Reception and Ceremony Venues Advice
 

Not sure if this is the right forum so mods feel free to move to the correct one if needed. It won't hurt my feelings.


My fiancee and I are currently doing the scouting work for our wedding in Spring next year. We want a small/intimate ceremony with close friends and family only along with a smaller reception with about 60-80 people.
Ceremony will probably be a maximum of 20 people.
I'm thinking ~$5000 budget for ceremony and dinner. Would prefer if its around ~$4000.

The nitty gritty of things is that we want a small venue for ceremony at a reasonable rental price. I mean, it's 20 people! So I guess it's ceremony then go to dinner at restaurant OR could be same spot as ceremony if their rates are reasonable. We don't really want to rent a hall or something similar to a reception. I think we'd rather go to a restaurant, book space for 60-80 and essentially treat everyone to dinner instead of the long-winded, wedding receptions that we've come to know and love.

We've checked out a few places and there are a few options so far but nothing really that stands out. I checked out a site called "goingtothechapel" and that one looked reasonable but so far that's the only option that looks good on the table.

Looking for suggestions for a venue for small wedding ceremonies and reception/restaurant. It's planned for March so i'll have to assume that it will be raining. Has anyone pulled off small weddings on a tight budget? Any pointers?
Thanks in advance!

Destination wedding.

thought about that
but we compared costs and its a lot more expensive
plus organizing logistics with both our families is gonna be a nightmare...we can hardly arrange a day trip lol

Wife and I had a small ceremony at Blackie Spit on Crescent Beach for immediate family only then had a reception here: Beecher Place | Alexandra Neighbourhood House

Beautiful little spot, especially at sunset. Fits 80!

Rate info: http://www.alexhouse.net/sites/defau...es-july-14.jpg

Oh, we did a destination wedding too.. the ceremony on the beach was just to make it legal before we went to the Mayan Riviera for the wife's dream wedding. Then we had the reception at Crescent Beach for those who couldn't afford Mexico.. it is not-so-affectionately known to our parents as the year we got married :lol

There are people who own properties on the North Shore with a nice backyard view of the water. Some of them will rent to you for ceremony, then you can have food catered for the reception.
Been to a wedding like this before and it was pretty awesome.
There are others as well that isnt on the North Shore.

Delete

in for future reference.
keywords: wedding venue, small wedding venue, small wedding, budget wedding, outdoor wedding

Does Chip Wilson or the guy who did Kid Carson's wedding rent their place out?

A couple of suggestions...

- A friend of mine did his ceremony at Stanley Park in/by the rose garden. I don't know all of the details but it's along the lines of paying for a permit and using park space. Good for a small standing ceremony. Logistics can get a bit more complicated if you have anyone that needs seating (elderly, disabled, etc) but you can always bring just enough chairs for those that need seats.

- My wedding was out in Kelowna. Same concept as my friends - ceremony in one of the parks overlooking Okanagan Lake, lunch reception at Summerhill, total head count: about 96.

- My brother-in-law had his outdoor ceremony and outdoor buffet reception at Brock House. Total head count was about 20-25.

yeah we've spoken to Brock House, they're on the radar as well

I'm curious about the outdoor park space, but since its March, i'm pretty sure it will rain, so an outdoor ceremony will probably not work...unless the ceremony venue is one of those places where we can quickly switch to an indoor option in the case that it rains.

did you guys ever do rehearsals for ceremony? Or did you just wing it? How long did it typically go for?

Last wedding I went to was a church wedding so the ceremony was something like an hour...i've never actually been to a ceremony outside of a church one lol

Rehearsals are only if you have a really complicated wedding with a large party and schedule. For a smaller ceremony, it's not necessary.

