Questions

Essentially, yes. Our package has been designed for a bride who wants a simple, beautiful wedding. She would need to supply a minister, photographer, clothes, cake and flowers and a couple of minor accessories and she’ll have a gorgeous, unforgettable wedding. If a bride wants more she is able to supply her own vendors to make the wedding match her particular dreams.

We do have a wedding only package for $2100 (plus $300 refundable damage deposit) which is three hours long and includes everything in the package that has to do with the wedding. Due to the popularity of our wedding and reception package we can only book this package Monday through Thursday and occasionally on a Sunday.

Okay, last package. We have a “walk-in” wedding package for $400 (plus $300 refundable damage deposit) for one hour. You show up dressed, we describe what is going to happen, have the ceremony, take some photos and that’s it. You’ll need to supply a minister, a photographer (although couples oftentimes use relatives to photograph these weddings,) your clothes (usually just nice clothes but some brides have worn an official bridal dress,) unity candle and guest book. You are limited to 14 people total, including bride and groom. Since the time commitment isn’t huge we’re able to schedule this package virtually any day, although a weekend date would need to be already booked with a full wedding/reception so we know what times are available.

This is a very important subject!

Trust me that we are sympathetic to your circumstances but if you cancel or postpone your wedding, it will cost you substantially. Since weddings are planned so far in advance if you cancel or postpone your wedding then that date may go empty which costs us tremendously. Even if we rebook the date you won’t get a refund.

If you can’t have your wedding on the originally planned date then you can always move your ceremony to an earlier available date with no penalty. If you need to postpone to a later date we have a $250 resigning charge but certain circumstances apply as described below.

If you cancel the wedding it all depends upon when you cancel as to how much money you will forfeit. The deposit, as stated in the contract, is non-refundable and non-assignable. There are two payments due four months and one month prior to the wedding. After those respective dates that money is non-refundable.

If you’ve paid up some in advance of those dates then we would refund that money. Even if you do cancel your wedding you can resign later if your circumstances change. The same bride and groom can resign for the $250 charge but it can only be within three months of the new date.
Any money that you had forfeited on your cancellation will be applied to the new date. No other chapel will do this for you. You’re welcome!

We do try to work with the military although we’ll need to see official orders that prevent the wedding from happening when originally planned. If Uncle Sam needs half of the couple on the original wedding date you won’t have to pay the $250 to rebook.

If you have an occurrence such as a death in the immediate family we would certainly take that into consideration, but it will always be up to us in the end.

We once gave a bride the option of rescheduling due to an ice storm but she determined that there really wasn’t a way to postpone a wedding on short notice. Rescheduling her vendors for a few days later would be a nightmare and how do you contact your guests? Realistically it just won’t work so it’s a risk you take although we’ll do everything in our power to help alleviate whatever problems Mother Nature throws our way.

Yes, if you prefer something different from the bubbles, you’re certainly welcome to supply it yourself. There are only a few things we don’t allow, mainly rice, confetti, and birdseed. All are available in eco-friendly versions at party stores. Sparklers are pretty but they are semi-dangerous to your guests (and your wedding dress!) and they make a bunch of smoke that may present problems to your photographer although there are wedding specific sparklers available. You’re also welcome to bring real (not imitation) rose petals.

When we developed our package we left out virtually everything that isn’t essential to having a beautiful wedding to save as much money for our brides as we could. Therefore we really don’t have anything that we can save money on and then pass the saving on to you. So, to answer the question, no, it won’t lower the price.

Everything! Okay, don’t bring any your rings, fresh flowers or your clothes. But other than that you’re encouraged to bring everything else, including your marriage license. We can store your items and that will be less stuff that you need to worry about on the big day.

Keeping in mind that the only product we really have for sale is “time in our chapel”, it’s easy to understand that we would need to charge for the time they spend here. So, if it’s worth $200 per hour to you, arrange it with us and they are welcome to come early. Otherwise simply give them your arrival time as the time that they should arrive.

Actually, that means that the building has to be empty by 10 and here’s how we do it. About thirty minutes before the end of your time we want your DJ or announcer to announce that the bride and groom are leaving and everyone should go out front for the send-off. That should get you on your way by 20 minutes until the end of your time, giving your family and friends just enough time to collect items out of the dressing rooms, your gifts, and any decor you might have brought and leave by the end of your time.

Keep in mind that liquor at your reception is only intended for your guests to enjoy and that we don’t want anyone getting drunk. Last calls only encourage your guests to run over and grab that last drink, moments before they jump into their car and drive off down the highway.

No problem at all. The entire outdoors is reserved for her smoking pleasure! She just can’t do it inside the building. We do have several benches and ash buckets outside. And don’t let her or anyone else sneak one in the dressing or rest rooms. When we find out then your damage deposit is automatically forfeited.

