Alternative Venues on a Budget?

ChristineNB

Hi, me and my partner Andy recently got engaged.  We live in DC, but are both originally from Pittsburgh, so I am in the process of planning a Pittsburgh wedding.  Sometime in the next month or so we hope to drive up and start looking for a potential venue.  However, I know we have some demands that might be hard to meet.  It needs to be alternative (ie not looking for a church or religious wedding), affordable (hopefully under $1,000), capable of holding around 150 people, and preferably will allow an outside caterer. 

I have been looking on-line and trying to google places but am not finding alot.  The nice places we have found that might fit our need will not allow an outside caterer.  Can this be done?

Miss Tattoo

You have to be creative and open to a lot of things. We had to be because every venue here that seems like a good deal ends up being super expensive because they force you to use their caterer. We looked at The Great Hall because it was beautiful and didn't have a site rental fee. Well, then we found out that you have to use one of their outside caterers that charged $50/person. 

We are using a fire hall. I was shocked to find out that they are hiding a ballroom inside of their station. And it's only $400. My friend had her wedding at the VFW in Coraopolis and before she fixed it up it looked blah. But since she saved so much money on the rental fee (I believe $150) she had money to decorate and she transformed the place to look like a David Tutera wedding. 

chrayme

My fiance and I are on a pretty tight budget so we were looking for a cheap venue too. I have lots of places for you where you can bring in a caterer. We looked at a lot of Community buildings which is a good idea for budget weddings. Were getting married in Blueberry Hill activity Center in Franklin Park. The venue is 450 and were getting the gazebo for the ceremony which is right next to it for 75. The website is 

http://www.franklinparkborough.us/rentals/activitycenter.html

another place we looked at was North Park Lodge in north park. That place is super weird about booking it but its big. The Hampton Community Center was big and nice! Its a little more expensive, but nice and holds lots of people. Another place we looked at was Cooper Hall in Saxonburg. You get it for the whole weekend, and you get the whole park for the price (gazebo included for ceremony). I know there is a gazebo in Butler that holds like 200 people which I think is a great idea for an outdoor ceremony. Its in a park, we never looked at it but people recommended it to me. 

Hope this helps! 

ChristineNB

Thanks for the ideas so far.  I really like the idea of the parks with the gazeboo (we have thought about a park in the Northside which has a bridge over a creek).