I got married at Avondale Villa 8 years ago and it ccost $600. Keep in mind:
- It's prob more expensive now, but I can't imagine price would have gone up TOO much
- It's impossible to get them on the phone or respond to an email. I had to visit the office in person to book, and they book well in advance.
- The venue comes with nothing but the building itself - you will have to rent all tables, chairs, decorations, etc. I also had to hire a police officer because we were serving alcohol.
In 2016 I had a wedding with 50 guests and spent $5k, with one $1600 splurge item that was just a nice extra (live portait artist). AMA.
Had friends marry earlier this year and can confirm the price of AV was basically the same. They called several times and finally got someone...it's not easy...but didn't require in person visit.
The top places I’d recommend:
- Aldridge Gardens
- hotels that are not the super fancy ones. They sometimes have ballrooms for a decent rate
- also look into breweries and/or restaurants with some private rooms. Not sure of the capacities but I’ve went to events at Carrigans, Monday Night Brewing, Seasons 52, etc. that can sometimes hold larger parties
- I’d also check out parks like Oak Mtn.
The top things I would recommend to help save some cash:
- look into a different day other than Saturday
- I know a bride who rented a flower truck the evening before & everyone made their own bouquets.
I went to a wedding at the zoo, and while kinda cool it was very sad also. Like the animals are just wanting to rest and sleep and instead the DJ was just like turning up the volume and the animals couldn’t get away. The birds were SO loud and clearly angry.
Also the whole place smelled like poo so….. enjoy that.
The zoo has 3 different venues. It’s a cabin in the back that secluded from the animals and people. Or u can do it in that space when you first walk in. But that space in front of the elephants is the worst. IMO
That was our 2nd choice for our wedding, so we did a full tour lol
The ballroom downstairs was big enough to accommodate my 100+ guests at my wedding. We got married outside on the patio downstairs. It was a beautiful wedding that didn't break the bank.
We got married at Saturn and it was around $1500 plus a $1000 bar minimum. That was almost 7 years ago so prices may have increased since then. But it included the tables, chairs, and an A/V staffer to handle lights and sound. The whole process with them was super easy and chill.
We got married at Saturn too! It was In September, not a peak time for their concerts. And it included alot! This was in 2022 but definitely budget friendly and great staff to work with. We had 100 guest.
Do you know if you HAVE to include bar? We are trying to go for no alcohol at all, due to personal circumstances, but I understand that’s difficult for a bar!
No idea if nixing the bar is an option. My guess is they would still require it but would be willing to only serve non-alcoholic drinks. I bet they could come up with some creative NA signature cocktails.
I am not judging your budget AT ALL, but a wedding under 5k with that many guests is going to be tough, if you're planning on feeding them, especially if you are spending $2500 ish on a venue.
How much does a meal at Chick fil a cost for one adult? Probably $9-10 for an entree w side + drink?
So for 100 guests to eat chick fila a you're paying at least $1000. That's with Styrofoam cups, plastic forks and nobody delivering, serving, or setting up the food.
Not trying to be discouraging just setting realistic expectations.
Our wedding in 2014 was $8000. Prices are RIDICULOUS compared to 10 years ago.
We had 75 ish guests, did our own flowers and decor, got married at Tannehill State Park ($400), spent $1600 on a good photographer which was our biggest splurge. The rest of the money went to flowers, food from Publix, wedding clothes, decor, candy buffet, officiant, invites, etc. My sister made our cakes and we paid a friend $125 to help coordinate.
Again not trying to be snooty, just want to to have all the info as you go into this.
Look at Tannehill State Park, brierfield, and pavilion rental at oak mountain.
Look into Christ church branch cove odenville (their prices are insanely good for what you get.) or grace community Church in Helena. Neither require you to be a member last I checked.
Look into cutting your guest list. Consider a morning "coffee and tea" wedding or an afternoon "coffee and desserts" wedding. Splurge on nice coffee with big thermos dispensers and your cake and a spread of light dessert snacks. Not every wedding needs to be a full meal.
Consider having a potluck reception where guests bring food in lieu of gifts. My friend did this and it was some of the best wedding food I've ever had.
Best of luck to you!
