Newly Engaged and OVERWHELMED!!!

Hi everybody! I am newly engaged and seriously overwhelmed with online research! I seem to be getting different price quotes from different websites! Here are some details, any definitive price quotes would be greatly appreciated!!

Prefer off peak months, but open

 

Prefer Nassau County, but the Hamptons venues are catching my eye

 

100-125 guests

 

Wedding planner recommendations and prices?

 

Any and all price quotes would be greatly appreciated!!

 

Please help an overworked teacher and overwhelmed bride-to-be!!! Thank you!!

As I get price quotes, I will write the venues in a reply post, so feel free to message me! My goal is to put together a template so I can pay it forward and send it to everybody! We all need to help each other out!! Thanks again and congrats everybody!!

RE:Newly Engaged and OVERWHELMED!!!

Hey! I'm also an overworked, newly engaged teacher! What price range are you looking in? We are looking at fairly affordable venues.

RE:Newly Engaged and OVERWHELMED!!!

For the top end ones expect to start at $180-210 per person (only includes food, alcohol, wedding venue). You really need to look in person to get most of the quotes. In my experience the Lessings Venues were the priciest.

RE:Newly Engaged and OVERWHELMED!!!

I paid $88.64 per person for my Thursday, May 25th wedding at Chateau Briand.  I used their ceremony space and spent a little under $1k (they include flowers for the ceremony).

Also check out Crest Hollow.  I didn't look into that venue because I felt it was too close to the Suffolk/Nassau County border - totally missed out on that.  Another bride told me their Sunday night price for a Spring wedding was around the same price as my Thursday night wedding.  I was pissed LOL.

Wedding planner:  Coordinated to Perfection.  She doesn't come cheap though, but she was AMAZING as my day-of-coordinator.  I was stress-free on my wedding day thanks to her and her two assistants.  I paid her $1800 for 10 hours of assistance, and she began working with me about 6 weeks before the wedding.

RE:Newly Engaged and OVERWHELMED!!!

Lessing’s venues aren’t the priciest – in my experience there are three types of venues. Low-end (wedding factories that do 3 weddings at once), middle, and luxury (Oheka Castle). Lessings is somewhere on the higher end of middle, and remember that all venues are game to negotiate. I visited tons of venues and interviewed plenty over the phone for my New Year’s Eve Eve wedding in December 2016 and wound up at what is now called The Mansion at Oyster Bay (I was the last “Woodlands” bride on December 30, they flipped the name over in January). For five hours of open bar, a cocktail hour with six stations including a raw bar, full use of the mansion, outdoor fire pit, and amazing dinner with local delicious options…it was $120pp, no site fee, and the standard admin overhead charge. DeSeversky Mansion, Glen Cove Mansion were all pricier. Sea Cliff Manor in Glen Head was really lovely and like half the price!
I plan events for a nonprofit in the city (and I also do day-of coordinating), and wedding planners really range in terms of what you want. IMO, $1800 for 10 hours is shockingly high and I hope she was worth it. $700 - $1000 for a full day is more the norm. If you want someone to help you with more planning, retainers really range. Do you want them to pick vendors or recommend vendors? Coordinate vendor schedules? Go with you to appointments? Day of coordinators, and week-of-coordinators, are very different from wedding planners!