M is for Money

It took awhile but we finally found our wedding venue. It meets most if not all of our requirements – outdoors, beautiful setting, flexible policies and available for a daytime event. As a bonus, it includes indoor space, which will come in handy in case the weather doesn’t cooperate. But the best part of all, it is the cheapest venue we looked at. So how did we find the perfect place for an even more perfect price? We chose to get married on public property.

Before you start thinking the local public park with picnic benches, a duck pond and the crazy guy feeding the pigeons, let me correct you. Public spaces can be more than just the local park or beach, in this case the location is an old estate now owned by the city. There are formal gardens and a courtyard along with the house and guest house, and we get access to them all. No dirty park restrooms here! Even better the rental includes security to separate our private event from people coming to enjoy the public property.

Public Spaces for Every Type of Event

Your local park is only one type of public space, there are also mansions, museums, historical monuments and cultural landmarks that are available to rent. Another option - botanical gardens or arboretums, which come perfectly dressed for a wedding. During my venue search I found that many cities had a section of their website devoted to special event rentals, a page listing all of the city owned properties where you could get married. Many have special rates for city residents, although ours happens to charge the same rate for everyone. Local historical societies are another resource, I found a great page at the LA Conservancy website listing historical venues for rent around the greater LA area.

Public Usually Equals Lower Price

Public spaces are subsidized by taxpayers and donors, they do not rely on your rental dollars to stay open. They rarely advertise and do not have big marketing budgets to support. Most of all, they are not trying to profit off of your wedding. All of these factors help keep the cost lower when you rent a public place, although this is not always the case. I found some public venues that were more expensive than their private counterparts. Obviously smart cities will set their rates based on demand and will charge what they think the market will bear.

Definite Drawbacks

Of course there are drawbacks to holding your wedding on public property. Often events are restricted to non-public hours, meaning you have limited time to hold your wedding and no flexibility. If you are allowed a daytime event, public party crashers are a potential problem. Some locations, like ours, do try to keep the public away from your private event. Still you might find they have too many restrictions, like no dancing or no amplified music. Another big drawback for many brides – catering to your wedding is not that important to a public place and they may offer only limited support. Our venue is very liberal and flexible with their policies, but you are own your own to set up everything. They will not hold your hand as you try to figure out rentals and catering and vendors, while a private wedding location will likely have package deals in place. For our wedding and our plans, a public venue offers both the atmosphere we desire and a price we can afford.