Event tent rent?

[Morrigoon]

If my parents still had the house we had when I was a teen, I'd almost certainly do a backyard wedding. But, alas, they don't. So I was kind of considering this place. Their pricing is actually pretty reasonable, I think.
Trick is, I think all they provide is the setting, so I have to compare doing this thing a la carte to the bundled services other places provide. But the advantage would be being able to choose my own catering, so I wouldn't be railroaded into using some place's contract caterer, which means I can shop around both for quality and price.

Wow, I totally didn't intend to go into this much detail. But yeah, I have some ideas and I'm just trying to get ideas of costs so I can weed out the better ideas from the not-so-great ones.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

I believe we needed extra insurance if there was going to be alcohol at Erica's going away party too.

Just to clarify - our condo insurer, AAA, said they would not insure our party (at any price) if there was alcohol served at all, so we had to shop around. We don't think it cost us any more to have alcohol there, it's just that AAA sucks. Usually your homeowner/condo insurance will give you small event insurance for cheap.

Large events are another story I believe.

If we're talking weddings, I vouch for the pay-one-place-to-do-most-everything deal. I looked into the tent, outdoors, catering, dancefloor, piecemeal option, and it was WAY cheaper to go the country club route, not to mention WAY less stressful.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Just to clarify - our condo insurer, AAA, said they would not insure our party (at any price) if there was alcohol served at all, so we had to shop around. We don't think it cost us any more to have alcohol there, it's just that AAA sucks. Usually your homeowner/condo insurance will give you small event insurance for cheap.

That's right. And my company said they wouldn't cover because it wasn't family.

[Disneyphile]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

If my parents still had the house we had when I was a teen, I'd almost certainly do a backyard wedding. But, alas, they don't. So I was kind of considering this place. Their pricing is actually pretty reasonable, I think.

Do they also charge for the hours of set-up and tear-down? That's where it can cost serious bucks, because figure you'll have 2 hours of set-up and at least 1 hour of tear-down on top of your event.

If your event is 4 hours long, plus 3, you're looking at $2,800 just for site rental fee, not including the security fees.

And, then, consider the rest in your ballpark figure:

Table/linen/chair rentals would be around $400-$500 or better.

Flowers run about $200 for a fresh bouquet.

Low-end catering at $20/pp, possibly more. (Figure $2,000+ for 100 people.)

Alcohol - $$$$

DJ - $600-$1,000

Dress - $200-$1,000

Tux Rentals - $125 each

Minister fees - $100+

Tips (caterer, DJ, minister, etc.) - $100-$200 minimum total

Centerpieces - $10+ each

Favors - $3 per guest ($300)

Cake - $300+

Photography - $1,000+

So, not including venue site fees/security/insurance, plan on at least $6,000 for the above, and that's pretty much serving very limited beer and wine, if any alcohol at all.

Pretty much, a "budget" wedding that still has some class runs around $8,000-$10,000 these days in SoCal.

Our final ticket ran just over $6,500, but that was with a some major things covered by friendly favors and making a LOT of the decor myself. Without the gifted components, ours would have run about $9,000+, and that was with a very affordable all-in-one venue.

Weddings ain't cheap.