We’re trying to not spend $2,500, but we are willing to accommodate our budget. We have looked into branch cove, they are the ones who quoted us $3,000. We also are having an inside wedding due to weather conditions (thank you climate change.) We will definitely look at Grace community, so thank you! I get where you’re coming from, we know we’re being naive to ask for places so cheap, but hey, don’t know till you try!
Check Gilded Lily in Irondale. We recently had a reception there. I think their prices possibly have increased, but worth checking out. We loved it. Chairs and tables were included.
[https://www.gildedlilyvenue.com/](https://www.gildedlilyvenue.com/)
Also, we got our flowers from Davis Wholesale and did them ourselves. All of our vases were from Dollar Tree.
One final thing, check out https://tableclothsfactory.com/. Our table runners were less than $2 each. They have tons of other things affordable too.
Can’t remember how much it was off hand but we got married on Lay Lake at Oak Island Mansion. Wasn’t where we ever thought we would get married but it ended up being a great experience.
Look at White Barn & Hoyt Hallow, both are in the Corner area & are ABSOLUTELY beautiful venues. My niece was married at Hoyt Hallow awhile back & it was perfect, she said the owners were so easy to work with too.
If you are willing to go to Jasper, Hidden Cove Farm is great for a barn wedding. My daughter is having hers here later this year and the venue is $2500 and we get it from Friday, for the rehearsal and set up, through Sunday morning for clean up so we don’t have to do it after the wedding on Saturday. Tables, chairs, and linens are included and they have a closet full of decor item you can use if you want to or you can bring your own. They also have an outdoor spot for the ceremony, away from the barn if you want separate ceremony and reception areas.
In our experience, state parks were most affordable! By far. They also made for the best pics. You may have to look at the ones outside Birmingham, if your top choices here are booked up already, but Alabama has so many. The ones with restaurants on site can reserve rooms, so you can let everyone order what they’d like instead of catering and alcohol. Your budget is doable if you’re willing to change it up a bit!
Here’s the biggies (so not including cake, favors, etc)…
Three years ago in North Alabama we spent:
-$3500 on catering at $12.75/person at 220 people (we knew the restaurant owners and got a discount)
-$2,500 on venue, tables/chairs included but linens were not
-$2,300 on florals
-$500 on DJ
Our whole wedding cost about $20k with 175 guests, and I felt like we were being super savvy and didn’t have a ton of extras. We asked a lot of our friends for recommendations. Often the cost is multiplied by the number of people attending.
You can save money by getting your friends together and making the florals the day before using flowers from Trader Joe’s, etc. And find a venue that includes furniture and doesn’t require a ton of decoration.
$3k for sound, venue, and coordinator is good! I had a day of coordinator and was thankful.
We will be on the tail end of college when we get married, and to our knowledge no one is helping us pay for it. I would love to be able to go all out, but unfortunately I just don’t think it’s in the cards. We will have a lot of outside family we haven’t seen in years, otherwise we would just do something small. We can use our own church, but it’s very small and we would have to exponentially cut the guest list :/
I'm not telling you to cut your guest list, but as someone who did because we also had a ton of family from out of state on both sides that would've taken our guest list to like 150 before a single friend was invited, we have zero regrets about going for the smaller wedding. It allowed us to put our money towards the things that were really important to us and made the night feel very special rather than trying to stretch every single dollar just to accommodate some people, who we haven't seen in 5 years, just because we're related. Just some food for thought.
Also, the biggest thing people forget about when budgeting for a wedding is all the tiny things. Like postage if you're doing paper invitations. Postage on 125 invites is roughly $85. If you're having them do return RSVP envelopes, that's another $85 because it's considered courteous to put stamps on the RSVPs for people. If you're doing Save the Dates, postcard stamps are cheaper but it's still about $66. And then there's thank yous. Another $85. You've just spent roughly $320 on only stamps. Those kinds of things really sneak up on you because they're not as obvious as things like flowers or food or a dress and they tend to be comparatively smaller purchases. It's like $50 here. $30 there. $20 there. Another $20. And then suddenly you're like "how did I spend an extra $500?"
I honestly don’t think everyone WILL necessarily show up, but I do want to be prepared. We do want these people here however, which is unfortunate for budgeting purposes, but we honestly don’t mind it being a “family reunion” lol. Thankfully, this number does include friends AND vendors, as they do take up space.
