Where Can I Host A Low Budget, Simple Reception Wedding In The Houston Area Under 3000 Usd, Complete Package?
low budget weddings in the houton texas area
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Try Oakland on Burnet Bay in Baytown. If you’re not familiar with Baytown, it’s just about 30 miles east of Houston on I-10. My daughter was married there in 2005 & then I paid $975.00 for the place. That price included 2 rooms for the wedding party to get ready in, all the decorations, their son was the D.J. & we had use of the place from 1pm until 10pm.. I only had to bring flowers for the wedding party, the cake & I had Hickory Hollow from Houston to cater in a BBQ dinner. Below you will find the website… Good luck..http://www.oaklandonburnetbay.com/welcom…
Also, the gentleman who owns this place is also a minister.. He does a beautiful service..
The cheapest reception place I have found so far is Enchanted Gardens IN BaCliff,30 minutes away from houston.Near Texas City.They have different packages but none include everything.One includes table,chairs,beverage bar,3 tier cake,dj,chinaware,centerpieces,linens,ch… covers, and thats it.You have to provide the alcohol and food.And I believe this package is around 3800 bucks.But with food and alcohol and decorations,and minister your putting in like 1100.Plus tax will be around 5300.
Its a nice place and it has a patio in the back with a pond.Checkout their website on google,just type in Enchanted Gardens in BaCliff,Tx and it will pop up.Good luck.
My husband and I are moving to corpus Christi, TX sometime in the fall (military move). I have never been that far south in texas before. But let me see if I can help you.
If you wanted an outdoor wedding and reception. http://www.houstontx.gov/parks/anntaylor... (this is a park).
There seems to be adequate covering to have an outdoor reception.
good luck to you
you’ll probably need to go with McDonalds for the meal and have your reception at a picnic area, because my brother just spent $3000.00 on a wedding cake and photographer alone! Yup, it’s crazy expensive. I don’t know how people can afford it, but the cost for weddings has gotten rediculous!
good luck with that one. Probably a friend’s big back yard. My mom did my sister’s Sweet 15 for less than 500, and it was actually quite nice
Look for VFW’s, Volunteer Fire/Ambulance Halls, American Legion Buildings, Community Librarys and Community Center Halls, Museums. Also, sometimes churches allow you to use their hall for free or discounted if you get married there. Also, consider outdoor locations like parks or lakes.
Here are some other ideas for weddings on a budget:
Things we skimped on:
Invitations: We purchased simple invites from Target for less than .50 an invite and printed them using pretty calligraphy font on a computer, everything down to the envelopes. They came out GREAT and no one knew the difference. Also, instead of including response cards with postage to mail back, which can get pricey. We included an email address for online replies and two phone numbers. We got a lot of response online and it was a big hit as it saved us money and everyone else the time of filling this stuff out and sending it back via snail mail.
Location: we rented an empty ambulance/fire hall and decorated it to our tastes and it came out better than most fancy reception halls. The GREAT thing was, because they do a lot of weddings they had things we borrowed free of charge such as tables, chairs, a wedding arch, a mailbox for wedding cards, a cake table, et. Invest wisely and make sure you can get the most for your buck out of the location. (We did “winter wonderland” and got married in January so a lot of snow and things were half off, that helped a lot. And it turned out BEAUTIFUL.)
Alcohol: If you want a really cheap alternative, don’t serve it. But if that won’t fly with your guests you can do what we did. We served only beer, wine, margaritas (most people pick one specialty mixed drink, that was just our choice) and we made it self serve. Invested in a wine fountain, Beer Keg and Margarita machine (rented of course) so the need to pay a bartender did not exist. If you are having it at a hotel hall you can opt for a cash bar where the guests pay for drinks but many people consider that bad taste. If that’s not an option either, cut down the amount of time in open bar.
Transportation: My husband and I were very active in our local ambulance squad so we rode away with our bridal party in an ambulance and everyone thought it was great when we pulled in lights and sirens. Be creative. Do you have a friend with a vintage car that you would look awesome in driving away? Can you use something creative? Like our ambulance idea. Or does it really matter to you to have it at all? Also a cheaper option is renting a cool car for the day and having a friend drive for you and have the bridal party arrive in regular vehicles, I assure you, its your day, they shouldn’t care.
Photography and videography: We asked a friend who studied video production to do that for us. And for photography we asked a photographer from a local paper to photograph our wedding, and it was at least half off. But don’t skimp on these things if you can’t get lucky like we did, these memories last a lifetime.
Cake: We asked an experience culinary student (graduating and we sampled her work beforehand) to make our cake and it turned out wonderful and was also half off. Students do these things for grades so they are very careful and much, much, cheaper than traditional bakeries.
Attire: My husband wore his army dress greens, but a good alternative is to wear a suit instead of a tux, all our attendants did and it looked just as good.
