Venue Vs. Event Home
Ok ladies. Kel showed FMIL our wedding binder today. Well, needless to say FMIL saw the prices for Whalehead Club and Sanderling and I guess had a near "heart attack"(not literally). Also, Friday Kel had said to me, "what happens when we are on vacation and visit these venues if we don't fall in love with any of them? We have nothing to fall back on." So we started talking and need that "fallback" plan. So I think we want to have the option of some various event homes(even though I think when all would be said and done, those could be just as much, if not more than a venue). Our guest list will be 40-45 people. Here's what I'm looking to get/find out:
#1. If you used an event home, what home and what realty company did you use?
#2. If you feel comfortable sharing, how much did home rental cost, and what do you expect to spend over and above the cost of the home rental? I.E. Caterer, chair/linen rentals, booze, etc.
#3. How much was your event home fee?
#4. Who did you have stay in your event house?
#5. How far in advance did you book the home?
I think that's about it. Also open to other venue suggestions from you as well. 108 Budleigh is ruled out. We have Janette's Pier on our "short list" to go with the above two venues as well, however I think it's a distant third and we haven't even visited it yet. I think the reason being is that for the amount of people that we would like to have, the room for the reception would totally overwhelm the amount of guests attending, and really look "out of place". Ultimately I think FMIL will go with whatever we decide on. We just need to fall in love with the place where we want to get married and have the reception.
Thanks in advance for your help brides!!!
Re: Venue Vs. Event Home
2. $15,000 home; Additional costs were around 25-30K
3. The event fee was included for the week we got married.
4. My husband and I spent the first night and the wedding night in the house by ourselves. I had the mom's and bridesmaids stay with me the night before the wedding. Then the day after the wedding my family moved in and we stayed the remaining part of the week together.
5. I think we booked the house 10 months out. Which we did not have many options because most of the weeks were already booked. I would try to book a year out if you can.
I really loved having the wedding at an event home. You have a lot of options with an event home. When you go to visit venues also pick a couple homes and try to get in them. It will be a little more difficult because there may be renters in them. Good luck with your planning!
#2. The house has 8 bdrms, cost about $5000 for the week before memorial day. Catering, tent rental, booze cake, tables, etc for 125 guests (the capactiy of the house) will be approximately $10000.
#3. Event home fee = $1000
#4. We're still working out the details but we're first offering it to immediate family then going out from there. Some of the people will be paying for their rooms and some won't be (my parents are in charge of the house so I told them to do whatever they wanted). We're not even sure if the FI's parents or sister will be staying there.
#5. We booked in January 2011 for a May 2012 wedding after seeing the house at the wedding expo.
#2. If you feel comfortable sharing, how much did home rental cost, and what do you expect to spend over and above the cost of the home rental? I.E. Caterer, chair/linen rentals, booze, etc. Rental home base price was $2,895. Event fee was $1,000. Security deposit was $1,000, we got that back. With taxes, insurance, and admin fees total was $4,900 for the week not including the security deposit. Total cost of the wedding cost around 12k. We could have done it cheaper if we would have cut some things but we didn't want to.
#3. How much was your event home fee? $1,000
#4. Who did you have stay in your event house? The entire bridal party stayed with us plus my mom and her cousin. It was an 8 bedroom house plus a loft.
#5. How far in advance did you book the home? I had it booked one year in advance. I worked with the event coordinator at the realty office and she had it reserved for me shortly after 5pm on Tuesday, the renters that were in it that year had until 5pm Tuesday to reserve it for the next. She was on the ball.
We had 45 people total.
Hatteras, North Carolina
UPDATED 11/05/10 Lots of Wedding PICS!
UPDATED 07/28/10 My Planning Bio
So, we decided to have our ceremony at the Corolla Chapel (cost is around $600, we are using our own officiant, but the minister there will also do it for a fee). The Whalehead club is super close, so we are planning on having pics there after the ceremony.
