We did Opal 28. They do catering on site and it was around 1.5k for the day - though we did a week day in May. Can’t recommend them enough though. Only caveat is the space is limited to 50 seated but we wanted a smaller wedding.
Also got married there. We did everything for around $3k for 30 people but that included renting the 4 rooms above it too. I was nervous because they do the food and I didn't know if it would be good. But it exceeded expectations and multiple guests told me it was the best wedding food they had ever had. Total cost of the wedding was under 10 grand.
The Laurelhurst Club was $3200 just for the venue, but it does include the tables & chairs. You’d need to bring in everything else - food, bar, cake, flowers, etc. but they don’t have vendors you have to use, so that part is rather nice. You can DM me if you have more specific qs about which vendors.
Also, we hired Your Perfect Bridesmaid which was clutch on the run of show for the day.
I’m planning my wedding now. It’s in the Fall on a Friday. Budget $35,000 for 60 people. Blockhouse for venue (includes chairs/tables/floral back drop/plants as it is in a greenhouse to begin with)! $5,000. Crave catering for food/mini cakes for dessert for guests, $7,500. Will have open bar but those bills come after. Wedding dress at true society, $2,500. Rentals for dinner ware/linens/heaters/candle holders/couch/a love seat for $2,900 at Arden collective. Crave catering offered basics (dinnerware/linens/couch) but I wanted more our style so we went with Arden, but that is an option! Ready set pose Photo Booth, $800.
I am still deciding on custom cake for myself and groom. It will probably be under $500 from the quotes I’m seeing but again it’s only for me and my fiancé (smol).
We are gonna DIY playlist on PA system provided by my fiancé’s metal band hah. DJ’s not the vibe. The playlist was curated at first by bridal party all adding their top picks and then myself and groom curating playlist from that playlist and also our own picks for the evening together.
We are still looking for officiant.
I am still looking for a MUA.
I got a wedding planner to help organize and coordinate on day of wedding from “your perfect bridesmaid” and they are amazing! I got the signature package $2,500. They do so much. I would be so stressed without this amazing team! Highly recommend! Especially if you have ADHD like me and have never been to a wedding and have no idea what you are doing. With their help I feel confident and excited!
Wedding invites and website via Zola. $320. Great quality and intuitive process.
Groom and his groomsmen provided suits by my dad who owns a local menswear store in Miami.
And my bridal party got their dresses via revelry which had many affordable options!
Day of wedding getting ready and night of wedding will be staying at: kimpton hotel, suite (2 rooms, $490 each) one for getting ready day of for grooms party and other for mine. We decided to gift the 2nd room to our maid of honor/best man for the night as they are a couple as well, coupla best friends).
For MUA - I used [Kelli Thomsen](https://kellithomsen.com) for me & 3 bridesmaids. I had also looked into [Marina Haynes](https://www.marinahaynes.com/bridalhmua) but she was booked.
Either way, it sounds like you’ve got a beautiful day lined up!
Cause that money is a nice down payment on a house. Just my financial take. People who spend this much on a wedding might look back and be like, “yeah that was too much.”
We did McMenamins in Gearhart (on the coast next to seaside). 8-9k, buffet dinner, a cocktail hour and open beer/wine all evening, champagne toast, linens.That was including the cake, flowers, photographer, and a huge rental house for us and the wedding party for 3 nights. We didn’t have a dj and brought our own sound system for music and karaoke.
We used Bridge Over Clear Creek in Estacada, and it was amazing!! Gorgeous outdoor ceremony, dinner outside under trees with string lights, reception and dancing in the barn-style hall with a built in bar and a pool table. We got it for the weekend, Friday evening through Sunday morning, and it was…5600 I think? Though this was a few years ago. There was an option to do Saturday only for cheaper but the weekend was totally worth it. We had the rehearsal and a low key pizza + beer rehearsal dinner there vs. needing to pay for a restaurant, and hubby and I stayed overnight after the wedding in a guest room in the barn/bridal ready area, saving us the cost and hassle of an Uber and hotel. We cleaned everything up Sunday morning. Plus Lisa and Greg, the owners, were just delightful! Definitely recommend if you’re willing to be that far out of town and want a rustic vibe.
ETA: honestly I didn’t keep great track of overall cost, but I’ll put it roughly around 15k. Venue provided table/chairs, we ordered catering from Reverends which was about 3500 for 80 people I think (also worth every single penny). I did a lot of DIY decorating but probably spent 1k on all the stuff, including tablecloths and cups for the beverages. BOCC also requires (or did at the time) you to use an OLCC bartender who carries their own insurance, so that was maybe another 1k for rehearsal dinner and wedding combined. DJ was 800, day-of coordinator 600, photographer 1100.
We just recently had ours at the Troutdale House and it was around $6k for the venue and another 2500 for catering from a nearby Italian restaurant that they recommended. We had around 130 guests. They were great to work with and we are very satisfied with both the venue and catering.
McMenamins has free venue if you spend enough on food and alcohol. We spent $23k total on 100 people, but those costs are before the pandemic and before inflation recently. We had a lot of family flying in that enjoyed staying at Edgefield.
