Wedding Venue & The Budget

Save BIG on your big day by opting for a unique, affordable wedding venue.

MarketWatch reported on the results of The Knot’s 2016 Annual Survey which found the average wedding budget (excluding honeymoon) was $35,329 and,

The most expensive category, by far, in the typical wedding budget is venue costs (with an average of $16,107 spent in 2016). – Sally French MarketWatch

With the venue accounting for nearly HALF of an average wedding’s expenses it makes sense to shop around.

If there is one place to look for wedding day savings it is your venue!

One way to find an affordable wedding venue is to look for spaces that are suitable for events but aren’t specifically catering to the wedding industry. Hotels & resorts have built-in wedding packages which come with built-in costs & upcharges. They often charge a fixed cost that is semi-inclusive, offering a base price for bare minimum accommodations. In addition, these venues tend to have preferred vendor lists which limit who you can hire, and therefore, limit your ability to save on the rest of your wedding.

So, how can you find an affordable venue to host your dream wedding? Change your search.

When looking up for spaces think about alternative search terms such as ‘reunions’, ‘large groups’, ‘conferences’, etc.

Keeping your wedding vision/theme in mind do a search for locations that include ‘your wedding theme’ + ‘event’.

My Wedding Venue Journey

For example, our wedding planning began when we fell in love with a gorgeous oceanfront resort on the California coast. Now, once we started hashing out the details we found our costs skyrocketing & our wedding dreams were quickly shattered. The venue simply did not work with our budget. & we were forced to abandon the resort.

I wasn’t sure where we would be married but I kept the vibe & ambiance of this venue in mind while searching for a new location.

Naturally, as a DIY bride, I got to Googling and after many, many, MANY searches, found the most amazing site to tie the knot. A secluded, oceanfront, private estate in Big Sur, CA! And the price? A little less than half of the original ‘dream resort’.

Not only that but we were able to extend the celebration to a weekend-long affair (compared to the 6-hour window we would have been given at the resort) but we were married at an amazingly unique location that our guests couldn’t stop swooning over.

Bottom line…when it comes to your wedding venue it PAY$ to do your research.

Apart from changing up the way you search for a venue here is a list of 6 sites to find unique, offbeat venues for your wedding.