Alternatives to church ceremony

Our local aboretrum has a covered wedding site

You can check out the vendor tab on here for venues....tons of non-church options that provide ceremony space with indoor back up plan.

Most venues that offer outdoor weddings have (or should have) a weather back-up plan. I got married at a local garden and the ceremony was outdoors, but there were 2 areas on the property that we could have used if the weather didn't cooperate.

Almost all venues offer both an indoor and and outdoor ceremony space so that you can get married onsite and move immediately into a reception. I would talk to any venues you visit about the cost.

If not than check out local parks or gardens but be aware - if you go to a public park for the ceremony you may need a permit and you will need to rent chairs and any other decorations such as an arch

I browsed on WW for a while, got information from bridal expos, eventually I just googled "outdoor wedding ceremony sites in upstate NY" and voila! Granted our ceremony and reception are at the same venue, but it returned a ton of results.

Arboretums, botanical gardens, museums, nature center, park, zoo, beach, etc are just some of the few. Definitely make sure they have a back up plan THAT YOU LIkE as well so you're not stuck in some dingy room if it's raining and super stressed about it. Also make sure you look into ability to get there for your elderly guests (like if it's hard for them to walk to the ceremony spot), rentals, permits needed, etc. Its definitely doable, just takes more to thought. We got married in a nature center.

Search your local parks' pages, many of them have sites that are used for weddings.

Have you looked in to a hotel? We are getting married in the court yard of a hotel and there is a back of space in case of bad weather. Here is a couple pictures of the court yard ceremony space we are using.

Are you able to have the ceremony and reception at the same venue? You should ask your reception venue. I'm getting married at a winery, so check out your local wineries too.

Our reception is at an updated park lodge on a bay. The location isn't conducive for both the ceremony and reception.

We did a web search for "event venues" and "party venues" instead of "wedding venues " and found a lot more affordable and interesting options. We're getting married at a circus school, at a tiny fraction of the cost for the traditional venues we looked at.

You can search for chapels in the area. Usually universities can rent them to you

Where are you?

If you already have a reception venue then you just need to search for ceremony sites close by