Outdoor Ceremonies?

Re: Outdoor Ceremonies?

• fickrj5

  

  April 2010 edited December 2011

  We looked into the Inn on Peaks Island it was very pretty and they have a tent on site, all of thier weddings are organized by city side events located at the landing in Scarborough. 
  It depends on the price of the church but generally tents are more expensive, but you would want to compare the tent to the reception location if you were to do the church.  You can also look into places that have an outdoor ceremony site with an indoor reception area, that will cut out the enire cost of the tent. 
  We are not reserving a church,  we are using our reception area for a backup, that way our guests will still be going to the same location if there is rain.
  Personally, I think that an outdoor ceremony will be a lot less hassle, and you won't have to decorate as much, because out door locations tend to be very beautiful all on their own. 
  
  Good Luck!
  

  
  
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• brownb

  

  April 2010 edited December 2011

  Hi, I don't know of any outdoor locations in the Portland area but I can tell you that more than likely a tent would be more expensive than the church. We are having a tented reception and I'm looking into booking a tent in case it rains for the ceremony and just the ceremony tent is another $950 (the tent will seat 169 people with room for the ceremony at one end) plus the cost of chairs which is between $1.50 and $4.00 a piece. These are the prices that I have from a central Maine tent rental company and when I checked prices the closer I got to Portland the more expensive it was. Good luck with your search...it is definitely less worrying to just go with a church but do whatever will make you the happiest :-)

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• MiniMin20

  

  April 2010 edited December 2011

  My aunt and uncle got married on Peaks Island at the Lions Club, and it was really pretty. SMCC has outdoor ceremonies nearFort Preble, but it costs a whopping $600. You could also check out Bug Light Park in South Portland, and Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth. Fort Williams charges $75 to use their grounds, but since it's public, you could have people walking by or watching. Some of the public places limit the number of chairs you can put out, though. http://www.capeelizabeth.com/tFort.html
  
  Here's a link with other outdoor wedding sites: http://gonewengland.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&zTi=1&sdn=gonewengland&cdn=travel&tm=27&f=10&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//outdoorweddingguide.com/maineoutdoorweddings.html
  
  Renting chairs is cheap -- you can get them for $1 apiece. But you would probably save money by booking another location as a rain backup instead of paying for the tent. I know that the Saltwater Grille in South Portland allows people to book their event room as a rain backup, but I'm not sure how much it costs.
  
  Do you have a reception location? As pp said, the most economical way is probably to find a place that will host the ceremony and reception, and provide a backup rain location for little or no cost. Probably a lot of the venues that have outdoor ceremonies, like SMCC, for instance, charge a good chunk of change for their space, so if you're not into a public location, it might be tricky to find an outdoor spot. But I'm not very familiar with the Portland area.
  
  Other things to think about for outdoor ceremonies -- music and sound. If you're having a ceremony musician, you want to make sure it's an instrument whose sound will carry well and won't just blow away in the wind (no harps!). If you want to have a DJ or do music yourself with a computer, you'll need electricity for the speakers, more than likely. Also, if you have a lot of people or are in a public place where there could be other noises, you might need to be miked, which means renting that kind of equipment.
  

  
  

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• bethanyasquith

  

  May 2010 edited December 2011

  I'm getting married on Pine Point Beach.  The licence costs $100, and if you are willing to get married at 6, you can use the parking at Hurd Park for free and put as many chairs on the beach as you would like.  However, I'm a bit stubborn and am keeping to my 4:30 timeline, so I can only have about 50 chairs and my guests are parking at the Pine Point Co-Op and I'm using a trolley to shuttle them to the beach location.  Again, public location so I could get a few nice speedos in my pictures, but I'm not too worried.  It's part of the charm:)

  

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