Courthouse wedding, really a money saver?

I dont think its gonna be cheaper if youre doing all the reception decor dress etc stuff. but you can def stick to a budget to help you. my church is only 400 and we dont need any decor. not sure how much the court house is

It's only cheaper in that you don't have 2 spaces to decorate like a chapel and a reception hall, don't need as much transportation for the wedding party, and you don't need to pay for setup and room change if you're using one venue for the ceremony (aisle seating) and reception (dinner seating).

I wouldn’t expect an enormous difference in cost if you’re still throwing a party afterwards because, as other posters have pointed out, it’s the reception that typically consumes the lion’s share of a wedding budget! But there may be some room for savings, depending on the alternate ceremony space. My venue, for instance, charges a $950 ceremony fee. A courthouse wedding costs a fraction of that in my province. But that’s obviously case specific. With a courthouse wedding you also lose the ability/temptation to go overboard with ceremony decor, which could save you some cash.

Courthouse depending on the city has its charges applied for getting married. Although they may have extra charges for the room and Officiant not mentioned. That information would be good to ask about and if they would perform the ceremony during this time if they are open too.
There are many factors to which they can say yes and getting your hopes up. If the they answer no, its because they don't want to get charged for the services to couples. Safety side of thing at the time to consider.

View quoted message That’s exactly what I was thinking. Especially cause I’ve found 2 venues I’m really interested in and both are under $1500 for rental so it’s not that much at all.

I think that if you are planning to hold a regular reception, there won’t be much of savings. As Gloria said, and in my experience most of the budget goes to the reception part, where you feed everyone. If I was to scrap my ceremony portion and still hold a reception I’d be saving about 10% of my total budget. I think the idea of it being cheaper is because most people that do get married that way probably hold a very small intimate reception after the papers are signed. I think some things you could potentially saving money is, chair rentals or rental of the space to hold the ceremony... that’s all that really comes to mind

I agree with Gloria - the only time that the Courthouse is cheaper than a "regular" wedding is if you are are skipping the reception all together. In fact - in Manitoba a courthouse wedding will cost more than hiring an officiant... Both require you to get a license at least 24hours before the wedding ($100) and then the fee for an appointment for the Civil Marriage Ceremony is $500 compared to our officiant who charged us $250... so... not cheaper.

I guess you have to take into consideration the venue fee - but our venue was our ceremony and reception site so it didn't cost us anything more than what we would have payed anyway.

Not really in mY opinion... I think most of the budget goes to reception at weddings not so much the legal parts of it. But you could potentially save some money on your ceremony if anything 🤷🏻‍♀️