When the wife and I were looking at wedding venues, I personally fell in love with Aberthau House - it's the mansion that West Point Grey Community Centre is in. I don't think the rent for the place is very expensive, but you'll still need to figure out food, etc.

sorry i have nothing to really add here but im honestly envious that caucasians and asians can get away with spending so little on a wedding. us browns will invite every person we've ever known and end up spending $10-15K on booze alone. good for you guys! and congrats!!

lol brown weddings are epic though

we just went to see the Aberthau mansion last weekend. I loved the library room, it's the perfect set up room for the boys. We were quoted $1600 for an all day event there, ending at 10pm i think. Includes tables and chairs. Not bad but considering we're doing a small ceremony and we'll have do a lot of decor plus coordinate a catering company...it seems like its too much work for what we have in mind.

i am getting married at brockhouse this august 2015. i heard nothing but good things about brockhouse. i will let you know how it goes.

if you are scheduled at brockhouse outside, plan b if it rains is to have the ceremony inside. so no worries there if you can live with that :)

I think what you want will be a bit challenging unless you're able to do the ceremony in a backyard and have food catered or prepared by yourselves. Or, I guess you could go to a city hall and get it done there for the cost of a Justice of the Peace and the license.

If either one of you is religious, a ceremony in a church/place of worship typically costs around $1000. That would leave you with about $4000 for food at a casual restaurant. I think the United Chuch will marry just about anyone, as long as you have a meeting with the priest who will marry you.

If you're willing to increase your budget a bit, it might be worth doing the whole thing at a restaurant. Minimum spends for weddings typically range from $4000-6000.

i have MC over 10-15 weddings and been to 13 weddings 2 years ago, I'm seen a lot of weddings.

Being in spring, stay indoors. No one will thank you when their heels are in mud with this high heels. Girls will not appreciate they are wearing a dress and it's so long it's muddy, let alone it's raining and everyone is in a shit umbrella and oh wait... it's fooking cold.

Not sure what nationality you are but the night before the wedding, bride and groom should have a rehearsal dinner during lunch and normally the (asian side) typically split up the bride and groom and they have their own dinner with JUST their family side.

so so so many funny stories but best bet would be
1) focus on the CORE and MUST haves.
2) MUST do all the respectful things (asians: do the family tea ceremony as people get super pissy if you don't do it)

with you budget, do the ceremony and the reception all at one place.

congrats! we went to the wedding show there last summer, it is a pretty good location and its currently on our list

yeah we're looking at that option as a just-in-case option...we'd prefer not to cus neither of us are religious, churches really charge that much?! lol i always figured that'd be the cheapest possible option. I used to go to church with my parents, they still go...so there is always that option.


thanks for the tip, we're essentially zeroing in on doing everything in one place. Neither of us are traditional so i'm not sure if there will be a tea ceremony, there probably will be but that can be planned when the venues are nailed down.

1st of all CONGRATULATIONS!

My fiance and I wanted to set a low budget as well however with our asian family it got really big... like 10 times. But when I was looking there's a little place called the rose garden in New West where you can have your ceremony. It is outdoor and there's plenty of roses around for decor. You can also have the dinner there but I'm not sure on cost.

https://weddingful.com/vendors/cente...ge-rose-garden

Well, considering what a church provides (organist, Minister who performs the service, the building itself, seating, and possibly free parking), it isn't such a bad deal compared to other ceremony venues. The typical wedding ceremony done at some place like Hycroft Manor, or the Celebration Pavillion at QE Park can easily cost $3000.

When we researched wedding venues, some inclusive ones that we gave hard second thought were the Brix Restaurant and the rooftop patio at the Loden Hotel.

leaning heavily towards Brock House at this point.
We went for a tour and the presentation was good along with the familiarity with small weddings.
Just a matter of finalizing.

On a side note, starting to scout around for photographers. I'm friends with a couple (not close enough to warrant significant discounts mind you) but I wanna keep looking and see what the prices are like. Can anyone here recommend photographers? Budget is roughly 2-3k.

yey for brockhouse! my day is coming soon. august 15! just picked up our marriage license yesterday at London drugs. bot a temp permit for my evo while I was at it hahaha

our family friend is doing our photos. he is pretty good and has the experience. hes been doing it for years. I will pm you his phone number.