Backyard wedding VS Venue

I was going to use a friend's property at first, but the cost and stress of planning it was overwhelming. I moved everything to a golf course club house and it's going to be so much cheaper. Look into golf course club houses. It might save you a lot.

It's true, a backyard wedding can be more expensive than a venue. This is what I always tell people about backyard weddings...

My husband and I had a backyard wedding at our home in 2015 It can be done! But things to keep in mind...

- It probably won't end up being much less expensive than a venue.

- You are responsible for EVERYTHING.... Tent, tables, chairs, linens, dinnerware, lighting, generators, bathrooms/restroom trailers, heat (very important!!!), fans/air conditioning (also very important! Heat/AC depends on time of year), etc.

- Make sure to determine good placement of everything... You don't want the guests to have to trek really far through the field/yard to get to the restroom... Also take into account the terrain and bumps (our yard looks flat, but it really had lots of bumps to it!).

- Catering/bartending is on you, so find reputable vendors.

- Make sure you have adequate and relatively close parking.

- People will want to go in your house (if the ceremony/reception is close by)! Make sure you are prepared to deal with that beforehand (do you care? If you want them to stay out, make sure to put a sign or other means up to let guests know).

- Hire a day-of coordinater! Ours was definitely one of the best expenses we had You just don't want to have to deal with guest questions the day of - and there will be plenty of little things that you may know, because you're now familiar with the place, but guests will ask/have to figure out.

- Have chairs. Don't do hay bales. I admit I wanted hay bales, but we did not get them, and it was a good decision not to. In addition to the general need for chairs, you probably should get two sets of chairs... Ceremony location chairs and reception chairs (unless people are sitting at tables to watch the ceremony). We considered having one set of chairs and us/family/friends/guests moving the chairs to the reception location after the ceremony. Ultimately, I decided to just get two sets (a "cheaper" set for the ceremony, and nicer, sturdier, white ones for the reception). I'm glad we did that so we didn't have to bother guests with that, plus now that I'm on Wedding Wire (surprisingly I wasn't before my wedding!), I realize that would have been poor etiquette.

- The catering company may have to use the kitchen in the home. Ours did. All companies may not, but some might, so this is something to consider.

- We considered renting a sound system and just using an iPod, but we didn't want the hassle or to worry about it malfunctioning, so we found a DJ who gave us an excellent deal for JUST playing music (he did end up emceeing a little, but we hired him solely to play music and make sure it flowed/didn't mess up).

A backyard wedding is definitely possible, and I don't know how much more stressful a backyard wedding is compared to a venue wedding, because my husband and I started planning backyard from the beginning. Just remember there are a lot of details you have to cover since you're building it from the ground up.

I'm also not a huge proponent of using anyone else's property besides your own for a backyard wedding... It puts a lot of pressure on stress on that person, and it's not even his/her event (although you said this AirBNB place allows it, so that may be slightly different - make sure they/you have liability insurance).

Here are some expenses from our wedding:

Tent, Tent Sides, Heat, Lights, Extension Cords = $1973.08

White Chairs, Tan Chairs, Tables, Generators, Grill, Coffee Urn (60-cup) = $768.90

Restroom Trailer (nice restrooms, not port-a-potties) = $1121

Day-of Coordinator (and she gave me a steal of a deal!) = $360 That right there is over $4200.

That doesn't include ANY decor or any other vendors (photographer, DJ, caterer, etc.). Catering was $4685. Alcohol is not included in that catering cost. Like I said, backyard weddings are completely doable, but they are by no means less expensive. Our wedding all said and done including every last detail came to $21,161.77. We had 90 guests (11 of which were kids).

I think it depends where you live, I live in Orange County California, all venues here are expensive, so I think in my case, backyard weddings are expensive but not more than a venue.

The only way you break even on the cost of having to rent tables, chairs, tents, glassware, cutlery etc. is if you provide a huge premium bar and expensive food choices. Venue up charges for alcohol and food can be extremely high. Because of this, my guests can have better quality food and alcohol at my parents home than if we rented a venue for the same overall budget.

However, your calculations might be different since you are comparing to other bare bones venues that require the same amount of rentals. Having it on our own property is a very different legal situation than an airbnb. You need to look into alcohol/premises liability you will face beyond getting permission from the owners renting to you. My dads home insurance already covers personal parties and adding an extra rider for the day is hardly anything. Event insurance will be pricier.

Yes. My best advise is get an inclusive venue. I went NUTS for the first several months of wedding planning trying to plan a backyard wedding.

Here's a breakdown of what my backyard wedding would have cost:

Tent/tables/chairs - $2,700

Dance floor - $800

Porta potty trailer - $1,200

Catering - $3,700

Alchohol - $1,000

Then on top of that... we had to consider staff, licensed bartender, linens, dishes and silverwear, and much, much more.

I ended up getting an inclusive venue for $5,300.

It can be more expensive you are responsible to rent everything and venue the include tables chairs linens some catering cake you have time look around

I'm planning a backyard wedding currently, because I wanted the same things (outdoors, pond, trees, etc).

I think maybe I'm just getting lucky because so far with all the rentals, photographer, and caterer we're looking at about $1000 more than what a venue would have been. Which I think is pretty good, because on top of the venue cost I would have had to pay the caterer and photographer.

To be fair though - our tent (50x100), tables(25 total), chairs (300), lights (800 ft), linens, bathrooms, and misc. rentals are coming in at just under $3000. In the area though, most venues that had everything I wanted were close to $5000.

It will be A LOT of work though, so that's something to consider. I'm liking the freedom of it so far though, and it's more our style.

The event bathrooms flush and have running water along with nice hand towels. My goodness , nobody would ever have an out door wedding with regular porta potties...lol