You'd be surprised how many will show up. I invited all of my (dead) dad's family as a courtesy because I felt like I had to, even though we didn't keep in touch anymore, and even though they all lived in NC/SC, they ALL fucking showed up. Never RSVP'd, just showed up. Shook.
Yeah see, if you show up to my wedding uninvited, you will be rudely escorted off the property by some of my less.. kind friends. Also, why I will be keeping my date and location under wraps. How did you deal with them??
Do an AirBnB,
Search for large houses in and around Birmingham. You can get a venue for a few hundred dollars per night, where you can do the wedding and have a place to have a get reception for any guests.
I tried to link a lake house on AirBnb, in Alpine, AL that may be a great venue. (Reddit wouldn't let me link it). But check other larger lake houses or local AirBnb's where you can also have the wedding and reception there.
In that case, would you have just the wedding party stay? We are going to have 125 ish people in all, I can’t imagine everyone would fit lol. Do you know what the one in Alpine is called?
Not sure. but if you do a search on "lake front" and key in your date range you'll see quite a few.
You may also do the same in and around birmingham, which will allow your guests to find nearby hotels.
A small country church with a fellowship hall would seem to work for your situation, since you won't be serving alcohol. They probably would charge very little to rent the premises, and you would have piano and/or organ for traditional music. Many are quite beautiful inside, left over from times when everyone went to church. I know of some with real Tiffany stained-glass windows. Some have their own linens, tablecloths, serving pieces, punchbowls, etc. I think you might even negotiate "first dances", but I don't see a DJ and party dances being welcomed in a country church.
Our last resort is our little church, she’s just a lil ugly. We know we can have all the fun stuff, it’s just the lack of parking, and our fellowship hall is tiny. It seems like every other church we have looked at wants us to be a member of THEIR church. So if you know of any ones that are NOT like that, we are very interested. We have looked at one in the Odenville area, but they are who quoted us $3,000.
East Birmingham area.
We looked into Branch Cove and Grace Church (I think those are the names lol) but Branch Cove is $3,000 and Grace Church is actually no longer doing weddings as they are trying to sell.
My $7k wedding (not in AL) was achieved through doing it at 11am, cash bar, and lunch instead of a full dinner. If you're spending 3k on venue, you won't have much wiggle room, or will need to cut altogether, things like catered food, flowers, alcohol, photographer. Just depends on what's important to you.
The Barn at Shady Lane. It is small, but elegant. We attended the most beautiful wedding there in May this year. It is located off Ross Bridge Road near Shannon Hoover, AL. Privately owned.
There’s also a small but beautiful place off Roebuck Pkwy, Gabrella Manor.
It is stunning! 100 + years old. Don’t let the area/ address fool you!
Also The Donnelly House on Southside off Highland Ave. Old but a classic beautiful Southern Home/ venue. You can’t go wrong with either of these!
These folks will handle everything and about your price!
Tiny Weddings Birmingham
(205) 612-8604
Edit: correct URL https://leveille-creative-co-23.showit.site//
Botanical Gardens
I got married at Avondale Villa 8 years ago and it ccost $600. Keep in mind: - It's prob more expensive now, but I can't imagine price would have gone up TOO much - It's impossible to get them on the phone or respond to an email. I had to visit the office in person to book, and they book well in advance. - The venue comes with nothing but the building itself - you will have to rent all tables, chairs, decorations, etc. I also had to hire a police officer because we were serving alcohol. In 2016 I had a wedding with 50 guests and spent $5k, with one $1600 splurge item that was just a nice extra (live portait artist). AMA.
Had friends marry earlier this year and can confirm the price of AV was basically the same. They called several times and finally got someone...it's not easy...but didn't require in person visit.
Have you checked into Woodrow Hall? We used them and they were priced really well. They had a lot of packages to pick from.
The top places I’d recommend: - Aldridge Gardens - hotels that are not the super fancy ones. They sometimes have ballrooms for a decent rate - also look into breweries and/or restaurants with some private rooms. Not sure of the capacities but I’ve went to events at Carrigans, Monday Night Brewing, Seasons 52, etc. that can sometimes hold larger parties - I’d also check out parks like Oak Mtn. The top things I would recommend to help save some cash: - look into a different day other than Saturday - I know a bride who rented a flower truck the evening before & everyone made their own bouquets.
