St. Augustine, FL, USA < change city >

Response from the couple:
Hi Lara!

Congratulations on your wedding! I would love to help you in any way that I can. I did all of the planning myself so can provide you with lots of details. I was very happy with everything, although I do have some reservations about the caterer. The staff was amazing but the food wasn't exactly what I expected. The guests all enjoyed it but I felt like the caterer over-promised and under-delivered.

The entire focus of our wedding was to create an intimate and personal experience to share with our family and friends. We kept the invitation list small--approx 80 attending. The size of the wedding definitely helps on the budget.

I loved getting married in the center of town underneath all of the twinkle lights--and would love to see your pics! There is another venue that I was considering but it was not finished being built yet...the River House. It is a brand new building on the Matanzas River with east facing views of the lighthouse and Bridge of Lions. Although new, the building design has the Old Florida feel. The grand opening is in January (I think) but you might want to give Constance Wiecking ([phone number hidden (log in to view)]) a call. It is operated by a local non-profit, so I believe much of the cost is tax-deductible....but not sure on that. I also think that means it's a reasonable fee...but, again, not sure on that either.

So, back to caterer & bar service....we purchased the alcohol for the bar and the caterer charged us a flat per person fee for mixers (cocacola, juice, lemons/limes, etc). We used their bartenders. Who have you talked to about catering? What kind of service are you thinking -- buffet or plated? The Government House does not have a kitchen for cooking, so whoever you choose will have to be able to manage that.

Another thing to keep in mind with the Government House or any venue downtown is the 10 pm noise ordinance. I don't know how strictly it is enforced but our caterer started cleaning things up at 10 on the dot and that was kind of a bummer because the party was really going. We could have continued on inside but I think there was a miscommunication. That is one thing to do, for sure: be clear and specific with ALL of the vendors, regardless of their role. I thought I had been but apparently there was a mis-cue!

For the size of wedding that we had, the Government House had all of the tables & chairs needed. They don't have fancy chairs but I wasn't bothered by that. Since I used white table clothes, the white chairs blended right in.

Another thing to be mindful of is the number of churches on the plaza....most of them have church bells so you will need to figure out when they ring and for how long so that it doesn't disturb your ceremony(if you are having it there). I coordinated my ceremony to end as the church bells rang at 5pm...very cool.

Between the ceremony and reception, I loaded the guests on trolley trains (Ripley's Red Trains) and took them on a tour of the Nights of Lights. I don't know if this would be as much fun in the dark in April but if it is still light or dusk when your ceremony ends, it's a nice way to entertain your guests while the caterer is finishing the set-up.

I seriously can go on and on....but I'll stop for now, I know you must be on information overload. Please email me any questions you have. I'm happy to chime in. I felt like I had an A-team for my wedding and it went off beautifully.

One place where I was glad to have spent money was on hiring help for the day of. It was really nice to be done with the little details the day before the wedding so that I could enjoy the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception.

Talk to you soon,
em

ps....our rehearsal dinner was amazing! creekside rocks!

Response from the couple:
Hi! Congratulations.

My mom is local so I actually had her stop by the Government House. The second best is to call the main number for the Government House and ask for Catherine Culver. She was my point person and was fantastic to work with. Once I made initial contact with her, we corresponded via email and she was always very prompt at replying.

Good luck!
Emily