Hello fellow brides & grooms! I'm looking for advice on an inexpensive St. Louis area venue. It feels like I have searched and contacted every single option only to find out that for the venue, food, alcohol, and other basic venue-related-items, everything is about $13,000 - $16,000 minimum...which is my entire budget. Our guest list is about 150 (give or take), we are looking for late March-early May 2020 (and will try to stick with off seasons). My issues are the following:
- All of my relatives are from CA and NJ and all need to travel so there can't be a risk of snow and a venue has to be no less than an hour from the St. Louis airport.
- We are not religious so we will not be getting married in a church and would like to find a place where we can host the reception and ceremony
- I really don't like banquet halls or hotels. I love the industrial/simple look and I would be okay with a barn wedding (but not my first choice). We really wanted to get married at a brewery but Anheuser-Busch was way too expensive and the other breweries we've found are too small.
- We are open to a winery but he hates wine and I don't want to get married somewhere that isn't "us" for lack of a better term.
- I'd prefer an indoor reception & ceremony. I wouldn't be against an outdoor ceremony but Midwest weather is way too unpredictable for me.
Some of the ones we've already contacted that don't work are The Venue at Maison du Lac, The Willow & The Slate, The McPherson, Schlafly Taproom, Moulin Events, Windows on Washington, The Caramel Room, WOW Events, and a couple more that I can't remember the name at the moment.
Thank you to everyone who answers!
Also, it doesn't have to be in St. Louis - just the greater St. Louis area (even on the IL side is great), I just need it in a decent proximity to the airport.