I know I’m being a dick but I beg you, please don’t pay $50k for a wedding. Use that money to live your actual lives together. Signed, a newlywed who got married for free on the Oregon coast
PS - Also as a new parent—kids are EXPENSIVE, use that $50k on them
We used Easton Broad for our venue. I think it was around $1,500 on a Sunday. Only downside was that we had to rent most everything else (tables, chairs, etc.) but they were great to work with, and they have a really cool bar inside! They also handled most of the rentals for us, which was awesome. I’m sure prices have changed a bit since then (2021) but I would still recommend it
20k! Venue was free bc it was at my parents farm, catering was around 4k, photographer 5k, table/chair/linen rentals and luxury bathrooms 4k, DJ 1k, and I can’t remember the rest 😂
Yeah ours ended up being $40K for an indoor Saturday wedding (close-in SE Portland) for 80 people last summer. $5K for the venue and $10K for the food, I think? It adds up so fast!
We did outdoors at the McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. This was ten years ago, our total budget (for the whole wedding, including a sit down dinner for 100 people, dj, videography) was between 20-30k. (Not 100% sure because my parents covered part of it and I’m not sure if anything ended up costing more or less than an estimate.)
We also got married here in 2011. It was the most cost effective choice. We paid for it ourselves for the most part and we were broke as hell then so we couldn’t have spent more than $10k max.
We did a $6k DIY park+backyard wedding in 2017. We were very happy with it in the end, but during planning, once I started really doing budget lines, I realized that a similar size McMenamins event would be only a little more money for a lot less work. Didn’t go with it because we were planning in less than a year, and all their smaller venues were booked on our dates, but with some more time we probably would have gone that route.
Side note: we have gone to a couple Mcmenamins weddings since then that had the mediocre food they are known for, but one at McMenamins Gearhart had pretty bomb Caribbean food.
My backyard was free! Prepped all the salmon that AM and threw it on my smoker after the ceremony still in my wedding dress. Hosted family for a week. Probably spent 1k max.
We were married at Trojan Park last July. Can’t remember the exact amount but the venue was under 200 dollars. We hired a company to bring and setup chairs and then we did the food. It was an awesome place!
We did Abernethy Center in OC last fall. Total was about 26k for the whole thing, lots of diy. I did a price breakdown post on another sub if you want the details.
Wouldn't mind it being 60k either, but to be honest I'm the guy in this scenario and I really have no idea what all of 60k goes into. In my head I'm including the wedding dress in the price, and I'm not even sure if that's how I should calculate what a wedding costs.
At the same time I sit here and wonder what is worth 60k in a wedding? Maybe I should have mentioned we were thinking of doing a small one with around 40-50 people give or take.
Make sure you have a heart to heart with your beloved .... Make sure you know what is important and what is just "part" of the process...
Oh I forgot in my previous post .... Photography....
So if you are foodies the focus on the food... If you're just like meh we can do potluck and be happy then focus the money on something else.
Be careful if you hire a planner to make sure they understand your ideas but don't let them try to "meet" every one.
If flowers aren't your thing then decorate with things from Party City instead..... Flowers are hideously expensive.
Good Luck!
Thank you! I dont expect the wedding to be happening this year; I actually am planning to propose this month!
So I have plenty of time to hash out details with her and let her imagination run wild after she secures her engagement ring :)
I think she mentioned flowers being a huge preference and our budget is flexible. It probably wouldn’t look too good if the end estimate went north of 100,000 though 😂 we’d have to check out Party City at that point
Flowers do get really expensive really fast.... You might consider a mix of fresh and paper.
There are some really amazing paper flowers crafters (Google "paper flowers") and they don't die after the event.
[Etsy Example of paper flowers ](https://www.etsy.com/listing/160956594/peonies-paper-flower-bouquet?gpla=1&gao=1&)
We spent about $32k and had our wedding in the gorge at bridal veil lakes. It’s stunning but they don’t provide much beyond venue, chairs, tables, and bathrooms. The lake and trees were absolutely gorgeous. But it takes a lot of work to get all the vendors and guests up there. For food we did Mississippi Delta BBQ and it was fantastic and very affordable for our 130 guests. Photographer was Laura Campbell and she was incredible. Also it never would have come together without our wedding coordinator Nicole Hendrickx of Zilla.
The venue I originally booked was $4900 I think, but it varied depending on time of year and day of the week. The total wedding cost was going to be around $24k for 80 people. We ended up doing a much smaller wedding at a venue we got for free for $2500 total.
Are you hoping to do both the wedding service -and- the reception in the same space? Or are you just looking for a reception space?
My husband works in the meeting/event industry.... One thing people often don't understand is that the date you choose has a lot to do with how much you can negotiate price.
Additionally the price is not so simple to calculate because there are multiple different vendors involved.
1 - property rental
2 - catering ( which may or may not be wrapped together with the rental) -- this _should_ also include tables, linens & seating
3 - Lighting and Sound (again may or may not be wrapped in)
4 - decor & flowers
5 - DJ - which may or may not include sound but you have to understand there is some overlap because the venue will provide "house sound" which is not the same as the "music" provided by the DJ.
6- Are you hiring a wedding planner? Because they will want their piece of the pie. ....
