There’s no hiding it – venue availability is limited for key 2021 dates and the more popular wedding venues are booking up fast for 2022. If you have a large family estate or family farm, you might consider having a home or backyard wedding. It sounds dreamy, but there’s more to it than you think. Trust me, after years of doing this for a few years, I can guarantee you that planning a wedding at home tends to be more work (and often more expensive) than planning a wedding at a traditional venue. Don’t get me wrong, you may decide the pros outweigh the cons – but this blog is dedicated to finding out whether or not a home or backyard wedding is right for you (and how to move forward with planning one!).

Before we dive in, a quick intro. Borrowed and Blue is a Georgia wedding planning company which wedding planners all over Northern Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. If you are looking for a Georgia wedding planner or rentals, get in touch with us here. We would love to help you plan your wedding – at home of otherwise!

Benefits of a Backyard or Home Wedding!

There is something incredibly special about getting married at a location that means something to you. It’s also fun to start from the ground up and bring everything in so we can capture your wedding design exactly as you imagined. You won’t see your wedding redone anywhere else! We believe a wedding design should be as unique as the couple, so we love this about home weddings! There are no rules and no timeline restrictions (for the most part) as well – so if you want to set up the day before and clean up the day after – you can do so! You’ll never pay extra fees for going a little later (except maybe with some of your other vendors).

Disadvantages of a home wedding

With a traditional venue, they are “built in” to have everything you need. This leaves home weddings at a bit of a disadvantage (and really is what usually makes them more expensive. Here are a few costs to consider you might not have realized with a home wedding:

• Tables, Chairs, Linens, Cutlery – yes, you may choose to upgrades few things at a traditional venue, but there are a lot more standard items that you take advantage of than you realize.

• Parking: Unless you have a large acreage with enough room for a DIY parking lot, you are going to want to consider parking. Even with a parking lot, if you have a large guest count you may want to consider lot attendants to ensure the flow of traffic is seamless. If parking near your home is limited, you might want to consider hiring a valet service or having shuttle buses to and from a set location.

• Bathrooms: Just because you are hosting a wedding at your home or one of your beloved family members’ homes, doesn’t mean they want 80 people using their home bathrooms. There are actually some luxury port-a-potties to solve this problem, but it’s often an unexpected expense that you don’t anticipate when you start to plan your wedding at home.

• A BACK UP PLAN. Wedding venues typically have a backup plan included! Your home doesn’t. We always recommend a tent and a backup generator in case of any emergencies. As wedding planners, we might be a little biased but we always like to have a backup plan for our backup plans!

How much does a home wedding or backyard wedding cost?

Typically we recommend a budget of about $80,000-$100,000 for a wedding between 75-100 guests. Remember, we need to build everything from the ground up and nothing is included. The only costs you are saving is the venue – which is really quite minimal in comparison. Depending on the location, we also need to consider special permits and licensing requirements. The list is truly endless which we don’t say to discourage you, but just to prepare you. A good wedding planner will take care of all of these details and don’t you worry – we are up to the challenge. As many extra things as there are to consider for a backyard wedding, there is nothing more rewarding than to build something from the ground up! Contact us here to get started!