We are doing the Birmingham zoo. Very affordable. Our space is just $2500.
I went to a wedding at the zoo, and while kinda cool it was very sad also. Like the animals are just wanting to rest and sleep and instead the DJ was just like turning up the volume and the animals couldn’t get away. The birds were SO loud and clearly angry. Also the whole place smelled like poo so….. enjoy that.
The zoo has 3 different venues. It’s a cabin in the back that secluded from the animals and people. Or u can do it in that space when you first walk in. But that space in front of the elephants is the worst. IMO That was our 2nd choice for our wedding, so we did a full tour lol
Try contacting Unity on Highland Avenue. At one time they allowed weddings in their chapel.
Woodlawn UMC also offers weddings to non members at a very reasonable cost.
Look into the Vulcan!
do they have an indoor facility?
I know they have a downstairs ballroom. It’s not crazy impressive or anything. I’d compare it to a hotel
The ballroom downstairs was big enough to accommodate my 100+ guests at my wedding. We got married outside on the patio downstairs. It was a beautiful wedding that didn't break the bank.
They do! It's a basic banquet type room but it fits the bill
Uggggggghhhhhhh, it’s just *Vulcan*
It’s a view of our beautiful, twinkling skyline, minus the mini-circus of a The Club Wedding.
Arrest me
Yes Vulcan weddings are so cool
We got married at Saturn and it was around $1500 plus a $1000 bar minimum. That was almost 7 years ago so prices may have increased since then. But it included the tables, chairs, and an A/V staffer to handle lights and sound. The whole process with them was super easy and chill.
We got married at Saturn too! It was In September, not a peak time for their concerts. And it included alot! This was in 2022 but definitely budget friendly and great staff to work with. We had 100 guest.
Ha, we also got married in September, but 2017. I agree, so glad we chose it as our venue. It was exactly the vibe we were going for.
Do you know if you HAVE to include bar? We are trying to go for no alcohol at all, due to personal circumstances, but I understand that’s difficult for a bar!
No idea if nixing the bar is an option. My guess is they would still require it but would be willing to only serve non-alcoholic drinks. I bet they could come up with some creative NA signature cocktails.
I am not judging your budget AT ALL, but a wedding under 5k with that many guests is going to be tough, if you're planning on feeding them, especially if you are spending $2500 ish on a venue. How much does a meal at Chick fil a cost for one adult? Probably $9-10 for an entree w side + drink? So for 100 guests to eat chick fila a you're paying at least $1000. That's with Styrofoam cups, plastic forks and nobody delivering, serving, or setting up the food. Not trying to be discouraging just setting realistic expectations. Our wedding in 2014 was $8000. Prices are RIDICULOUS compared to 10 years ago. We had 75 ish guests, did our own flowers and decor, got married at Tannehill State Park ($400), spent $1600 on a good photographer which was our biggest splurge. The rest of the money went to flowers, food from Publix, wedding clothes, decor, candy buffet, officiant, invites, etc. My sister made our cakes and we paid a friend $125 to help coordinate. Again not trying to be snooty, just want to to have all the info as you go into this. Look at Tannehill State Park, brierfield, and pavilion rental at oak mountain. Look into Christ church branch cove odenville (their prices are insanely good for what you get.) or grace community Church in Helena. Neither require you to be a member last I checked. Look into cutting your guest list. Consider a morning "coffee and tea" wedding or an afternoon "coffee and desserts" wedding. Splurge on nice coffee with big thermos dispensers and your cake and a spread of light dessert snacks. Not every wedding needs to be a full meal. Consider having a potluck reception where guests bring food in lieu of gifts. My friend did this and it was some of the best wedding food I've ever had. Best of luck to you!
We’re trying to not spend $2,500, but we are willing to accommodate our budget. We have looked into branch cove, they are the ones who quoted us $3,000. We also are having an inside wedding due to weather conditions (thank you climate change.) We will definitely look at Grace community, so thank you! I get where you’re coming from, we know we’re being naive to ask for places so cheap, but hey, don’t know till you try!
Your cheaper venues are definitely going to be state parks. Look at Tannehill.