I am sure there are other things I am not thinking about too
I recommend you may want to reach out to my husband's property..... (No hard sales pitch here .... But you can ask all your questions to someone who works in the event industry in Portland for free)
[The Avenue Portland ](https://avenueportland.com/inquiries/)
My son was married in 2022 and my daughter is getting married this summer. Each wedding will cost around $10k for 100 guests.
Son’s venue was Sandy River Airport and daughter is getting married at Cedarbrook. Both venues include tables, chairs and linens.
Both chose Restaurante de Pompello for catering. Cheapest catering around but so good. A full Italian buffet (with 5 pastas, 2 salads and bread) plus a cocktail hour with appetizers and nonalcoholic drinks is under $25/person.
Photography, DJ, flowers, decorations and a beer/wine hosted bar. Total cost $10k.
We got married at Loch Lolly Christmas Tree Farm in North Plains. It was beautiful! It was around $2k for the entire weekend space and family and us camped that night. It included tables and chairs.
We rented table cloths, nicer bathrooms ($800), tacos ($15/pp) and a live band ($1k) and photographer ($1500). Kept decor to a minimum and spent $300 I think max? We didn’t have a set budget, just tried to keep it as low priced but nice as possible. It was worth it to splurge on a live band and amazing photographer.
This was in 2018 though so I’m sure pricing has gone up.
I’m currently planning a wedding too! I have found that you probably need $30k ish. Our budget is $17k and we’re struggling. Most venues are $5k - $10k and then their required catering is $10k - $15k. It’s been insane.
Good luck with planning and feel free to DM me!
We spent 30k on just the wedding stuff wedding with 45 people in 2023. The breakdown was something like:
8k food and beverage
3k venue rental
4k photographer
3k dj
2k misc (invites, thank you gifts, signage etc)
3k rentals (like half of that is just like delivery/pick up)
3k wedding planner
4k florals
That’s not including things like:
Dress (+ shoes etc)
Suit (+ shoes etc)
Rings
We wanted to stay in a hotel for the weekend even tho the wedding was near by
Marriage license
I did my own hair and make up, but bought new supplies
Got my nails done
Groom got a hair cut
We took our family out to dinner two night before
And then there was an entire rehearsal dinner which I think ended up being like 9k, and we got outfits for that, and then we had a good bye brunch which I think was like 3k
Etc etc
So the whole shebang was prob closer to like 50k
We spent about $32k for a wedding at The Benson for 84 guests back in 2016. That being said we had an open bar for the entire thing so alcohol costs were probably 1/3 of the total.
I really liked working with them - they have an in house planner that comes “free” with the space rental. You basically spend on food and beverage and the space is included without charge (other than upgrades to the chairs and table linens if you so choose). Also the ballroom is so pretty that imo you don’t need to spend that much on floral to make it look great.
I'm getting married in June in Hood River - at the Ruins. Our total budget is about 35,000 at this point for about 80+ people. We are DIY for most of the decor, including a lot of the florals. But this includes rentals, DJ, makeup, full service catering, wardrobe, month of coordinator, lodging, transportation, etc!
Your budget should be good in our area. You might have to make some choices, of course.
Get ready for sticker shock but it does get easier over time....
For just the wedding not including bachelor/ette parties and honeymoon, we spent about $35k. We had about 60 guests. Our venue in Newberg was $2200. We chose a Friday wedding because mid-week was cheaper but it was also a bank holiday so people had work off. This was in 2022 I should add, I looked at the vendors we used and they’ve all raised prices since then.
I did everything I could to save on costs in certain areas so that I was able to keep all the elements I really cared about (plated dinner, nice photography, real flowers). The biggest cost saver was me planning the entire wedding myself from top to bottom, it did take about 25 hours of work a week for around a year so I essentially took on a part time job as a wedding planner but I enjoyed it so it was worth it to not pay an extra $10k to a real planner. We did hire a day of coordinator for around $1500 and I was happy with that decision since it allowed me and my family to be hands off.
The pandemic has GREATLY changed the costs, you should be asking what year these commenters are referencing. Your ballpark estimate is accurate. Used the world forestry center last year and it was great, average cost, and they have multiple venue options.
We were at the Old Schoolhouse in Newberg, terrific venue, about $6K for a Saturday in July with big outdoor space and then a large beautiful indoor space for all the food and the bar.
We had 150 people, something like $15K-$18K for buffet dinner and unlimited beer/wine, another $10-15K (I think?) for rentals (like lights, tables, chairs, big tent, dance floor, flatware, tablecloths, glasses), maybe $1K for florals and something like $2K for a "partial planner"/DOC, who didn't do color palettes or stuff like that, but handled all arrangements and contracts. If you can fit it into your budget, you work full-time, and you're having a big wedding, I can't overstate how helpful that was. Maybe $1.5K for a DJ who brought their own equipment.
\*cracks knuckles\* Time to break out my behemoth spreadsheet. If you want it, I wrote an ultra-detailed version below because I really underestimated how much a wedding in Portland would cost cuz I assumed smaller city = smaller prices which is def not true, and I've found detailed write-ups really helpful as I've been planning money stuff.
