VFW/American Legion/Mason/Moose/Firehall weddings.

Place. With our budget, it's not wise to spend $5000 just for food with a budget of $8000. So there are quite a few nice halls around here. At first I wrinkled my nose to places like VFW and fire halls, but we visited a really really nice fire hall over the weekend. No wood panel walls, no game markings on the floor, etc. They even had a dimmer for the lights so it didn't have to be completly black or bright white in the hall. They only want $350 for the rental and we can bring in our own food and alcohol.

We found a caterer that basically breaks down to about $5 per person with good food. They cater our holiday parties at work. You can just have someone drop off the food and handle it yourself or you can hire servers to make sure the food stays warm with their own equipment. Also we can buy our own alcohol anD in PA (I'm sure in many other states) whatever we don't use can be taken back to the state stores for a refund. So, I would like to see these halls being transformed. I found some online, but it looks like it cost a lot of money for floor to ceiling pipe drapping and 10 feet tall centerpieces. Has anyone had their wedding at these types of places and how much did it cost you in the end? Thanks!

Have not had my wedding yet, but we will be having ours at the American Legion. I felt the same way as you initially I was not happy about the thought of the Legion, but when we walked in the place was HUGE all the wood panel was gone. We were going to go with someone for uplighting which really wasn't that expensive (but something about this vendor didn't feel right so we decided not to), and really that's about all we were going to do to transform the room. I would love to do more, but am watching the budget so I'm not sure what will be done yet.

My mom made this backdrop but other than that we didn't really do a ton of decorating. I wasn't one of those people who needed it to look really decorated so we kept it simple with just table decorations.

This backdrop was PVC pipe, sheer curtains from JCP and some uplighting. All told it was about $100 and my mom sold it after the wedding for pretty close to that price.

Oh and you didn't ask, but I would definitely hire servers. My mom had 3 female coworkers and they volunteered to help with the serving if they could come to the wedding. They were great! Helped my mother actually enjoy the night.

You have to create the inspiration.

Oh wow Pumpkin! I wouldn't have guessed those were curtains! Did you also find an outside caterer or did you make your own food?

3 words: RENT A PARACHUTE.

I'm seriously considering this.

http://pinterest.com/pin/88101736430042546/

My neighbor from across the street is a caterer. She and her roommate made the food. It was great food and so reasonable.

I also hired two bartenders for $200. They were a huge help. My DOC helped keep the ladies organized and the food filled. It worked out great.

Oh wow Pan! I wouldn't have even considered that!

We had a lot of DIY lighting effects for our wedding. You might want to check out this page, which gives details.

@2nd Bride-Thank you so much! That was very helpful!

I was also thinking of this as an option. may take alot more DIY which im fine with but seem really cost effective

Yeah, I'm pricing it and anything looks better than paying $5000 for food that I can get way cheaper from a caterer or restaurant that doesn't typically do weddings.

We are using a Canadian Legion, it's a brand new building so it doesn't need a lot of decor. Decor kind of falls to the bottom of my $5000 budget anyway, and since it's a new building with new paint and ceilings they will only let us put things up with sticky tac, so that kind of limits things. I'm kind of thinking of borrowing twinkle lights and wrapping them in pink tulle and stringing that around the room from removable hooks, but I get that that probably isn't everyones idea of classy wedding decor.

Our reception is being held at a local Irish Society. The cost ost was only $1305. 00. And lucky for us since our wedding is on nye, the hall will still be decorated for the holidays.. So we only have to work on tables!

But I don't think you'll have to do much decoration with those spaces.

I have been to tons of FVW/Fire Hall weddings and it really is a location to location thing. Some have been beautiful and others-not so much. IF the price is right and you like it then you are good to go!

We are having our wedding at the Elks Lodge. Our budget, for everything is a tad over $8k. My parents are Elks so we got a deal on the alcohol for the open bar. The place is really pretty actually. Not what you'd expect. Here are some pics from the website. (They are not our wedding pictures.) The lodge is up on a hill that overlooks the city. And at night, we will have a perfect view of the fireworks at Disneyland! The ceremony is outdoors on the patio that has an awesome view. And the reception is in the banquet hall. We are having 200 people.

Oh wow Kristi! That's very nice!

We are going to go look at another firehall and the American Legion tonight. The outside of the American Legion looks sketchy, but we'll see!

Well, we just got back from one of the local fire halls and all I can say is wow. Not what I was expecting! It looked like a hotel ballroom! So we signed the contract and we now have a venue again!

Now we just need to find a ceremony space! I'm so happy!

Yay congrats Miss Tattoo