You absolutely wouldn’t be happy with it so, to protect you, we don’t allow it. There are several reasons that a professional model costs $3000 and the home models cost $65! We don’t supply chocolate fountains but we can certainly recommend a couple of companies who have done a very good job for our brides.

Actually just the chapel and bathrooms are included in the rehearsal. Plus the day before the wedding isn’t when you want to find out the tuxes don’t fit. Tell those silly guys to try them on yesterday!

Our lower parking lot is small but it will handle the first 100 guests. If needed, cars can park along the sides of the driveway and we do have overflow parking at the top of the drive. Carpooling is definitely beneficial.

On Friday you can’t arrive earlier than 5 since we have rehearsals at 3 and 4 but you can have your wedding whenever you want after that. On Sunday you can have your ceremony anytime you want.

A $500 non-refundable down payment in cash, check or credit card holds both your date and price and it applies to the fee. Half of the remaining fee (after the down payment) is due four months before your wedding with the balance due one month before. You can also send in payments as you want and we’ll apply them to your balance. The fee for the catering isn’t due until two weeks before the wedding so that you can get a good guest plus wedding party count.

Since we do the set-up and clean-up that would not infringe on your time.

12 on one side, 13 on the other.

The chapel and the reception hall will both seat 130 guests.

It’s only a problem for the last 20 people since they won’t get into the chapel! The other problem comes in the reception hall where there’s just not quite enough room to move freely with that many people in there.

The experts say that you can expect 60%-70% attendance. Those rates would change based upon whether you and your fiancé grew up out-of-state or you both grew up near-by.

If you have a musician they can use the piano but most brides use our pre-recorded music. We cue up the CD’s or playlist, play them, fade them in and out, etc. You can also mix our music and yours. Some brides bring a special song for the unity candle ceremony, for instance. You can also have soloist, harpist, etc.”

Yes, we play beautiful romantic classical songs, or you can provide your own.

If any of the ceremony music is yours then you would need to have a CD or playlist. Although we prefer the songs in order it would not be required.

Typically we open the buffet and, if you have a video, we’ll play the video upon the arrival of the guests. If you have a DJ they would also work to keep your guests happy. If no DJ we would start the reception music, also. The buffet line is open before the bride and groom arrive so that your guests will be ready to pay attention later.

Our sound tech would set it up. The video can be on DVD or as a PowerPoint presentation on a thumb drive. Usually music is included with the video but we’ve also had them where we simply played background music during the video. Your presentation needs to be formatted so it will loop on its’ own.

10 chairs per table unless you have 60 or so guests then we’ll do 8 per table. Max of 13 tables.

We have several different vases, colored beads, candles, etc. from which you can choose. We use 20″ x 20″ colored squares to bring color to the tables along with colored candles, ribbons, etc. If we don’t have anything you like you are welcome to bring in your own centerpieces and we’ll use them. A great combination is our centerpieces and then the bride might bring in some flowers in her colors or ribbon and we add that into the mix. We’re pretty flexible.

We will have plenty of servers for punch and the cake. If you have someone you want to honor as a cake server we can certainly back them up.

We have a variety package of vegetables, fruits and cheeses which is $6 per person and is essentially all-they-can-eat. Probably 50% of our brides pick that option. It looks good and is relatively inexpensive.

Yes, to all.

We don’t supply one but you can bring your own or we can recommend one.

The only additional charges would be if you have any catering or if you serve alcohol at the reception. Anything other than a toast between the bride and groom incurs a $150 surcharge but you supply the liquor so you’ll save that money back. There is a $300 damage deposit which is refundable if everything goes as it should, and it almost always has. No tax is charged.

It’s the same rate for any day. A lot of places raise their price on Saturday evening since it’s such a prime day for a wedding but we didn’t think that was quite fair.

We have a full commercial kitchen and can do any catering that you would like. This is priced on a per person price. If you have a caterer that you would prefer to use you can certainly do that but there is a $2 per person surcharge for that privilege. Caterers must have an employee identification number and hold themselves out to the public as a caterer. We do not allow you, for safety reasons, to bring in your own food.

We highly recommend having a DJ simply because the good ones do a great job of getting the guests involved in the proceedings. If you don’t have a DJ this is how we would like to do the music for the reception. Every bride and groom has a friend who wishes they could be the center of attention but they can’t be because you are. You’ve probably already thought of who that person is, right?

Anyway, you can have that person be the “announcer;” the person who announces you when you enter the reception hall, announces the dances, cake cutting, etc. That person would be in charge of playing the CD or playlists because they’ll want to turn it down for the announcements, they can cue up certain songs for your first dance, etc. Our sound tech is available for trouble shooting, running the video, etc.