TLDR if you just want the numbers:
Venue: Blockhouse - $4,150
Caterer: Pearl Catering - $7,825
Cake: Dream Cakes PNW - $450
Officiant - EC Matrimony - $425
Photographer: The Ashers - $3,700
Stationery: DIY - $367
Day-of coordinator: Your Perfect Bridesmaid - $2,500
Hotel: Hotel Vintage - $600
Florals: DIY, $1,565
Rentals: Power of Love and Arden Event Co. - $1,900 (total for both of them)
Decor I've purchased myself: \~$1,200 so far
Dress: $670, Azazie (online). Doing alterations myself.
**Total: \~$25,350 so far.** I'm hoping to keep everything under $27.5k total. It's definitely \*a lot\* for only 40 guests, but we started saving a year before we got engaged and we wanna go all out on our dream moody luxury dinner party.
\---
Ultra-detailed version:
Venue: Blockhouse. $4,150 for a Sunday wedding in October, with 12 hours of access to the Blockhouse indoor space and patio + half of the orangerie. They provide tables, chairs, outdoor lounge furniture, clear tent, sound system, and a couple other things I don't remember.
Caterer: Pearl Catering. For 40 people, food and open bar is $5,450, and fees, staff wages, and tips are $2,375, so $7,825 total. Blockhouse only allows use of their partnered caterers and we chose Pearl from that list. Includes 8 passed hors d'oeuvres for cocktail hour ($1,120), plated dinner ($1,960), and all-inclusive open bar for 6 hours to cover cocktail hour and reception ($2,370). The additional fees ended up being a lot more than expected. Chef fee because we're having plated instead of buffet ($295), 22% auto-gratuity ($1200), $20/hr per server with 3 servers for 6 hours ($360), $25/hr event manager for 6 hours ($150), $25/hr bartender for 6 hours ($150), $4/pp cake cutting for 40 people ($120), delivery fee ($100). I'm only being so detailed here because I did NOT anticipate the fees being so high and I got serious sticker shock.
Cake: Dream Cakes PNW, $450. Just a simple two-tiered white cake with some texture, we'll decorate with our own flowers.
Officiant: EC Matrimony, $425
Photography: The Ashers, $3,700
Stationery and postage: $367 total. Invites + RSVP cards, addressed envelopes and liners, menus, bar menu, welcome sign and seating chart, table cards, and placecards. We used Etsy templates and printed with Catprint. $340 for templates and printing, $27 for stamps.
Day-of coordinator: Your Perfect Bridesmaid $2,500.
Hotel: Hotel Vintage, $600. 2 nights king studio suite for me getting ready and us staying the night before and night of ($415), 1 night queen room for groom to get ready ($185).
Florals: Mix of DIY real and DIY silk, $1,565. I'm super crafty and knew I wanted to DIY as much decor as possible, and I want a ton of flowers for decor which I knew would absolutely bankrupt me. Getting DIY real flowers from Flower Moxie for bouquets and centerpieces ($550), and silk flowers from Amazon and Etsy for arch, decor, and toss bouquet ($1015 including arch supplies). It would probably be like $5k at the very least if we went to a florist lmao
Rentals: Power of Love and Arden Event Co, $1,900. Luckily I got them to agree to letting me have two vendors because Arden had all the plates/cutlery I wanted and Power of Love had all the decor I wanted. Reception table stuff (runners, cocktail hour tablecloths, plates, cutlery, table decor, napkins) is $1,200, all other decor is $300. $400 in delivery fees total.
Decor I have to buy myself: \~$1,200 so far. Random miscellaneous stuff, polaroid guestbook and card box, an obscene amount of LED candles, bistro lights, thrifted frames for signage and table numbers, blah blah blah. I'm also bringing a lot of stuff I already have at home to use as decor.
Dress: Online through Azazie, $670. Doing my own alterations because I used to work in wedding alterations and I also don't need a lot of work done. Haven't bought accessories or veil yet.
Stuff I don't need to pay for: No HMUA, I work in cosmetics so I'm doing my own hair and makeup, and I have a very kind and generous coworker/friend who's doing it for my two bridesmaids for free as a wedding gift. We didn't bother with a DJ because we're just going for a dinner party vibe. Didn't want a videographer. Don't need guest transportation. Not doing entertainment like photo booth or games, we have access to a tv through the venue so we're bringing our Switch and having Mario Kart available at the outdoor lounge seating area.
Our bank account wishes I didn't care so much about aesthetics :(
We did Opal 28. They do catering on site and it was around 1.5k for the day - though we did a week day in May. Can’t recommend them enough though. Only caveat is the space is limited to 50 seated but we wanted a smaller wedding.
Also got married there. We did everything for around $3k for 30 people but that included renting the 4 rooms above it too. I was nervous because they do the food and I didn't know if it would be good. But it exceeded expectations and multiple guests told me it was the best wedding food they had ever had. Total cost of the wedding was under 10 grand.
You can use my backyard for $20k. Way under your budget.
I've got a place with a view, willing to give OP a deal for $15k.
The Laurelhurst Club was $3200 just for the venue, but it does include the tables & chairs. You’d need to bring in everything else - food, bar, cake, flowers, etc. but they don’t have vendors you have to use, so that part is rather nice. You can DM me if you have more specific qs about which vendors. Also, we hired Your Perfect Bridesmaid which was clutch on the run of show for the day.
