Venue Blues

I feel your pain! I got very lucky. My officiant is doing the managers best friends wedding and told me to check it out. I put it to the back of my mind then they popped up on here so i saw that as a sign. They i guess just started to do weddings and right now are doing everything completely free except food and drink. They will set up,take down,I have 2 rooms that are more then big enough,they are including any AV things,they are supplying dishes and linens, just everything for 1000$. They even offered to decorate for me! i said no because i wanted to do something myself. and then ontop of that i just had to sign a paper to secure it. no deposits,insane insurance,just everything. i can pay it off all at once or slowly up until my wedding next october and i have till 2 weeks before the date to cancel with no fees. it was a dream come true. im still not happy about paying 1000$ because im cheap like that but when i think about it its one hell of a steal

That doesn’t sound half as expensive as a lot of places I’ve looked at to be honest. We are paying $600 for ceremony but the reception doesn’t have a fee we are just paying per plate/open bar. But if you’re keen on spending less than keep looking. We thought for sure we were going to do city hall/restaurant but after I researched like crazy I found out it ended up costing the same as doing a proper ceremony at an all inclusive venue. So my advice is keep looking and be open minded as you may end up going for something you didn’t expect.

View quoted message We have a budget but it's proving a bit difficult to find venues. We just gotta look at different types of venues. Thanks for all the help ladies!

Hey Monique, that sucks about your struggles with a venue. If the price tag is what's getting to you, I'd go over things with your fiancé and decide how much you want to spend total on the reception and ceremony (if you didn't do this already). For my FH and myself, once we knew how much we were comfortable spending, it was easier to look at seemingly expensive venues and feel comfortable investing money into it for our wedding day.

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The venue is $1200 just for the space. We would need to find our own caterer, buy the alcohol, get linens and place settings..

We only looked at 2 places because we knew our venue was the one immediately. And we booked just under 2 years in advance. They get calls for 2021 and 2022 at my venue now!! 😑

our venue is most definitely the most expensive part of our day. I feel like $1200 for food and open bar is a steal! So if you have come across that that’s amazing!

Wedding venues can be exceptionally expensive, especially depending on how many people you invite, what city you plan on having your wedding in, what your expectations are for a venue, etc. If your priority is to cut the costs as much as possible, then I suggest maybe have a discussion with your spouse regarding what you both envision for your wedding and where both of you plan to splurge on vs. save on. Have you considered having your reception even at home, if there is enough space there to host a smaller group of people? Maybe even having a reception at a community centre or a town hall? I've heard the costs of booking a community centre are extremely affordable! Don't give up - with a little bit of creativity and hard work, you guys will find the right venue for you both! Good luck!

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I guess FH and I better get on it then lol. We're inviting about 60 people, which I thought was a pretty small number. The halls I've looked at so far have been $700 and up but that probably means I need to look around more haha.

Thanks for the advice! Yesterday I used google maps and just started emailing all the restaurants, venues, etc. i could find so hopefully we get some responses

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No problem. I would suggest that for all vendors. Look at and meet with as many as possible and cross off ones you don't like and go from there. The more options you start with the better

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Wow that's quick! We had been emailing the coordinator at the first venue for a few months and she hadn't mentioned needing to put the deposit down so early so I think that's why we were so surprised

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Hi thanks for the advice about looking into different venue options!

Ours went alright - but we started looking in the beginning of 2018 and our wedding is October 2019 so when we found the one, it was about 1 year and 7 months in advance.

Our venue is for the weekend and is for about 250 guests so the price tag was up there.

If you can find a venue for $1,200 then that's a steal! Any less and I would say to try looking into a smaller wedding and perhaps you could see about renting a hall and just spending the money on the decor and catering?

I do like how Amanda mentioned just booking a bunch of places to view and go from there. The only thing I would do differently is that I emailed/called all of the venues we were interested in and asked for their bare minimum price and max capacity so that we didn't waste our time.

Good luck in your search!

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Oh sorry I was looking at the poster's location!.. Aria Bistro & Lounge in Brampton.. all the wedding info and pricing is right on their website!

View quoted message I am in Toronto.
Ok, thank you will check it out

The venue is unfortunately the most expensive part in some cases. It is also the first thing that gets booked up! We booked ours in May of last year for our October wedding, and even then some dates were getting booked up quickly.

The only suggestion I could make if you really like your venue would be to cut costs in other vendors, or do more DIY.

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I live in Ontario so it's a restaurant in Brampton Sorry... it's called Aria Bistro though if you still want to look it up to get an idea.. I had no idea this place did weddings or events.. so If you know of some nice restaurants in your area then I would definitely reach out and see if they can offer you anything... Good luck!!!!

View quoted message Morning Amanda,
May I know the restaurant's name please?
I'm struggling to find a good affordable venue for my wedding.
Much appreciated

Unfortunately yes, venues can be very expensive and they book up very fast. To lock in your date now when your wedding is a little over a year away is not unreasonable at all.. Some places book up 2 years in advance. No matter what you find now is the time or you may need to end up changing your date.. We are getting married at a very elegant, fancy restaurant. There is no venue fee we only pay per person for food and alcohol etc. which is pretty standard so we got lucky there.. If you're trying to save money then you may need to change what your dream venue looks like. I would suggest making a bunch of appointments with a bunch of different venues and looking at a lot until you find the one... but like I said, this is a good time to look but once you find it you are going to need to pay a deposit to hold it or it will get booked up soon by someone else.