Low Cost, Low Stress Wedding Venue

zae430

I just got engaged and this would be my second marriage. I'm looking for ideas for a low cost, low stress wedding venue for the ceremony and the reception. I'd like somewhere as all-inclusive as possible. I would love to just elope to a beautiful beach somewhere, but my fiance has 3 children and we both would really like them to be there, and it'd be too expensive to fly them for a destination wedding. Also, we'd both like our immediate family to be there. He did a Justice of the Peace civil ceremony when we was 19 on an Army barracks and no one was there. I'm open to ideas. I'm not set at all on it being in or around Houston. Please help! 

Peledreamsofrain

The moment you say 'all inclusive' you can toss low cost out the window.

A public park is very low cost, but you usually get a lot of restrictions, and it's not all inclusive.

JMalettas

 All inclusive is generally available in tropical style destinations only. (Like where your food, liquor, accommodations, transportation etc, would be included). Now, depending on how old your FI's children are, there are certain resorts that offer "children under 12 stay for free." So you'd basically just have to pay for their flights and possibly their meal plan. (Which may still be $$, but cheaper than a full priced ticket, & would depend on what your actual budget is). 

 As far as a "plan b" might go, I agree, that a park venue may be a great idea! 'Some' parks will allow you to have your ceremony free of charge, but you'd have to research into which ones are okay with this. (I know there's a few in the area I live). You definitely won't find anything 'all inclusive' with this option though. Or any park option for that matter. Do you have the option of having a backyard reception? There's definitely ways to cut corners depending on what you have your heart set on. You could do a lower key reception with someone bbq-ing for you, or prior to your ceremony make up veggie trays, fruit trays, sandwich trays, bread and dips, etc. Things that you can make on a budget, as well as prior to your reception. All things that will stay fresh and ready in the fridge, and are easy to pull out & serve. Liquor wise, it's cheaper to make your own wine from a wine kit place. You could offer that & beer maybe? (You will need some sort of liquor license though if you were to serve this in any public place other than your home). Just a couple other options you could potentially look in to!

 Good luck to you! I hope this gives you a couple of ideas! 

 *J

zae430

Thank you so much for the ideas!

NOLAbridealmost

It sounds like a restaurant's private room might be the way to go.  If you're in Houston and willing to travel, I'd look into Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans. They have GORGEOUS private rooms in a wide variety of sizes (could fit anywhere from 10 to 100s of people) and each one has a different theme.  The rooms are large enough that you could have the ceremony in there as well with a separate area for chairs and an altar.  You could even have one of the rooms with a balcony overlooking the French Quarter and have the ceremony outside.  They'll take care of everything if you want flowers, etc. brought in. While the menu prices are a bit steep (it's fine dining), they don't charge a fee to use most of the private rooms. 

Check out the website.   You could drive here with the kids and stay in a hotel in the French Quarter and make a weekend of it. http://www.antoines.com/gallery.html