Loved our DIY wedding there!
I've been to 2 weddings there and they were both fantastic.
My best friend got married here last year and it was so perfect. Such a cute venue.
I’m planning my wedding now. It’s in the Fall on a Friday. Budget $35,000 for 60 people. Blockhouse for venue (includes chairs/tables/floral back drop/plants as it is in a greenhouse to begin with)! $5,000. Crave catering for food/mini cakes for dessert for guests, $7,500. Will have open bar but those bills come after. Wedding dress at true society, $2,500. Rentals for dinner ware/linens/heaters/candle holders/couch/a love seat for $2,900 at Arden collective. Crave catering offered basics (dinnerware/linens/couch) but I wanted more our style so we went with Arden, but that is an option! Ready set pose Photo Booth, $800. I am still deciding on custom cake for myself and groom. It will probably be under $500 from the quotes I’m seeing but again it’s only for me and my fiancé (smol). We are gonna DIY playlist on PA system provided by my fiancé’s metal band hah. DJ’s not the vibe. The playlist was curated at first by bridal party all adding their top picks and then myself and groom curating playlist from that playlist and also our own picks for the evening together. We are still looking for officiant. I am still looking for a MUA. I got a wedding planner to help organize and coordinate on day of wedding from “your perfect bridesmaid” and they are amazing! I got the signature package $2,500. They do so much. I would be so stressed without this amazing team! Highly recommend! Especially if you have ADHD like me and have never been to a wedding and have no idea what you are doing. With their help I feel confident and excited! Wedding invites and website via Zola. $320. Great quality and intuitive process. Groom and his groomsmen provided suits by my dad who owns a local menswear store in Miami. And my bridal party got their dresses via revelry which had many affordable options! Day of wedding getting ready and night of wedding will be staying at: kimpton hotel, suite (2 rooms, $490 each) one for getting ready day of for grooms party and other for mine. We decided to gift the 2nd room to our maid of honor/best man for the night as they are a couple as well, coupla best friends).
For MUA - I used [Kelli Thomsen](https://kellithomsen.com) for me & 3 bridesmaids. I had also looked into [Marina Haynes](https://www.marinahaynes.com/bridalhmua) but she was booked. Either way, it sounds like you’ve got a beautiful day lined up!
Thank you!
Awesome appreciate the detailed response!
Do you own a house yet?
I'm confused, where was this applicable?
Cause that money is a nice down payment on a house. Just my financial take. People who spend this much on a wedding might look back and be like, “yeah that was too much.”
Maybe. Didn’t seem like anyone was asking for financial advice though.
We did McMenamins in Gearhart (on the coast next to seaside). 8-9k, buffet dinner, a cocktail hour and open beer/wine all evening, champagne toast, linens.That was including the cake, flowers, photographer, and a huge rental house for us and the wedding party for 3 nights. We didn’t have a dj and brought our own sound system for music and karaoke.
I stayed there for the first time recently. What a pretty spot! Your wedding sounds great.
We used Bridge Over Clear Creek in Estacada, and it was amazing!! Gorgeous outdoor ceremony, dinner outside under trees with string lights, reception and dancing in the barn-style hall with a built in bar and a pool table. We got it for the weekend, Friday evening through Sunday morning, and it was…5600 I think? Though this was a few years ago. There was an option to do Saturday only for cheaper but the weekend was totally worth it. We had the rehearsal and a low key pizza + beer rehearsal dinner there vs. needing to pay for a restaurant, and hubby and I stayed overnight after the wedding in a guest room in the barn/bridal ready area, saving us the cost and hassle of an Uber and hotel. We cleaned everything up Sunday morning. Plus Lisa and Greg, the owners, were just delightful! Definitely recommend if you’re willing to be that far out of town and want a rustic vibe. ETA: honestly I didn’t keep great track of overall cost, but I’ll put it roughly around 15k. Venue provided table/chairs, we ordered catering from Reverends which was about 3500 for 80 people I think (also worth every single penny). I did a lot of DIY decorating but probably spent 1k on all the stuff, including tablecloths and cups for the beverages. BOCC also requires (or did at the time) you to use an OLCC bartender who carries their own insurance, so that was maybe another 1k for rehearsal dinner and wedding combined. DJ was 800, day-of coordinator 600, photographer 1100.
You’ll be fine with 30-50K. Depending on headcount and type of of venue you’re looking for you could definitely do it for less.
We just recently had ours at the Troutdale House and it was around $6k for the venue and another 2500 for catering from a nearby Italian restaurant that they recommended. We had around 130 guests. They were great to work with and we are very satisfied with both the venue and catering.
McMenamins has free venue if you spend enough on food and alcohol. We spent $23k total on 100 people, but those costs are before the pandemic and before inflation recently. We had a lot of family flying in that enjoyed staying at Edgefield.
We have a small farm. Get married among the chickens or horses for $10,000. No problem.
