As I've mentioned before...I've kind of been semi-planning this wedding for quite some time, so I already had the venue options narrowed down to three places:
#1: The Inn on Crescent Lake (Excelsior Springs, MO)
When I first saw this website, I thought I would cry. It was so pretty! I've always wanted an outdoor wedding...and this venue has enough room that we could keep almost half of our guest list overnight!
Look at how pretty it is!
And of course, to top it all off, they have wedding packages! We could have the whole inn and several of the wedding necessities for around $6,000. Not too shabby! However, with wanting to stay as budget conscious as possible, we decided to continue looking around.
#2 The Screenland Armour (North Kansas City, MO)
This ADORABLE theatre was revamped a few years ago, around the time we started dating. The hubs used to live in North Kansas City, and we both currently work there, so we've seen several movies there. One day while waiting in line, we saw the manager taking a couple upstairs, talking about renting the "loft space" for events. The future hubs and I looked at each other and said almost simultaneously "What?!? They do weddings here? Aweome!"Although an indoor wedding isn't #1 on my list, it certainly has some advantages (such as not having to worry about rain). We decided to look into it. Bryan (the event coordinator) sent me information, and the only issue was, once again, cost. Although they allow you to bring in outside catering, they do not allow outside alcohol, and since we are in our 20's...we can pretty much count on our friends to make that bill a steep one. Also, without the all-inclusive feeling of a bed and breakfast, we'd have to consider transportation, booking ourselves a honeymoon suite, etc. However, if you like the idea of a loft wedding...I would seriously take a look at the Screenland Armour:
both photos found on the screenland website: www.screenland.com
Knowing that we wanted a bed and breakfast wedding, I decided to continue my search in that area. I searched The Knot, Weddingbee, and every other wedding related blog I could think of. Nearly all of them were out of our price range, or were too small to accommodate the immediate families (we decided those would be the ones staying with us, wherever we decided to stay). Then I had a thought. What is the number one way to save money on wedding things? Make sure they don't have "wedding" written somewhere on them. Seriously, the word "wedding" makes things significantly more expensive than what they really are. The wedding business isn't full of dummies...that's how it got to be a billion-plus worthy empire. So, I decided to change my google search to something as simple as "Kansas City bed and breakfast"...and what did I find: our third option:
#3: Orchard Hill Bed and Breakfast (Lawson, MO)
This B&B sits on 80 acres, has a pond, and does weddings. Oh, and the owner Ted is AMAZING. I mean, he is awesome. The house can hold 8 comfortably, as they turned one of their rooms into an apartment for the live-in managers, but Ted offered us the meeting room in the basement for overflow, so there can be room for our brothers. Ted is a "it's all about you" kind of guy. Want candles? Absolutely. Any caterer, any DJ, any anything...ours all ours. He even offered to let us do a bonfire and take up a substantial chunk of the yard to play games. Yeah...awesome. Oh, and did I mention the cost for us to have the venue for the weekend (Friday noon to Sunday noon)? $2,800 (which includes tables, chairs, linens, and lots more). Whoa. My mind was blown. I had to have it. We had to get married there. And luckily, our date was open.
Take a look at what I'm working with:
Aren't I lucky?
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