St Louis Venue (preferably BOYB/F)

Have you looked at Windows on Washington or The Vineyard @ Riverbend chapel. Not sure if they are byob/f but they were 2 of my favs when we were looking. We ended up picking Andrés fox run in Eureka. I think that location could work for a smaller crowd too

A friend got married at The Old Post Office (downtown) last year and it was beautiful and perfect for a small wedding. I don't think her budget was too much, so could be a good option to look into!

@lawmom I will definitely look into The Vineyard. I hadn't heard of them yet. Windows was actually the venue with the 10k minimum I was ranting about :/ They were our favorite too before that.

@8815wedding I will add the post office to the list, my dad would love that!! ha

@valarie my FH would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get married there and has suggested as much. But as a Boston ex pat, I just can't see that going over well ;p

I had my reception at All Occasion in St Charles, while not BYOB/F the PP cost there is VERY reasonable. For our March 21 reception with beer and wine, a buttload of food, soda and tea etc was about $27.00 a person, cake not included. They do have a package for cake though with open bar for a bit more. The place is gorgeous and there is not a room rental fee, cake cutting, corking fee or any other hidden charges. Linens are included and so is everything else. Basically if they have it you can use it for free. The only draw back is no place to get ready but the bathrooms. Check them out though. It is family owned and super nice people to work with. My entire reception for 170 was about $4500.

http://www.alloccasionbanquetcenter.com/index.html

Thats amazing!!! I am going to look at them now

I was booked at 2013 prices though. they did go up a bit. The food is really good and they do free tastings all the time in the office, and occasionally mass tastings on like Wednesdays. I did not taste anything I did not like and it was hard to pic a menu. Do you have a photographer? If not checkout Video Gate Studio. My pictures are amazing and she is VERY reasonable.

Good luck! Hope you find a place. I don't know why but for some reason I thought it said Kansas City, and I was going to be like GET MARRIED AT THAT LIBRARY (it's like my favorite library that I've been to in the US)... but then I saw St. Louis. And I've not spent much time there. I think Susan has a good suggestion!

We live just out side of KC right now (due to the airforce) but he's from STL and since my family is from all over and traveling no matter what we figured we'd get hitched where we met.

But if I can find an awesome KC venue that fits our budget, maybe I will convince him to do that instead Thanks for the suggestion @emaebe

Yay St. Louis brides! We needed somewhere that would allow outside caterers but were flexible on BYOB. Most of the places we visited allowed BYOF but had their own required bar packages. We ended up going with Third Degree Glass Factory but also looked at the Sheldon and Neo on Locust. Maybe if you find reasonable caterers, then you can spring for somewhere with a bar package? Or go with wine and beer instead of a full open bar?

One thing I wish I had known, though -- a lot of places with open catering will provide tables and nothing else, so you have to rent everything from table cloths to plates to silverware. Those rentals were a lot more expensive than I expected and nearly offset what we saved from the cheaper caterer. Sorry to sound like a downer! Good luck in your venue search!

@Chelsea we're kind of running into the same problems! It seems if a venue is reasonable and their bar is on budget, their preferred catering partners are $$$ or vise versa.

I think I just did not realize how expensive St. Louis was!!

I've started just asking caterers if they know places...they must think I'm nuts.

And I know what you mean...we looked at the Magic House and had to cross it off because by the time you rent everything it's more than any other place.

We are looking at Sqwires and 9th street loft, since we don't have a lot of people.

I know FH really wanted the city museum but its such a big space for only 70 people!

The magic house would've been awesome

Ooo I bet Sqwires would be a good option! I had looked at their website and google images, and it seemed really nice but a bit too small for our 150 guests. And I think they have to provide the food since it's a restaurant? I definitely don't envy the phase of planning you're in -- for me, finding the venue and catering was the most difficult. But then you find places that work and it will all turn out great!