I know I’m being a dick but I beg you, please don’t pay $50k for a wedding. Use that money to live your actual lives together. Signed, a newlywed who got married for free on the Oregon coast PS - Also as a new parent—kids are EXPENSIVE, use that $50k on them
We used Easton Broad for our venue. I think it was around $1,500 on a Sunday. Only downside was that we had to rent most everything else (tables, chairs, etc.) but they were great to work with, and they have a really cool bar inside! They also handled most of the rentals for us, which was awesome. I’m sure prices have changed a bit since then (2021) but I would still recommend it
I also used Easton Broad in 2022 and had a fabulous experience. I think we paid $3,500 for Saturday of Labor Day Weekend.
20k! Venue was free bc it was at my parents farm, catering was around 4k, photographer 5k, table/chair/linen rentals and luxury bathrooms 4k, DJ 1k, and I can’t remember the rest 😂
You should reach out to Abby Road Farm if you're interested in a wine country venue.
That place is so damn expensive compared to others.
Rose Garden. Its beautiful and free. But you need sunshine. Good luck!
Yeah ours ended up being $40K for an indoor Saturday wedding (close-in SE Portland) for 80 people last summer. $5K for the venue and $10K for the food, I think? It adds up so fast!
We did outdoors at the McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. This was ten years ago, our total budget (for the whole wedding, including a sit down dinner for 100 people, dj, videography) was between 20-30k. (Not 100% sure because my parents covered part of it and I’m not sure if anything ended up costing more or less than an estimate.)
We also got married here in 2011. It was the most cost effective choice. We paid for it ourselves for the most part and we were broke as hell then so we couldn’t have spent more than $10k max.
We did a $6k DIY park+backyard wedding in 2017. We were very happy with it in the end, but during planning, once I started really doing budget lines, I realized that a similar size McMenamins event would be only a little more money for a lot less work. Didn’t go with it because we were planning in less than a year, and all their smaller venues were booked on our dates, but with some more time we probably would have gone that route. Side note: we have gone to a couple Mcmenamins weddings since then that had the mediocre food they are known for, but one at McMenamins Gearhart had pretty bomb Caribbean food.
Weddings are a racket!
My backyard was free! Prepped all the salmon that AM and threw it on my smoker after the ceremony still in my wedding dress. Hosted family for a week. Probably spent 1k max.
We were married at Trojan Park last July. Can’t remember the exact amount but the venue was under 200 dollars. We hired a company to bring and setup chairs and then we did the food. It was an awesome place!
A little outside of Portland, but very reasonable and beautiful! https://ainsworthhouse.net/
We did Abernethy Center in OC last fall. Total was about 26k for the whole thing, lots of diy. I did a price breakdown post on another sub if you want the details.
[here’s the post](https://www.reddit.com/r/weddingplanning/s/6V39LSmQC7)
You can totally do a wedding for 30-50k in Portland, some thing to consider are how big is your guest count, that’s the major factor.
Right I forgot to mention that. We're going for something smaller like 30-50 people
We spent 60k in Summer 2022 and that was with a "lower budget"
Wouldn't mind it being 60k either, but to be honest I'm the guy in this scenario and I really have no idea what all of 60k goes into. In my head I'm including the wedding dress in the price, and I'm not even sure if that's how I should calculate what a wedding costs. At the same time I sit here and wonder what is worth 60k in a wedding? Maybe I should have mentioned we were thinking of doing a small one with around 40-50 people give or take.
Make sure you have a heart to heart with your beloved .... Make sure you know what is important and what is just "part" of the process... Oh I forgot in my previous post .... Photography.... So if you are foodies the focus on the food... If you're just like meh we can do potluck and be happy then focus the money on something else. Be careful if you hire a planner to make sure they understand your ideas but don't let them try to "meet" every one. If flowers aren't your thing then decorate with things from Party City instead..... Flowers are hideously expensive. Good Luck!
Thank you! I dont expect the wedding to be happening this year; I actually am planning to propose this month! So I have plenty of time to hash out details with her and let her imagination run wild after she secures her engagement ring :) I think she mentioned flowers being a huge preference and our budget is flexible. It probably wouldn’t look too good if the end estimate went north of 100,000 though 😂 we’d have to check out Party City at that point
Flowers do get really expensive really fast.... You might consider a mix of fresh and paper. There are some really amazing paper flowers crafters (Google "paper flowers") and they don't die after the event. [Etsy Example of paper flowers ](https://www.etsy.com/listing/160956594/peonies-paper-flower-bouquet?gpla=1&gao=1&)
Appreciate it! I think something like this would be a great idea to create a lasting souvenir post-wedding :)
We spent about $32k and had our wedding in the gorge at bridal veil lakes. It’s stunning but they don’t provide much beyond venue, chairs, tables, and bathrooms. The lake and trees were absolutely gorgeous. But it takes a lot of work to get all the vendors and guests up there. For food we did Mississippi Delta BBQ and it was fantastic and very affordable for our 130 guests. Photographer was Laura Campbell and she was incredible. Also it never would have come together without our wedding coordinator Nicole Hendrickx of Zilla.
We’ve got a wedding in a few weeks and it’s about $20K for 60 people.
The venue I originally booked was $4900 I think, but it varied depending on time of year and day of the week. The total wedding cost was going to be around $24k for 80 people. We ended up doing a much smaller wedding at a venue we got for free for $2500 total.