Flowers: I picked “in season” flowers and went with a smaller bouquet instead of a larger one and it was beautiful and elegant. And carrying that for a while when its heavy can get on your nerves anyway. Also, for any child/ junior attendants, get carnations, not roses, they hold up much better and are cheaper. I didn’t use roses in anything but picked in season cheaper flowers that looked really neat in my boutonnières. For the bridesmaids: My bridesmaids carried a single white rose with a purple tip trim and it looked very elegant and the floral shop jazzed it up and added stuff so it didn’t look so plain. But your girls wont care what their flowers look like.
Favors: If you have a theme, go practical and go cheap. Our theme was winter, as I said. So I found porcelain ornaments for less than .50 each online, and I ordered custom ribbons off an eBay seller with our names and wedding date and hot glued it to the snowflake, they were a huge hit and looked expensive when they weren’t. Another option is a “candy buffet” look those up online, they can be neat. But if you do that get smaller bags/boxes so the candy lasts. You also don’t need favors if it gets too pricey, or you can always do a small donation to a cause you both support like $50, and include a note that says “in lieu of favors, a donation has been made to _________.”
This and that extras: I bought my disposable table cameras online from ebay from a woman who didn’t use them at her wedding, same with our bubbles and cake cutting knife and I found a beautiful authentic crystal headpiece second hand for $150 less than in the bridal shop in excellent condition. We found our “unity candle” and ring bearers pillow and white basket at a craft store for 60% off what they were in the Hallmark store. Look online, its a really great resource.
As for food, never skimp or not have enough, that’s not in good taste. We really wanted an evening reception s we just picked less options and less expensive options. Like 2 meats, 2 starches, vegetable, bread and salad and that was it and people had plenty of selection. And we did it buffet style which can be hit or miss because you eliminate the need for staff to serve them but you have to over estimate food since people serve themselves a lot more than a waiter would. We also got our own appetizers and desserts. we got cracker trays and shrimp cocktail from sams as well as some hot options a friend threw in the oven right before the reception and it cut down our costs. In addition to our cake we bought cream puffs (which were a HUGE hit) as well as some bakery cookies and it cut down our costs significantly.
Another option for food: You can also have a breakfast or “brunch” reception and save A LOT of money (usually a morning wedding) a light luncheon reception (finger sandwiches, salads, things like that), a BBQ reception (usually outdoors) or an appetizer reception in early evening, just be sure to specify this on the invitations like “Light luncheon to follow,” or “Hour’ Dour reception to follow.” another option is a small dessert buffet or a coffee and wedding cake reception.
Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate: We had our cater throw in a carving station and table linens in at no charge, work with them, haggle and see what you can do.
Another option: My friends for their second marriage had a “pot luck” where guests brought a dish and it was CONSIDERABLY cheaper. But only consider this for a informal wedding.
We borrowed a lot of things from friends, enlisted their talents and looked around the internet and looked second hand before buying new. I even found my dress more than half off. (I paid $300 for a $1500 dress because it was “last season,” well, it could have fooled me, it was beautiful and white so what did I care…) Suggestions: For little things you need, search dollar stores or Wal-Mart or sams club before going strait to a wedding store. Dinner mints in white packages that would be $3.00 for 500 at Wal-Mart are now $5.00 for one hundred because they have a wedding bell on them. Shop away from wedding sections as much as possible. There is no difference. we even did things like asked the ambulance hall if we could clean up ourselves and took money off the rental.
Entertainment: Never skimp on entertainment if you would like your guests to have a good time. An option to consider if you are having trouble affording it is to make the reception shorter. But get an experienced DJ that will match your tastes in music and will do the whole thing for you, you don’t wan to have to tell your DJ what to do on your wedding day, get an experienced person whether it be a live band or DJ. Some DJ’s charge less in the “off season” (that’s why we got a discount on ours) and some bands will work for considerably less also during the off season as the amount of wedding gigs are more scarce. (Note; if you are having a breakfast reception or brunch reception, as long as it is short, you may not need entertainment.)
Centerpieces: Go for balloons, candles and confetti and steer clear of flowers. A friend of mine for a beach wedding did little goldfish bowls with beta and goldfish. For our wedding we did little mini Christmas trees, flocked them ourselves and did silver ornaments and snowflakes. We bought them after the holiday and it was much much cheaper.
Solicit help: If your parents offer, allow them to help. Allow relatives to give you as much help as possible if they offer, it will help them feel involved and it will help you. For example, a friend offered to pay for favors as a gift, another family member offered to get the cake. But if you’re on your own, you can still have an awesome wedding on a budget.
Which brings me to my last option: Have a winter wedding. Or a fall or “off season” wedding. (Not spring or summer) You can usually find everything from your wedding dress to catering and entertainment at a discount.
Hope this helps, have a happy wedding!!