So my fiance and I have really been struggling to find the perfect venue for us.. We want a rustic/bohemian style wedding at a venue that offers indoor/outdoor areas as well as bathrooms and a kitchen (so basically no giant open fields, lakes, etc unless it is accompanied by a finished barn, house, or other functional structure of some sort). We have toured a few places, but they are so crazy expensive that they take up almost our entire $8k budget on their own 😣 plus, most places place pretty heavy restrictions on decor. One place doesn't allow candles of any sort, another prohibits bringing your own decor entirely (must use theirs), and another wont even let us tape anything inside or tie anything to trees outside. Maybe I'm just nitpicky, but if I'm paying $6k+ to rent a space, I'd like a little more freedom than that! In fact, all we want is a space and the freedom to do what we would like with it. So many places offer packages that include the florist, officiant, etc, but I'm not sure that we even want that.
So, that brings me to my "real" question. I have come across this 1800s farmhouse situated on a few acres of land near our house. The owner messaged me after I put a post on Facebook asking about local venues that meet our criteria. Turns out, she just bought it and is currently in the process of turning it into a wedding venue! She offered to rent it to us for the entire weekend of our wedding for $500 or less! 😲 The only thing that concerns me is that we would be the very first couple to rent this property as a wedding venue, so the owner doesn't have experience as a venue owner yet and there is a lot of room for things to go wrong since the house has never accommodated 75+ people or had to meet the power demands for a DJ, lighting, etc.
What do you guys think? I really want to book the venue. It's absolutely beautiful and seems to meet our needs perfectly, but I'm wary of being the "Guinea pigs." Lol!
