Venue Nightmare

We got fairly lucky in that we ended up choosing a local distillery, which is a really cheap venue with a really cool atmosphere. The downside to it is that they pretty much have nothing but the space, so we have to rent chairs, tables, linens, wares, plates, everything. We also found a winery that we both loved, but was ultimately out of our price range. The location wasn't as great, but it was a gorgeous venue, and they had pretty much everything included. The kicker was that they were really catering to weddings of around 150 or more guests, and we weren't even close to that, so we also weren't anywhere close to the minimum they require you to spend on their catering.

Keep looking, and definitely try to explore some unique places you might not think of as wedding venues. And try old-fashioned googling in addition to wedding sites, because some really great venues (wineries, barns, etc) host weddings, but don't advertise anywhere other than their own website. Good luck!

We have a really small budget and want to get married outdoors in CO in the Rocky Mountains. Traditional venues are WAY over budget, even just the rental fees are more than our entire wedding budget before adding catering costs and everything else. Looking for non-traditional venues really helped, and getting creative.

We're having a pretty low budget day so although we could afford some of the bigger "all inclusive" venues we saw, we didn't want several of the things lumped in the packages. They were not willing to negotiate and basically felt like they were telling us who, what, and when we were having at our event. So we started looking at places that did not advertise themselves as wedding venues that rent out spaces. We ended up a nice historical venue that although we have to provide everything but furniture ourselves. We ended up there based on location, venue size, and most of all how the event manager treated us. She didn't pressure us or tell us what or how to do anything but was very involved in making it how we want it to be.

We love our venue, but we originally wanted to get married where we live (Nashville). Everything we found here was either really expensive, didn't hold enough people, or had the ceremony space outside (we needed everything inside since our wedding is in February). We opted to get married 10 minutes from FH's hometown in a beautiful venue that met pretty much all of our needs! The downside is that we have to drive an hour and a half, but that's not a big deal. 175 is the max amount of people it can hold, which is a downside because I wanted something bigger. We're just hoping less people show up than planned! Both of my brothers' weddings had over 300 attendees, but they got married in our hometown ( 2 1/2 hours away from where I'm getting married).

I think that you should just take a deep breath and know it will all work out. I am also getting married 10/2020, and places do fill up fast. I think that if the venue provides most of everything, you can be creative and come up with the rest. I think if you go with a simpler venue, you can spend a little bit more on the decorations

I wanted a rustic barn with willow trees and greenery unfortunately that just wasn't in our budget. We found a military Conference Center that includes all the tables, chairs, dinnerware, kitchen, bar, and ample space. Downside I feel like we need to pretty it up but price couldn't be beat.

Is hard finding the perfect place. You need to have an open mind and find the perfect place that works for you. There’s always thing you compromise here and there.
I wanted a lot of things one being an all in one venue for all 3 events (ceremony, cocktail and reception) but with different rooms. I felt in love with my venue and this is the one thing I had to compromise. We picked an ocean front Villa or Mansion and had the wedding in the back of the Villa. Although not everything was in the same spot when you walk you are able to see the entire setting from ceremony to cocktail right next to it to reception on the other side of the pool. I loved the place so much that it didn’t bother me and I planned for all the decor to flow together and we were able to utilize the cocktail hour for a lounge area during reception and the ceremony space transform into a photo booth by using the arch and adding a couch and candles.
Find the place that best suit you and make it perfect for you.

We're getting married 10/10/20. We wanted a place with beautiful scenery, a space either indoors or outdoors that's equally beautiful for a ceremony(weather reasons), close to all of our family and priced right and obviously good food! We got lucky to find that and booked it in November. You will find something for sure.