Getting hitched in the City of Roses. But where?
December 12, 2012 7:46 AM Subscribe
Recommend awesome venues for a wedding in Portland, OR. Money is an issue, but I'm clueless!
I just got engaged this weekend, yay! My fiancé will be moving up next month from Phoenix, AZ to Portland, OR and we're planning on hosting a small wedding (under 50, more likely 36 or so) sometime in the next year. We're not rich but we're resourceful and crafty-- so I'm looking for interesting venues that could host a small wedding/reception without being prohibitively expensive.
We're not looking for a church or a superfancy venue-- this wedding will probably be small, quirky and non-traditional. Most of our guests will be traveling in from Arizona and the East Coast... I'm an illustrator and he's a programmer, so any place that is aesthetically pleasing or skewing a little nerdy is always a good bet. Current places I was looking at include the Ace Cleaners, UnionPine and Holocene. I do really like the idea of outdoor venues, though the local parks seem to have limited options for seating, and Portland's weather can always be such a wild card...
Any suggestions will be totally welcome! Thanks in advance!
I just got engaged this weekend, yay! My fiancé will be moving up next month from Phoenix, AZ to Portland, OR and we're planning on hosting a small wedding (under 50, more likely 36 or so) sometime in the next year. We're not rich but we're resourceful and crafty-- so I'm looking for interesting venues that could host a small wedding/reception without being prohibitively expensive.
We're not looking for a church or a superfancy venue-- this wedding will probably be small, quirky and non-traditional. Most of our guests will be traveling in from Arizona and the East Coast... I'm an illustrator and he's a programmer, so any place that is aesthetically pleasing or skewing a little nerdy is always a good bet. Current places I was looking at include the Ace Cleaners, UnionPine and Holocene. I do really like the idea of outdoor venues, though the local parks seem to have limited options for seating, and Portland's weather can always be such a wild card...
Any suggestions will be totally welcome! Thanks in advance!
I can't speak to Portland specifically, but I had a smallish wedding and we brought the whole thing in at $4,500. That included the wedding clothes, a buffet meal and an open bar.
First of all, we were members of a Unitarian Universalist church, so we had the ceremony there. UU churches are great because it's a barefoot/Birkinstock kind of place. They're welcoming and you can have the hippiest-dippiest ceremony you want. (We did full on traditional, which pissed our pastor off no end! She kept trying to call the spirit of the wolf into our ceremony, but I was having NONE OF IT!)
Now, we could have also had the reception there, for free, but chose to do our local Cuban restaurant.
We got the bar for our party, and it was set up for dining and dancing. We paid $35 per person for a buffet with all sorts of yummy Cuban specialties and an open bar. They created and served Dulce de Leche pina coladas that my friends are STILL talking about.
How did we get everything so cheap? We had it on a Wednesday in July in Florida.
We had a weird reason for getting married on a Wednesday, but let me tell you, it was awesome how cheap everything was!
My recommendation is to find a nice restaurant that would have no problem seating all of your friends. It may only have a beer and wine license, but that's cool. Have it in the middle of the week, you'll be AMAZED at how accomodating they'll be.
Cast among your friends, someone is a notary or a mail-order officient and I'm sure they'll do the ceremony free for you.
You do not have to spend a shit-ton of money to have an awesome wedding. I'm here to tell you.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:59 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]
First of all, we were members of a Unitarian Universalist church, so we had the ceremony there. UU churches are great because it's a barefoot/Birkinstock kind of place. They're welcoming and you can have the hippiest-dippiest ceremony you want. (We did full on traditional, which pissed our pastor off no end! She kept trying to call the spirit of the wolf into our ceremony, but I was having NONE OF IT!)
Now, we could have also had the reception there, for free, but chose to do our local Cuban restaurant.
We got the bar for our party, and it was set up for dining and dancing. We paid $35 per person for a buffet with all sorts of yummy Cuban specialties and an open bar. They created and served Dulce de Leche pina coladas that my friends are STILL talking about.
How did we get everything so cheap? We had it on a Wednesday in July in Florida.
