My wedding and reception will be in my backyard. I have just purchased a house this year and my fh and I wanted to do two things - landscape our beautiful mountained back yard and get married. So we combined the two. The cost of landscaping our backyard and throw in tables, chairs, wedding dress, cake, etc will cost us approximately $7000.
throw in our honeymoon with the kids to Florida - $3000 and our whole shindig is $10,000!!!!!!!!!!!! All is said and done I will be married- have a beautiful backyard and have met minnie mouse.

Wow! 19k? (Frank girl - I would love to see what that look like) I found a hotel that will give us a ballroom for the ceremony, foyer area for the cocktail hour and a ballroom for the reception. Theyre including a honeymoon suite and breakfast buffet for us. They also are giving us champagne for the reception. All the chairs, tables, lines, china, ect, and setup/take down are included. We only had to spend a minimum of $3200 on the food & drinks and were looking at $4200. I only have to buy my attire, flowers, cake, decorations, stationary & favors and thats all! I think an inclusive package is the way to go.

Our location is no charge, but there is an $8,000 minimum in food and drink throughout the night, however they do include anything spent on the rehersal dinner, the brunch the morning after, tips, and anything guests spend in the bar that we aren't covering with our beer, wine, soda, and signature mixed drink... we are also having the ceremony at the garden gazebo at the same place, and there is a $500 fee for that.

There are so many venues to choose from and most of them are not cheap at all.

Obviously the good ones are going to be more expensive, but you will probably find they offer allot better service and extras, or have a better environment.

Doesn't matter which venue you choose, make sure you leave plenty of time for the booking, otherwise they may be full, months, even years in advance.

Paul,
www.my-wedding-reception.com

I have 3 different wedding experiences and here is the cost for each. My first wedding was at a church that was free to members and the reception hall was 150.00. This did not include anything other than the use of the building and kitchen.

My 2nd marriage was a destination wedding. The entire wedding weekend(Memorial Weekend) was approx. $5000.00. That is for Chapel,(including service, flowers, decorations, music, photography, carriage ride after service, reception at the country club, with light luncheon, wedding cake & the works, toasting glasses, dressing room for bride and potrait of the wedding chapel) and 75% of the total cost for accomondations at a log cabin lodge and 3 cabins in the mountains for 46 attendants and guests.

My 3rd example is my sons wedding coming up in July. Members in the church so there is no cost there and the reception hall is $80.00.(This is the same hall that I paid $150.00 to use for my first wedding. Ex-husband is now a member of that club and he can rent it for $80.00.

Now I don't know if this helps, as each wedding senerio is a different situation.
Best of luck!

Our reception site is gorgeous. Two large chandeliers (one in the foyer, and a bigger one in the reception room,) beautiful wall of windows and glass doors lookout out onto a patio/garden and the gazebo we're getting married in ($250 for that:-)) We're paying $8,000 for the space, an open bar, family-style meal (three meats, veggie, potato, salad, coffee, dessert, and hors d'ouvres), cake-cutting and serving, security guard (it's pretty par-for-the-course in these parts,) free use of their centerpieces materials (mirrors, glass bowls/vases)...there's more, but I forget. It's a great deal, the food is fabulous, and it's just gorgeous. I about had a heart attack when we figured out the price, but I loved it and we're getting a lot for the money, AND they're wonderful to work with. It forced our budget up a little bit, but we're still looking to be able to keep it at around 12,000 for everything. I'm certainly happy with our choice, though. It's gonna be gorgeous:-D