What to expect to pay for a venue?

[luxebudgetbride]

How much should one expect to pay for a venue on average? Or what is a range of prices?

Say, 100 guests. Outdoor wedding. Reception in same area.

Or is there some guide?

..
I know how much dresses and photography usually cost for an "average" wedding, but no clue on venues.

[*Tanya*]

The venue we chose, and the other one we were considering, had no venue fee, as long as you had a minimum of 100 guests for dinner. There was a $100 fee for also having the ceremony on site, but they ended up not charging us that fee.

[MalibuStacy1982]

The venue we chose, which is a hotel/casino combo is charging $600. We are also having the ceremony and reception in the same place. That fee includes the tables, chairs, linens, glassware, china, and a ton more. I would suggest looking for a place like that, which includes a lot of the extra stuff, or perhaps see if that can be included. There are a lot of places that will charge extra for every little thing.

Another venue we loved but ended up not even considering after learning the price, which included NOTHING, was $1200.

Hope that helps!!

[carolinalady67]

I think you are going to find a WIDE range of answers to this question. Part of it will be where you live. But even within the same area there can be a big range of pricing. I saw everything from $600-$5000 here. It just totally depending on where the location was (we are near the ocean so beach locations were much more) and also depended on what was included in their package.

The best thing to do is to just start looking around at some locations in your area.

[Liz&Cailen]

We're using a restaurant that does weddings. Some restaurants we looked at were really expensive. This was the cheapest option we could find that included a seated meal. $300 to have ceremony space in restaurant and a $2000 food minimum. The $2000 would provide dinner, wine, and beer for 4 hours for 40 people. We're having just under 80 people so we'll be close to $4000 for food.

[~Arielle~]

We are looking at all inclusive venues (food, cake, photography, ceremony, reception, flowers, DJ, ceremony music... like everything) and they are ranging from $5000 to $14000. We havent looked at non-inclusive so im not sure what they range from around here.

[Deidre98]

I definitely agree that this answer varies on where you live as well as what kind of venues you are looking at. We did our reception (only, we were married in a family church) at a golf course and for 150 people, plated dinner, food and beer/wine/soda, the tally came up to $8,000. However, for other venues we looked at that had similar amenities, it ranged from anywhere between 10-15k.

[luxebudgetbride]

^ All these answers have been helpful. If you haven't replied already, I'd love to simply hear what you ended up paying for your venue :)

[johnsdeere]

Though we had a indoor wedding...we had it inside a hotel. The event facility next door provided the food and worked as a team with the hotel. Everything was all inclusive in the price of the food, excluding flowers and decor of course. We paid $4,000.00 I believe for food and location. I can't remember exactly what our head count was truth be told...it was between 150 and 200 people. We had a buffett sit down dinner.
I live in Washington State... by the way.

[blondelildevil]

Totally agree with everyone about the location.

We are in the DFW area and for our venue, it was $1200. It included tables and chairs and use of all audio equipment.

[*Diane*]

I have booked venues here in NW Arkansas anywhere from $300 to $3000. Those weddings ranged from 100 guests to 450. They all allowed outside catering, cake, photography and music and most importantly, alcohol. I just coordinated a wedding at a country club where the venue was free but all drinks and food had to come from them. 250 guests and the bar bill alone was $6000. When you have to pay $90 for a bottle of well liquor, it adds up quickly.

[nene0182]

The room rental for our venue was $750 we may end up needing to add on another room which will cost another $100

[FavorMama]

It would depend on the date you choose, the location of the venue, and what you're expecting to be provided.

For instance - 100 people eating a buffet dinner should be less than 100 people eating a 5-course meal & hors d'oeuvres. Some venues also include extras like the cake, a DJ, etc. so they may run higher than you expect, but end up being less expensive once you factor in those additional costs you would've incurred. Some venues hike up prices for Saturday evenings, but give discounts for Friday afternoons or Sunday nights.

Our reception venue was a banquet facility which specialized in weddings. They provided the cake (and it was a nice one! I got to pick it and specify colors, filling, etc.) and they also provided the DJ. The DJ was awful, but it was a day wedding, so we weren't expecting people to dance much anyway. They served a 15-item hot buffet which we got to choose the items in, they included the champagne toasts, they matched the cloth napkins to my bridesmaid colors, set out all of our favors, and they let us take home the leftover food! They had a set cost that we were able to negotiate (by offering only beer & wine instead of full open bar,) so we got the place for $4500 for 102 people. This was an awesome deal considering that no one else was offering DJ, and cake, and everyone else wanted at least $8K. Once we tacked on DJ & cake we would've been at around $9K. So we did well!

Shop around. And always remember that these venues DO wheel & deal. You can substitute services, add/remove necessities, etc. If your crowd aren't a bunch of heavy drinkers, don't go for open bar (but DO offer some liquor for etiquette purposes.) And if your crowd is not the hors d'oeuvres type, see if the venue will minus that out, or add something in its place. You can negotiate almost everything!

[Raychel]

Oh man it really just depends. There were some outdoor places around here that was so super duper cheap...like $50 bucks for 4 hours.