Wedding Resources

Inexpensive but nice venue for both wedding ceremony and reception?

I want to avoid having to run around too much on my wedding day. Are there any nice but affordable places to hold both a wedding ceremony and reception in the Seattle area?

Public Comments

1. So much depends on what you consider affordable, and how many people you need to accomodate. Looking for a space large enough where you can have the ceremony and the reception tables are already set up nearby, or are you willing to have your guests mill around after the ceremony while the chairs and tables are set up for the reception? Details please!
2. Jennifer is def right! My sis and also two of my friends are all planning their weddings right now and so I see that much of your question is really subjective so you need to kind of explain your terms, just based on how different all of these people are and how differently they want things. What is inexpensive for you? What I'm seeing is one person doing it at an Elk's Club and thinking it's nice, one at a modest church, and one at the old Train Station in the International District for a reception and St. James Cathedral for the wedding. Three VERY different ideas of what "nice" will be and what will be "affordable". If you can give a few more specifics about what might work well for you as an example, it'd be a helpful frame of reference.
3. We rented the banquet room at the Graham Visitor Center in the Arboretum. It had a kitchen attached (no cooking allowed, but a good space for the caterer to heat things up), bathrooms, lots of parking, and it opened out to a beautiful patio with arbors all around. We got married on the patio, had the tables & chairs set up out there for the reception, then the band and cake were inside with a rented dance floor and a few more tables & chairs. The staff were very helpful and friendly and at the time it was like $800 for the whole night (of course, this was 10 years ago, so I'm sure it's more now). The best part was that they allowed us to hire our own caterer...a lot of the "fancier" places had rules that you had to use their caterer, and we didn't want the standard chicken & veggies for food (we hired the owner of a Spanish tapas bar which is now out of business). So, check out the arboretum...the official name is Washington Park Arboretum. An added plus is that we took pictures around the arboretum before the wedding and they were absolutely gorgeous (lots of flowers & plants)!! Here's another tip for you: whenever you can, say you are planning a "private party" instead of "wedding". Lots of service providers (florists, caterers, band, DJ, etc) think ca-ching! when they hear "wedding". So, if at all possible, say it's for a private party and they may charge you less for the same service.