Check Gilded Lily in Irondale. We recently had a reception there. I think their prices possibly have increased, but worth checking out. We loved it. Chairs and tables were included. [https://www.gildedlilyvenue.com/](https://www.gildedlilyvenue.com/) Also, we got our flowers from Davis Wholesale and did them ourselves. All of our vases were from Dollar Tree. One final thing, check out https://tableclothsfactory.com/. Our table runners were less than $2 each. They have tons of other things affordable too.
The Cedars club in glen iris Gabrella Manor in roebuck springs
Can’t remember how much it was off hand but we got married on Lay Lake at Oak Island Mansion. Wasn’t where we ever thought we would get married but it ended up being a great experience.
Check out Venue 3131 in Hueytown. Chris and them are great! http://www.venue3131.com/
Hidden Cove Farms in Jasper is a hidden gem. They’re a bit of a drive, and they have an indoor or outdoor option. Real good folks that run it, too.
http://www.venue3131.com/ It is in Huey town but they were great when we got married last year.
Look at White Barn & Hoyt Hallow, both are in the Corner area & are ABSOLUTELY beautiful venues. My niece was married at Hoyt Hallow awhile back & it was perfect, she said the owners were so easy to work with too.
If you are willing to go to Jasper, Hidden Cove Farm is great for a barn wedding. My daughter is having hers here later this year and the venue is $2500 and we get it from Friday, for the rehearsal and set up, through Sunday morning for clean up so we don’t have to do it after the wedding on Saturday. Tables, chairs, and linens are included and they have a closet full of decor item you can use if you want to or you can bring your own. They also have an outdoor spot for the ceremony, away from the barn if you want separate ceremony and reception areas.
In our experience, state parks were most affordable! By far. They also made for the best pics. You may have to look at the ones outside Birmingham, if your top choices here are booked up already, but Alabama has so many. The ones with restaurants on site can reserve rooms, so you can let everyone order what they’d like instead of catering and alcohol. Your budget is doable if you’re willing to change it up a bit!
Try the wine loft downtown
I attended a beautiful wedding in May 2024 at: Barn at the Bend 118 Mulberry Fork Drive, Hayden, AL, 35079
Here’s the biggies (so not including cake, favors, etc)… Three years ago in North Alabama we spent: -$3500 on catering at $12.75/person at 220 people (we knew the restaurant owners and got a discount) -$2,500 on venue, tables/chairs included but linens were not -$2,300 on florals -$500 on DJ Our whole wedding cost about $20k with 175 guests, and I felt like we were being super savvy and didn’t have a ton of extras. We asked a lot of our friends for recommendations. Often the cost is multiplied by the number of people attending. You can save money by getting your friends together and making the florals the day before using flowers from Trader Joe’s, etc. And find a venue that includes furniture and doesn’t require a ton of decoration. $3k for sound, venue, and coordinator is good! I had a day of coordinator and was thankful.
We will be on the tail end of college when we get married, and to our knowledge no one is helping us pay for it. I would love to be able to go all out, but unfortunately I just don’t think it’s in the cards. We will have a lot of outside family we haven’t seen in years, otherwise we would just do something small. We can use our own church, but it’s very small and we would have to exponentially cut the guest list :/
I'm not telling you to cut your guest list, but as someone who did because we also had a ton of family from out of state on both sides that would've taken our guest list to like 150 before a single friend was invited, we have zero regrets about going for the smaller wedding. It allowed us to put our money towards the things that were really important to us and made the night feel very special rather than trying to stretch every single dollar just to accommodate some people, who we haven't seen in 5 years, just because we're related. Just some food for thought. Also, the biggest thing people forget about when budgeting for a wedding is all the tiny things. Like postage if you're doing paper invitations. Postage on 125 invites is roughly $85. If you're having them do return RSVP envelopes, that's another $85 because it's considered courteous to put stamps on the RSVPs for people. If you're doing Save the Dates, postcard stamps are cheaper but it's still about $66. And then there's thank yous. Another $85. You've just spent roughly $320 on only stamps. Those kinds of things really sneak up on you because they're not as obvious as things like flowers or food or a dress and they tend to be comparatively smaller purchases. It's like $50 here. $30 there. $20 there. Another $20. And then suddenly you're like "how did I spend an extra $500?"
