Rising Sun Venues? Plumpton Park??

KPBM89

This is my first post in the community!  So HI EVERYONE!!!!

A little tiny back story to share...

Fiance and I have been together since November 2007 and engaged since April 2013.  He's from Connecticut and I'm from Maryland, but we met in MD and would love to have our wedding close to all of my family.  We moved together in May to Georgia (we love it!!!! but I've always wanted my wedding at home) and have been trying to find a venue for our wedding ever since!  We have a VERY LOW budget since we bought our house and everything to fill it with and I'm not making as much money as I did before.

Our first choice was the Tea Barn (I've been watching the community for a while and saw many posts about it), but apparently it's become insanely popular and is completely booked.  Also, you MUST be there in person on a Monday to book and they have certain other restrictions in order to reserve your date.  Essentially, they aren't willing to work with us being out of state so it's become IMPOSSIBLE for us to book them.  We love DIY everything and would love to find a venue similar to the Tea Barn-low budget, you do everything yourself, outdoor and indoor area.  

We found out recently that Plumpton Park Zoo is renting out for weddings, which would be perfect for us!  We both loooovvveee zoos and aquariums and Plumpton Park is one of our favorites!  The problem, however, is that the person they told us to contact hasn't answered our calls!  We called the zoo itself about a month ago and they referred us to a different phone number for booking weddings.  This person, however, NEVER answers their phone, despite us leaving several voicemails.  We've called them at least twice a week and are really starting to believe this person will never answer.

Has anyone had their wedding at Plumpton Park Zoo?  If so, we're trying to figure out more details about renting, the costs, the rules...that kind of stuff.  We'd LOVE to use them as our venue, but we want to make sure they're within our budget and that we'll be able to work with them.  Also, if you have, who did you speak with???

If anyone has a suggestion for a different venue for us in Cecil County, we'd love advice!  

-Low budget

-DIY

-Outdoor/Indoor 

-In Cecil County or within 30 minutes drive

Thank you in advance!

KPBM89

An update for anyone who's interested in having a wedding at the Plumpton Park Zoo:

We visited back home for the weekend for a friend's wedding (not at the zoo, but in Emmitsburg), and while we were there we went to PPZ.  Prior to this, I finally decided to go to the "Contact Us" page on Plumpton Park's website and explained how frustrated I was at this woman never answering us.  She e-mailed me back (apparently she can use her iPad but hasn't grasped the concept of picking up her phone) and claimed she never had any calls from us!  Total BS (I was literally sitting with my fiance when he made several calls to her and left voicemails and his phone shows us calling multiple times from his cell, PLUS he called several times from work)... So after she lied to me and claimed we never called her, she told me that she would e-mail me a wedding brochure when she got to her office later (which also obviously never happened).  So instead of constantly waiting, we went to the zoo a few days later while we were visiting home (yeah, totally how I wanted to spend my time with my family and friends...) and picked up the brochure in person (not from her of course, but from one of the admissions girls).

And by the way we WON'T be booking the zoo.  It's a real shame because we both honestly LOVE the zoo.

Here's the details for those who are curious:
-Weddings can be scheduled on Friday or Saturday nights from either 5-10pm or 6-11pm
-If doing your vows there, the bridal party gets access to the "Old Mill" as a staging area until the wedding begins
-Decorations may be put up the day before, as long as you coordinate with the event coordinator
-All vendors must also coordinate with the EC prior to delivery
-They have an exclusive EC (we never spoke with this person so we don't know how they operate)
-Can accommodate approx. 100 guests
-Certain things can't be brought in because of the animals (balloons, pets...I can let you know the list they give if you really want)
-Free Parking
-They have an exclusive caterer that you MUST use
-Fees: ceremony + reception= $1200, reception only= $900, ceremony only= $350
-They do not provide anything for you except the grounds (you have to rent all tables, chairs, tents, lighting, electric)

I hope this helps for anyone who was interested in having a Plumpton Park Zoo wedding.  Unfortunately, WE had a terrible experience with this woman, but I figured I'd share their info for others.  Maybe your experiences would prove much better.  We were never answered, accused of lying, and never sent information like we were told.  We found the woman to be completely unresponsive, unreliable, and unprofessional.  We will still continue to visit the zoo in the future for the wonderful animals (especially Jimmie!), as the zoo itself is AMAZING, we just will never book an event there.