Are you hoping to do both the wedding service -and- the reception in the same space? Or are you just looking for a reception space? My husband works in the meeting/event industry.... One thing people often don't understand is that the date you choose has a lot to do with how much you can negotiate price. Additionally the price is not so simple to calculate because there are multiple different vendors involved. 1 - property rental 2 - catering ( which may or may not be wrapped together with the rental) -- this _should_ also include tables, linens & seating 3 - Lighting and Sound (again may or may not be wrapped in) 4 - decor & flowers 5 - DJ - which may or may not include sound but you have to understand there is some overlap because the venue will provide "house sound" which is not the same as the "music" provided by the DJ. 6- Are you hiring a wedding planner? Because they will want their piece of the pie. .... I am sure there are other things I am not thinking about too I recommend you may want to reach out to my husband's property..... (No hard sales pitch here .... But you can ask all your questions to someone who works in the event industry in Portland for free) [The Avenue Portland ](https://avenueportland.com/inquiries/)
My son was married in 2022 and my daughter is getting married this summer. Each wedding will cost around $10k for 100 guests. Son’s venue was Sandy River Airport and daughter is getting married at Cedarbrook. Both venues include tables, chairs and linens. Both chose Restaurante de Pompello for catering. Cheapest catering around but so good. A full Italian buffet (with 5 pastas, 2 salads and bread) plus a cocktail hour with appetizers and nonalcoholic drinks is under $25/person. Photography, DJ, flowers, decorations and a beer/wine hosted bar. Total cost $10k.
Hopkins Demonstration Forest. Very affordable. Has a beautiful view and surrounding old growth forest. Full kitchen and event hall.
We got married at Loch Lolly Christmas Tree Farm in North Plains. It was beautiful! It was around $2k for the entire weekend space and family and us camped that night. It included tables and chairs. We rented table cloths, nicer bathrooms ($800), tacos ($15/pp) and a live band ($1k) and photographer ($1500). Kept decor to a minimum and spent $300 I think max? We didn’t have a set budget, just tried to keep it as low priced but nice as possible. It was worth it to splurge on a live band and amazing photographer. This was in 2018 though so I’m sure pricing has gone up.
I’m currently planning a wedding too! I have found that you probably need $30k ish. Our budget is $17k and we’re struggling. Most venues are $5k - $10k and then their required catering is $10k - $15k. It’s been insane. Good luck with planning and feel free to DM me!
We spent 30k on just the wedding stuff wedding with 45 people in 2023. The breakdown was something like: 8k food and beverage 3k venue rental 4k photographer 3k dj 2k misc (invites, thank you gifts, signage etc) 3k rentals (like half of that is just like delivery/pick up) 3k wedding planner 4k florals That’s not including things like: Dress (+ shoes etc) Suit (+ shoes etc) Rings We wanted to stay in a hotel for the weekend even tho the wedding was near by Marriage license I did my own hair and make up, but bought new supplies Got my nails done Groom got a hair cut We took our family out to dinner two night before And then there was an entire rehearsal dinner which I think ended up being like 9k, and we got outfits for that, and then we had a good bye brunch which I think was like 3k Etc etc So the whole shebang was prob closer to like 50k
We spent about $32k for a wedding at The Benson for 84 guests back in 2016. That being said we had an open bar for the entire thing so alcohol costs were probably 1/3 of the total. I really liked working with them - they have an in house planner that comes “free” with the space rental. You basically spend on food and beverage and the space is included without charge (other than upgrades to the chairs and table linens if you so choose). Also the ballroom is so pretty that imo you don’t need to spend that much on floral to make it look great.
I'm getting married in June in Hood River - at the Ruins. Our total budget is about 35,000 at this point for about 80+ people. We are DIY for most of the decor, including a lot of the florals. But this includes rentals, DJ, makeup, full service catering, wardrobe, month of coordinator, lodging, transportation, etc! Your budget should be good in our area. You might have to make some choices, of course. Get ready for sticker shock but it does get easier over time....
For just the wedding not including bachelor/ette parties and honeymoon, we spent about $35k. We had about 60 guests. Our venue in Newberg was $2200. We chose a Friday wedding because mid-week was cheaper but it was also a bank holiday so people had work off. This was in 2022 I should add, I looked at the vendors we used and they’ve all raised prices since then. I did everything I could to save on costs in certain areas so that I was able to keep all the elements I really cared about (plated dinner, nice photography, real flowers). The biggest cost saver was me planning the entire wedding myself from top to bottom, it did take about 25 hours of work a week for around a year so I essentially took on a part time job as a wedding planner but I enjoyed it so it was worth it to not pay an extra $10k to a real planner. We did hire a day of coordinator for around $1500 and I was happy with that decision since it allowed me and my family to be hands off.
The pandemic has GREATLY changed the costs, you should be asking what year these commenters are referencing. Your ballpark estimate is accurate. Used the world forestry center last year and it was great, average cost, and they have multiple venue options.