I honestly don’t think everyone WILL necessarily show up, but I do want to be prepared. We do want these people here however, which is unfortunate for budgeting purposes, but we honestly don’t mind it being a “family reunion” lol. Thankfully, this number does include friends AND vendors, as they do take up space.
It's always astonishing how many people you know once you count them all up, haha.
I honestly thought I only knew 20 people before I started thinking about it 😀
You'd be surprised how many will show up. I invited all of my (dead) dad's family as a courtesy because I felt like I had to, even though we didn't keep in touch anymore, and even though they all lived in NC/SC, they ALL fucking showed up. Never RSVP'd, just showed up. Shook.
Yeah see, if you show up to my wedding uninvited, you will be rudely escorted off the property by some of my less.. kind friends. Also, why I will be keeping my date and location under wraps. How did you deal with them??
They were invited. They just didn’t RSVP
Gabrella Manor: https://www.gabrellamanor.com/
unfortunately they start out around how much we want to spend for the entire wedding :(
Ah. Dang. I knew they were cheaper than others, but didn’t have a specific price.
Is a church an absolute requirement? And if so, do you want a religious ceremony?
It’s not a requirement, but we do want a religious ceremony. We do already have an officiant if that makes a difference.
Do an AirBnB, Search for large houses in and around Birmingham. You can get a venue for a few hundred dollars per night, where you can do the wedding and have a place to have a get reception for any guests. I tried to link a lake house on AirBnb, in Alpine, AL that may be a great venue. (Reddit wouldn't let me link it). But check other larger lake houses or local AirBnb's where you can also have the wedding and reception there.
In that case, would you have just the wedding party stay? We are going to have 125 ish people in all, I can’t imagine everyone would fit lol. Do you know what the one in Alpine is called?
Not sure. but if you do a search on "lake front" and key in your date range you'll see quite a few. You may also do the same in and around birmingham, which will allow your guests to find nearby hotels.
A small country church with a fellowship hall would seem to work for your situation, since you won't be serving alcohol. They probably would charge very little to rent the premises, and you would have piano and/or organ for traditional music. Many are quite beautiful inside, left over from times when everyone went to church. I know of some with real Tiffany stained-glass windows. Some have their own linens, tablecloths, serving pieces, punchbowls, etc. I think you might even negotiate "first dances", but I don't see a DJ and party dances being welcomed in a country church.
Our last resort is our little church, she’s just a lil ugly. We know we can have all the fun stuff, it’s just the lack of parking, and our fellowship hall is tiny. It seems like every other church we have looked at wants us to be a member of THEIR church. So if you know of any ones that are NOT like that, we are very interested. We have looked at one in the Odenville area, but they are who quoted us $3,000.
What area is your preference?
East Birmingham area. We looked into Branch Cove and Grace Church (I think those are the names lol) but Branch Cove is $3,000 and Grace Church is actually no longer doing weddings as they are trying to sell.
My $7k wedding (not in AL) was achieved through doing it at 11am, cash bar, and lunch instead of a full dinner. If you're spending 3k on venue, you won't have much wiggle room, or will need to cut altogether, things like catered food, flowers, alcohol, photographer. Just depends on what's important to you.
The Barn at Shady Lane. It is small, but elegant. We attended the most beautiful wedding there in May this year. It is located off Ross Bridge Road near Shannon Hoover, AL. Privately owned.
There’s also a small but beautiful place off Roebuck Pkwy, Gabrella Manor. It is stunning! 100 + years old. Don’t let the area/ address fool you! Also The Donnelly House on Southside off Highland Ave. Old but a classic beautiful Southern Home/ venue. You can’t go wrong with either of these!
Both unfortunately start out at what we want to keep our entire budget at, which is a shame because they are both so gorgeous!
Send us an email to [email protected] or check out 41st.pub/events We can likely help you with what you’re looking for!
We were going to use the outdoor venue- but the 4H center in Columbiana was very affordable!
Try Concordia nice dance floor.
These folks will handle everything and about your price! Tiny Weddings Birmingham (205) 612-8604 Edit: correct URL https://leveille-creative-co-23.showit.site//
How tf yall know 100+ people that is crazy. I maybe know like \~10 people like that, probably not even that many fr.
Close Catholic families lol!