We had a weird reason for getting married on a Wednesday, but let me tell you, it was awesome how cheap everything was!
My recommendation is to find a nice restaurant that would have no problem seating all of your friends. It may only have a beer and wine license, but that's cool. Have it in the middle of the week, you'll be AMAZED at how accomodating they'll be.
Cast among your friends, someone is a notary or a mail-order officient and I'm sure they'll do the ceremony free for you.
You do not have to spend a shit-ton of money to have an awesome wedding. I'm here to tell you.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:59 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]
Does it have to be in Portland proper? The Oregon Garden is a big botanical garden in Silverton that is absolutely lovely and has a lot of experience with weddings (though would be best in July/August/September).
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:03 AM on December 12, 2012
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:03 AM on December 12, 2012
Another suggestion, though I have no specific Portland recommendations: find a small hotel or large B&B that accommodates about the number of people you expect to be in your party, and completely take it over for a weekend. Your out of town guests will have to stay somewhere anyway, and if you find a nice place to have the wedding/reception and your people are already staying there it makes for a very nice weekend (and you don't have to worry about people drinking and driving). This is what we did when we got married and it worked out really well (and it was really inexpensive for us since our guests were paying their own lodging, we only had to pay a little extra for the wedding/reception -- I think we spent less than $2000 for the whole shebang).
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:10 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:10 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]
Mr. Bruno and I recently attended a wedding at The Kennedy School - the ceremony was outside in the courtyard and the reception in the gymnasium. It wasn't my wedding so I have no idea the costs, but it's a really unique venue and we had a blast. Best of luck!
posted by hungrybruno at 8:53 AM on December 12, 2012
posted by hungrybruno at 8:53 AM on December 12, 2012
My friends just got married at Cathedral Park, under the bridge. It's a really beautiful, magical spot. The ceremony was short and standing because of the chair restrictions but that didn't really matter (though if you look through Google images some people seem to have set up chairs there in the past).
posted by PercussivePaul at 8:55 AM on December 12, 2012
posted by PercussivePaul at 8:55 AM on December 12, 2012
My first wedding was at Leach Botanical Garden. It's a very lovely and special place. It looks like their fees have increased since my wedding in 2000(!), but it still might be reasonable for a small group. An atypical day like Friday or Sunday would probably be less expensive too.
You get to have the whole house and grounds for your event, so it's nice and private. And it's really beautiful so you don't have to spend much on decorations!
posted by apricot at 9:09 AM on December 12, 2012
You get to have the whole house and grounds for your event, so it's nice and private. And it's really beautiful so you don't have to spend much on decorations!
posted by apricot at 9:09 AM on December 12, 2012
I went to a lovely low-budget wedding at the Chinese Garden. Mount Tabor is good too.
posted by matildaben at 9:55 AM on December 12, 2012
posted by matildaben at 9:55 AM on December 12, 2012
Any of the McMenamins properties that host weddings (like the Kennedy School) are going to fit your nerdy/artistic group very well.
The winery/brewery/distillery/golf/hotel/theater complex at McMenamins Edgefield, just outside Portland proper, is a fantastic venue.
posted by Kakkerlak at 9:56 AM on December 12, 2012
The winery/brewery/distillery/golf/hotel/theater complex at McMenamins Edgefield, just outside Portland proper, is a fantastic venue.
posted by Kakkerlak at 9:56 AM on December 12, 2012
However, McMenamins is going to be way more expensive than any of your more offbeat options.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:16 AM on December 12, 2012
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:16 AM on December 12, 2012
2nding the Leach Botanical Garden. We had a great wedding there.
posted by xil at 11:26 AM on December 12, 2012
posted by xil at 11:26 AM on December 12, 2012
My fiancé and I are having our 30ish person wedding at a rented house on the Oregon coast, which cost us about $900 for three nights. It will let most of her immediate family stay there to set up before and clean up.
posted by Caduceus at 1:23 PM on December 13, 2012
posted by Caduceus at 1:23 PM on December 13, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by momus_window at 7:57 AM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]