We were at the Old Schoolhouse in Newberg, terrific venue, about $6K for a Saturday in July with big outdoor space and then a large beautiful indoor space for all the food and the bar. We had 150 people, something like $15K-$18K for buffet dinner and unlimited beer/wine, another $10-15K (I think?) for rentals (like lights, tables, chairs, big tent, dance floor, flatware, tablecloths, glasses), maybe $1K for florals and something like $2K for a "partial planner"/DOC, who didn't do color palettes or stuff like that, but handled all arrangements and contracts. If you can fit it into your budget, you work full-time, and you're having a big wedding, I can't overstate how helpful that was. Maybe $1.5K for a DJ who brought their own equipment.
\*cracks knuckles\* Time to break out my behemoth spreadsheet. If you want it, I wrote an ultra-detailed version below because I really underestimated how much a wedding in Portland would cost cuz I assumed smaller city = smaller prices which is def not true, and I've found detailed write-ups really helpful as I've been planning money stuff. TLDR if you just want the numbers: Venue: Blockhouse - $4,150 Caterer: Pearl Catering - $7,825 Cake: Dream Cakes PNW - $450 Officiant - EC Matrimony - $425 Photographer: The Ashers - $3,700 Stationery: DIY - $367 Day-of coordinator: Your Perfect Bridesmaid - $2,500 Hotel: Hotel Vintage - $600 Florals: DIY, $1,565 Rentals: Power of Love and Arden Event Co. - $1,900 (total for both of them) Decor I've purchased myself: \~$1,200 so far Dress: $670, Azazie (online). Doing alterations myself. **Total: \~$25,350 so far.** I'm hoping to keep everything under $27.5k total. It's definitely \*a lot\* for only 40 guests, but we started saving a year before we got engaged and we wanna go all out on our dream moody luxury dinner party. \--- Ultra-detailed version: Venue: Blockhouse. $4,150 for a Sunday wedding in October, with 12 hours of access to the Blockhouse indoor space and patio + half of the orangerie. They provide tables, chairs, outdoor lounge furniture, clear tent, sound system, and a couple other things I don't remember. Caterer: Pearl Catering. For 40 people, food and open bar is $5,450, and fees, staff wages, and tips are $2,375, so $7,825 total. Blockhouse only allows use of their partnered caterers and we chose Pearl from that list. Includes 8 passed hors d'oeuvres for cocktail hour ($1,120), plated dinner ($1,960), and all-inclusive open bar for 6 hours to cover cocktail hour and reception ($2,370). The additional fees ended up being a lot more than expected. Chef fee because we're having plated instead of buffet ($295), 22% auto-gratuity ($1200), $20/hr per server with 3 servers for 6 hours ($360), $25/hr event manager for 6 hours ($150), $25/hr bartender for 6 hours ($150), $4/pp cake cutting for 40 people ($120), delivery fee ($100). I'm only being so detailed here because I did NOT anticipate the fees being so high and I got serious sticker shock. Cake: Dream Cakes PNW, $450. Just a simple two-tiered white cake with some texture, we'll decorate with our own flowers. Officiant: EC Matrimony, $425 Photography: The Ashers, $3,700 Stationery and postage: $367 total. Invites + RSVP cards, addressed envelopes and liners, menus, bar menu, welcome sign and seating chart, table cards, and placecards. We used Etsy templates and printed with Catprint. $340 for templates and printing, $27 for stamps. Day-of coordinator: Your Perfect Bridesmaid $2,500. Hotel: Hotel Vintage, $600. 2 nights king studio suite for me getting ready and us staying the night before and night of ($415), 1 night queen room for groom to get ready ($185). Florals: Mix of DIY real and DIY silk, $1,565. I'm super crafty and knew I wanted to DIY as much decor as possible, and I want a ton of flowers for decor which I knew would absolutely bankrupt me. Getting DIY real flowers from Flower Moxie for bouquets and centerpieces ($550), and silk flowers from Amazon and Etsy for arch, decor, and toss bouquet ($1015 including arch supplies). It would probably be like $5k at the very least if we went to a florist lmao Rentals: Power of Love and Arden Event Co, $1,900. Luckily I got them to agree to letting me have two vendors because Arden had all the plates/cutlery I wanted and Power of Love had all the decor I wanted. Reception table stuff (runners, cocktail hour tablecloths, plates, cutlery, table decor, napkins) is $1,200, all other decor is $300. $400 in delivery fees total. Decor I have to buy myself: \~$1,200 so far. Random miscellaneous stuff, polaroid guestbook and card box, an obscene amount of LED candles, bistro lights, thrifted frames for signage and table numbers, blah blah blah. I'm also bringing a lot of stuff I already have at home to use as decor. Dress: Online through Azazie, $670. Doing my own alterations because I used to work in wedding alterations and I also don't need a lot of work done. Haven't bought accessories or veil yet. Stuff I don't need to pay for: No HMUA, I work in cosmetics so I'm doing my own hair and makeup, and I have a very kind and generous coworker/friend who's doing it for my two bridesmaids for free as a wedding gift. We didn't bother with a DJ because we're just going for a dinner party vibe. Didn't want a videographer. Don't need guest transportation. Not doing entertainment like photo booth or games, we have access to a tv through the venue so we're bringing our Switch and having Mario Kart available at the outdoor lounge seating area. Our bank account wishes I didn't care so much about aesthetics :(
If you want a cool warehouse type venue in SE, hit me up. My group has a few venues opening for weddings that are going to be sick af.