Where to say, "I do"?

August 10, 2006 11:26 AM

Where to hold a wedding in the Philadelphia area on short notice?

My pals are getting hitched....on September 30th, but where? Inside, outside, or upside down? I suggested the Woodlands, but the bride suspects that getting married in a cemetery might upset the inlaws. Price is a big issue as well, apparently renting space on this earth for a brief ceremony can run into the thousands. Any ideas for a wedding on a poor punk shoestring?

posted by cometwendy to society & culture (6 comments total)

How about a small botanical garden?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:36 AM on August 10, 2006

How many people will be there? Me, my wife and our guests totalled 25 people, so we did the ceremony for free in a public space in Asheville, NC. We were there for probably a total of 30 minutes and then we hit a local restaurant where we had made a reservation.
posted by NoMich at 11:40 AM on August 10, 2006

Congrats! Same day, same city... so are we!
posted by dmd at 2:08 PM on August 10, 2006

Have they considered getting married in Delaware? Wilmington is about 30 miles from Philadelphia, and the advantage to getting married there is financial - there's no sales tax. Friends have told me that a DE wedding and reception comes out to be far less expensive than a comparable wedding would be in South Jersey or Southeastern PA.
posted by amro at 3:17 PM on August 10, 2006

My first idea was the upper courtyard of the Penn Museum, but that's hella expensive.

My second was the BioPond, but Blazecock beat me to it.

My last idea is somewhere in Fairmount. There are tons of nice places around... contact info is here.
posted by The Michael The at 5:22 AM on August 11, 2006

i dont know where you should actually get married not being familiar with philadelphia but i recommend checking out city parks for the actual ceremony. depending on what you want it may end up costing nothing to just gather there and get married. i got married last month in a beautiful little park that had a ton of flowers, all we brought were people and left the area clean.. we then had the reception at a rented hall, depending on the amount of people you can always gather at someones house after as well.

ive also known a couple people that were on a 'poor punk shoestring', that had a potluck wedding so everyone brought an item. (i had a friend make my wedding cake).

there are alot of ways you can cut costs and still have a great time. we spent a total of under 1500 dollars on our wedding INCLUDING catering, and the help of alot of friends.. people told us it was the best wedding they had been to. also one of our best friends got ordained on the internet to marry us, much more personal and alot less expensive.

so congratulations to them and good luck.
posted by trishthedish at 9:59 AM on August 11, 2006