexible with your criteria.  FI and I made a list of our must haves, what would be nice, and what we would be okay without.  After a long talk, we really narrowed down our must haves to two things - he wanted to be married outside and I wanted to have our reception at a hotel to accommodate a few of our eldery guests or guests with children (who are bringing baby sitters).  We also decided which vendors were the most important to us (I already had prices from my two priority vendors - DJ and Photographer) to make sure that we were incorporating their fees into what we could spend on the reception.  From my experience with watching a few friends plan their weddings, they more rigid they were, the more frustrated they became when things didn't line up like they wanted.

There are so many other ways to save money too so that you can put more money towards your reception.  I got my STDs free with shipping from VistaPrint.  My invitation kits cost me $40 total.  I'm doing my own flowers and saving a few hundred dollars over the cheapest florist I could find.  I also found that places that actually caterered the wedding themselves were cheaper than having to rent everything and hire a caterer, which became the final deciding factor for our reception venue choice.

amanda_robinson0717

how many people are you planning on inviting?? i have a few ideas but it depends on how many people your planning on having, also just an idea what kind of food are you looking for? is this going to be a casual wedding or formal wedding?

ivyrose13

The price of your first venue seems a bit crazy, we are expecting 150 people with a $10,000 budget. Ocean views were important to us as well, so we are having our ceremony at Fort Popham. The use of the space is free, and we have ocean surrounding us on all sides. I did have to sacrifice views for my reception, I could not find a reception venue that could fit everyone in the Bath/Brunswick area, but we were okay with that since our reception would be in the evening anyway. We opted to have our reception in a hotel and are paying $27/person for appetizers, dinner, champagne toast, cake cutting, set-up, tear-down, linens, etc. 

I would think outside the box, you can definitely get everything you want and still be within budget. 

mlb5484

You ladies are absolutely amazig! Thank u so much for ur responses and showing interest in helping me. Our guest list is currently at about 65 so were guessing about 75 when all is saidand done. We were originally planning to do two separate dinner options for our guest (steak and seafood option) but after speaking to my sister about her wedding plans, we decided to do simply hor dourves (sp?) to cut costs. I would say we want to have a more formal wedding with a touch of our own personalities in it. I can definetly do an outdoor ceremony/indoor reception with no disappointments. Our vision right now is a nice outdoor ceremony, then we want to take a celebratory motorcycle ride then head to the recption n dance n laugh then go out with the bridal party. Im getting my hopes up for josepha by the sea but so far no luck reaching them.

jwade1867

Regarding your question about Josephs by the sea in old orchard beach.  I emailed about a month ago and they were pretty quick to respond. The prices are definitely reasonable (starting at mid 20's pp i believe) but they only host weddings from noon to 4 and I am planning an evening wedding. My budget is actually less than yours for about 60 people so i can understand what you are going through. Hope this helps.  good luck.

mlb5484

When you contacted them, did you call or email them? I e-mailed twice, got a very short and vague response, replied to that and havent heard back since. Kind of disappointed about that. But I cant get over how much I lke theyre website and photos.

jwade1867

I had emailed and once they confirmed that they only did weddings during the afternoon I didn't continue emailing. I can check my email to see if I still have the information from them. did they send you anything yet or just answer questions you had?

mlb5484

She just answered a question and told me they dont open until March, as if to say she wouldnt give me info until then.

fickrj5

We have the same budget as you, and no matter what... stick to your budget!

We searched for months before we found our venue and it's perfect!  Just keep looking!  I am not very familiar with that area of Maine, but we are getting married at a lakeside restaurant, you could look to see if there are any ocean view restaurants that do events.

mlb5484

Thank you and you are right, we will definetly sticking to it. We finally got in touch with Josephs by the Sea and have an appointment Saturday to go view it. I also got an e-mail today, we found our DJ. They are charging us $800 when the original quote was $900, so I'm pretty happy about that. :-) Let's hope things keep going in a positive direction for us. :-)

littlefieldmj

I was going to look at Highlanders Garden too, but I'm glad you saved me the time by posting their prices.  I'd e-mailed her and her vague reply made me think it'd be a little out of our price range (trying for $5-6K) and now I know it definitely is!  The pictures of their gardens are really pretty, but im surprised she's charging so much for her staff on top of the rentals.  Good luck with your search!!

cfsoccer3

MLB5485 who are you using for a dj?

mlb5484

Yes, she was very sweet but I honestly don't understand where she even pulled those prices from, they are outrageous. The ceremony site isn't even that big or what I was hoping for, I did like the land though.

I have hired greg powers agency for my DJ. He does great work (Ihave friends who used to go to his studio to record their music)