Our reception is going to be at the Kitty Hawk Pier House.
I know its not exactly the info you were asking for - but wanted to know that there was another option to the Whalehead Club.
Or Pelican's Landing?
#1. If you used an event home, what home and what realty company did you use? Tequila Sunrise w/ Village Realty- 7 bdrm, private pool and hottub, oceanfromt
#2. If you feel comfortable sharing, how much did home rental cost, and what do you expect to spend over and above the cost of the home rental? I.E. Caterer, chair/linen rentals, booze, etc. Sec. Deposit $100, which we can get back assuming no damages, Event Fee $1500. Base Price for Rental $3100(which may be high, parents are in charge of this) Other rentals are about $200-$300. We are buying our own alcohol but hired a bartender through the caterer for $150. Our caterer also provides all the plates and silverware needed!! Thank god!!
#3. How much was your event home fee? $1500
#4. Who did you have stay in your event house? US, my family-parents, aunts, cousins, grandparents, siblings - some are paying for their stay to help off-set some of the cost.
#5. How far in advance did you book the home? We booked about 7 months in advance.
Someone else suggested this and I would too..but when visiting venues, choose a few event homes too. Village Realty, let FI and I check out our home when we took a trip down their in May. We went between guests, while they were cleaning!
@Kr yeah, we were planning on doing that, checking out some homes. Thanks for the suggestion!
#2. If you feel comfortable sharing, how much did home rental cost, and what do you expect to spend over and above the cost of the home rental? I.E. Caterer, chair/linen rentals, booze, etc. It's $4,700 for Friday - Sunday, $500 for extra nights (we're doing Thursday - Monday so $5,700) That includes the house rental, tables, benches for beach ceremony, dishesware, dancefloor. We are looking at doing their Family Feast catering menu so that starts at $10/person. You provide the alcohol. We will have to pay for linens, chairs, and tent.
#3. How much was your event home fee? No additional event fee!
#4. Who did you have stay in your event house? Not decided yet. It sleeps 10.
#5. How far in advance did you book the home? Almost exactly a year out.
I really love our venue. We will be having about 3X the guest list as you are, but I feel like Pelican's Landing would work well with both small and large guest lists.
Cons -- parking is about a block away (public beach parking lots about a block north and a block south).
- The closest and most economical choice as far as lodging for guests is to rent vacation homes in the neighborhood ... not sure if any of those houses are going to allow partial week rentals because we haven't gotten that far. The closest hotels are not super close considering the next and last con...
- Because it's in Corolla, if you haven't been up that way, it's on a two-lane road up to the northern beaches. This can mean slow traffic getting there.
#2. It's about $3000 not including the $1000 event fee and $1000 refundable sec. deposit. Wedding party is chipping in about $100/person since they won't have to pay for a hotel, which helps us a ton. We're using Ocean Atlantic Rentals and only spent about $600 (there's a ton at the house already as far as tables/chairs go). Catering is about $28/person and we're going to buy the booze ourselves once we're down there, so not sure on that part.
#4. Our house is hosting the wedding party & their significant others and our immediate families. My mom's family got a near by house as well as a group of family friends, which they're thrilled about (far less expensive than hotel rooms).
#5. Our engagement will only be 8 months, and I think we booked it about 6 or 7 months in advance. We had limited selection, mostly because we needed a large house, event home, AND pet friendly. As far in advance as possible is always good, though!
...sorry, long answers! Overall we're super happy with the event home, because it's very budget-friendly, and the exact vibe we're going for. We have a ton of friends/family willing to help. I do feel like it's a lot of DIY, so if you want to be more hands-off and relaxing, I recommend an event coordinator, or a venue.
take a look at some options! http://www.twiddy.com/advanced-search.aspx
(I also don't recommend the 4x4 even though there's beautiful homes up there; very hard to get to, though, and incurrs a lot of extra fees from vendors)