Help! Cannot find a nice wedding venue that allows you to bring your own food

How to cut your guest list.

You might not like my reply, but honestly I don't think you have looked hard enough. We researched all kinds of venues and there were definitely ones that allowed a caterer not on their list for a fee and they had to prove they were licensed. These weren't places that were all-inclusive and the venue basically was the caterer - these were places that had a "preferred list". The venue we did use - we used their tables, chairs, etc and the caterer brought in the food, plates, utensils, etc. You need to look harder.

You have 300-350 people who are willing to travel to Chicago, Dallas or Houston for your wedding???

@Kelli- Thanks. Where was the place? I dont mind looking. I'm just having problems finding a good place. Thanks for the suggestion thou

Doris are you willing to look into the suburbs of the cities?? I think you can make it work in places a bit further from chicago. Such as Tuscany falls banquets in Mokena,il. From the pictures it looks nice and seems like it could work within the budget and amount of people. Mokena is about an hour and 20 from chicago. There is also dinolfos in homer glen which is an hour from chicago. The actual city will be expensive cuz they tak on more taxes. Another option would be to choose a hotel as the venue and do a buffet those are usually cheaper and if you do a lunch buffet you will have more wiggle room in your budget. I'm not sure about the other cities. I also got this info from another ww bride!

Honestly, you're going to have issues here and you're going to have to compromise on one or several in order to get the wedding you hope for.

your guest list is really, really, REALLY big - that heavily limits the number of venues that can accommodate you. a venue that can accommodate 350 people is also generally almost always going to be a venue that is going to have in-house catering that is likely to be pricey.

Pretty much your options are realistically going to be either sticking with your huge guest list and accepting that its going to be expensive and require some compromise (catering wise) from you in terms of finding a venue that can even accommodate those numbers, or cutting your numbers and finding a smaller venue that is more likely to let you bring in your own caterer. Most venues that allow BYO catering top out at around 150-200 guests.

With 350 people at a wedding, you won't even have time to say hello to them all if you want to eat and pee too.

Can we all #hideinthebushes for this one?

Doris, click on the Vendors tab at the top. Search for venues in your 3 possible cities. You can sort by size and price.

Doris, keep your panties unbunched and your mind open. The ladies (and occasional gent) on here are a great resource for advice. They just might save you from making a huge mistake (I know they saved me once or twice).

@Doris - I am in Kansas City so I don't know if I can be of any specific help with specific venues - unless you are interested in KC. Tania said it SO much better than I did! Be sure to ask if they allow outside vendors. And I agree, if you are looking at Chicago, St. Louis is a large, great city not that far away from Chicago.

I am curious ... why the 3 cities you listed? Is that where family is located? Where do you live?

@Kelli- I'm from Chicago, but moved to Dallas with my fiance a few months back. I also have a ton of family in Houston.

Almost any venue that allows outside vendors is going to want a certificate of insurance and/or health inspection. Several years ago I catered a wedding on one day's notice because the unlicensed caterer never got a COI to the venue and they told the couple, on Friday, that they would not let the caterer in on Sat.

Venues generally take this pretty seriously.

Anyone else confused? What if you did a cocktail hour reception to keep costs down have stations . I did a mock up budget if your having a 50,000 wedding it would cost 26,000 including 2000, for bar and taxes its in your budget.

Unfortunately, lots of people have time to troll these boards. Once you have been here for a while you will start to see it. I am sorry for the troll comment. Not sorry for the subsequent ones.

@Countrybride782346... sounds nice. I had not thought of cocktail hour only reception.

@CeliaMilton--YIKES!!!!

@spazzytazi -- thanks for the tips. Wedding planning is stressful enough to even think about cooking myself. I cant even cook so there is no way i'd be making food for my wedding. Sorry for the earlier confusion.

I've been arguing with my fiance to cut the guest list for a while now;months actually. He doesn't mind if the place is not that nice. I do though. I just want to be comfortable with the way everything looks for the event.

I'm Nigerian American and we tend to have huge 300-700 person weddings. They use an outside caterer but for the most part the venue is horrible looking. I was hoping to not have a wedding like this.

I was a bridesmaid in a wedding at Salvage One a few years ago. That place was awesome, and could definitely accommodate 300-350 people. She used an outside caterer, and had a bunch of stations -- it was delicious! I know it wasn't exactly cheap, but she was great with her budget, and I think they're willing to work with you on a lot of things. You should check it out!

ETA: it's in Chicago, ps

@FinallyMrsT-- Thanks so much for your suggestion. I'll look into it.