Northshore wedding venue $20K and under for 200 guests?

Re: Northshore wedding venue $20K and under for 200 guests?

• jrich7686 member

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  Try DiBurro's in the Bradford/Haverhill area in Mass. It's in the Merrimack Valley, and they've been around forever and are very reasonable. $20k may be pushing it if your fiance wants an open bar all night-- if you're looking to cut down the costs, you could always open the bar for beer & wine only after your cocktail hours? I know DiBurro's has a cocktail hour included with either an open bar or cocktail fountain displays in a couple of their packages. They have things like margarita/daquiri stations for your guests during cocktail hour as well, so you could do that and then open beer/wine for the rest of the night. As for the groom's parents, it's definitely worth asking if they are able to contribute at all to the wedding -- just say you are working on budgeting and to figure it all out, you're wondering if they wanted to contribute? It may seem like an awkward convo, but its def one you may have to have... plus they'll probably be glad to help! Instead of asking for a specific amount, perhaps see if they can help with costs of transportation or honeymoon? (Traditional for many groom's parents to help out with.)
  
  Hope this helped! Here's a link to DiBurro's...
  http://www.diburros.com/

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• sboston06

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  I have no idea on prices but Topsfield Commons and Willowdale Estate are both in Topsfield, which is a dry town.  That means you can bring in your own liquor and save a bundle on that.  I'm not sure how much they charge though.

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• lnarey

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  I believe the Andover Country Club is very reasonable. 
  
  I got married at the Commons and I'm not sure you could do 200 guests for that price- also 200 is the MAX, so it would probably be too small a venue.  I know one of the venues (maybe it's Willowdale?) is tented so that might work. 
  
  Oceanview in Nahant is also very reasonable.  I know they have packages that include a ton!  There is also Angelica's (I think that's it) in Middleton.  I looked there, and the packages were very reasonable and included a lot.   The ballroom looked a bit dated to me, but they were talking about renovating. 
  
  I'll keep thinking, and I'm sure the girls will have great suggestions!

  12/12/2009

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• lnarey

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  Actually- I just re-read your post.  If 20K is you budget for just venue, food, and beverages the Common's would work.  I'm still not sure about the size, but I would definitely HIGHLY recommend checking them out!

  12/12/2009

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• SarahM718 member

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  Thank you ladies! Very helpful info.

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• DirtyWater

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  You have a PM Sarah

  Bio updated 9/15/12

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• SarahM718 member

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  Dirty Water - Sorry, I'm new here. What's a PM?

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• DirtyWater

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  It is a private message.  If you scroll up on the left side of the page there is a box with links that say Community Links.  Click on Private Message and you'll see my message.

  Bio updated 9/15/12

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• dmkane

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  Andover Country Club!
  
  We booked it for a friday night in june so that saved us a few $$ but we are around $15k with 5 hour open bar, 150 people. The grounds and the room are beautiful so that also cut down decorating costs

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• ebigelow member

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  I would definitely check out the Hellenic Center in Ipswich, Ipswich Country Club, Andover Country Club, The Commons (topsfield), and  Hamilton Hall in Salem (they let you  bring in your own liquor).  I got married at Turner Hill in Ipswich and loved it there...it may be doable on your budget if you do a non-saturday or off-season wedding.  Also, just as an fyi - our venue had 2 options for open bar,  $35/person or by consumption...we ended up doing by consumption, which was kind of risky, but really worked out in the long run - it only ended up being between $4-5k including tax and gratuity for a full open bar for 160 guests...if we had done it per person, it would have been $7k!  even if you think you have a lot of drinkers (we had a ton of friends who drink a lot), the older adults who only have a few tend to even it out more than you would think!  good luck!!!

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• megandjay member

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  I don't have a place to recommend, but consider a Friday night wedding. You might be able to negotiate with ALL of your vendors for better prices- most of the venues I checked out offered like 15% discount for Friday nights. Also I think the formula is that the venue should be about 50% of the total cost. Although I think you can negotiate with other vendors more, and change that %. Try to price out other stuff too, so that your budget is accurate.
  
  GL!

  ~For Sale~

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• LisaMarshall

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  That's exactly the issue I was running into when I was venue searching. Alcohol prices ended up being the biggest enemy. We looked at every venue west of Boston and mainly around the northeast area of MA coast. We chose Glen Magna Farms because it holds 200 people and you "bring your own alcohol" which is going to cost us $5-7 per person compared to $35+ which makes a huggee difference with 200 guests.  We are getting our alcohol from Gordans liquors and it is being served through our caterer. Whatever alcohol we dont use we send back and get our money back which is also nice. We also got to chose all our vendors, caterer etc so we were able to find cheaper options on a lot of things compared to a package deal where all the prices are inflated. Our wedding is going to be over $20K basically because it is really hard to feed 200 people for less than $15K but you could also opt for a cheaper menu than we chose, clam bake, bbq, hor douevres etc.
  
  I highly recommend checking it out www.glenmagnafarms.org
  
  Good luck on your search!
  

  Lisa & Chris September 3, 2011

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• erinr123

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  I got married on a Friday Night in January, which the winter and a Friday really helped my budget I got almost every single vendor for a discount ( without even asking ) I got married at the Tewksbury Country Club we had 125 people.

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• Sharkdiver1980

  

  September 2010 edited December 2011

  In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_massachusetts-boston_northshore-wedding-venue-20k-under-200-guests?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:89Discussion:cbf8e9d9-635e-436b-858b-5cc5190e4805Post:86c6bab0-a27e-4c51-aded-ae648cdefa76">Re: Northshore wedding venue $20K and under for 200 guests?</a>:
  [QUOTE]I believe the Andover Country Club is very reasonable.  I got married at the Commons and I'm not sure you could do 200 guests for that price- also 200 is the MAX, so it would probably be too small a venue.  I know one of the venues (maybe it's Willowdale?) is tented so that might work.  Oceanview in Nahant is also very reasonable.  I know they have packages that include a ton!  There is also Angelica's (I think that's it) in Middleton.  I looked there, and the packages were very reasonable and included a lot.   The ballroom looked a bit dated to me, but they were talking about renovating.  I'll keep thinking, and I'm sure the girls will have great suggestions!
  Posted by lnarey[/QUOTE]
  
  
  I second Andover cc and Angelica;s....I was considering both, but we decided it needed to be a little less North to accomodate all of our guests, so now we're at Nashawtuc cc in Conconrd, ma

  Mr. and Mrs. Sharkdiver!
  
  

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