Wedding venue

Does this venue have an outdoor space you cold hold a ceremony? You can also look at local parks and see if you can get a permit to have a ceremony there. But you would most likely need to then provide a shuttle to take your guests to the reception hall.

View Quoted Comment I'm worried about outside because it's in april.

Can guests watch from their seats at the tables like at the Golden Globes? It’s very common for a reception venue to have the ceremony take place regardless of religion vs not. Plus if you are on a budget, then a second venue is not the most economical if you can skip it. But people do the single venue for both everyday.


A common “solution” that is frequently suggested is to have both ceremony and reception in the same space but guests are herded to another area for the cocktail hour (that not all weddings have) while a crew changes the furniture. But that costs money and requires extra space that not everyone has. That doesn’t work for everyone so that’s when creative ideas come in. Even if you have tables set up along the wall and ceremony seating in the center, where someone moves the tables into place for the reception, guests still need to be ushered to another spot and a crew of workers move tables into place. Not all couples have that option.

I completely understand your dilemma! It's great that you were able to secure a good deal on the reception site, but I can see how you'd want something a bit more unique for the ceremony. Since you're not religious, a church wouldn't fit the bill anyway.

Consider non-traditional venues like parks, gardens, or beaches for your ceremony. Alternatively, look into renting a separate space just for the ceremony, which could provide a unique atmosphere while still keeping the reception at your chosen site.

View Quoted Comment The venue doesn't really have a separate space and my concern with doing it at a park is the season. It's in April so I'm worried about rain.

Think outside the box! You don’t need to look only at venues that are advertised as “wedding venues”. Lots of other businesses rent out spaces for events! Places like art galleries, zoos, botanical gardens, coffee shops, restaurants, private estates, etc.

You still could check with churches -- staying with mainline or non-denominal churches. Even non-religious chapels in las vegas are sometimes designed in a church style. Some choices depend on the number of guests you have. There may be bridal chapels in the area that (like in Vegas) could have the number of guests you will have.

View Quoted Comment Curious why a non religious person/couple would go this route. A non religious person/couple has zero relationship with religion of any kind and it is seen as disrespectful and hypocritical to use a house of worship for aesthetics because they don’t share the beliefs that it is associated with. A Vegas style community building where secular (no religion at all) weddings take place is not the same as a generic Protestant (religious) gathering place and it’s disrespectful to the church in question to assume that they are similar in any way outside of the construction layout. When a couple does go with a house of worship, no clergy will eliminate religion from their script, and very few will allow outside officiants to perform because it goes against the house of worship’s bylaws.