Erin Fox Photography
Before booking your dream venue, it is imperative that you understand all of the costs that go into an event at that particular location. While our venue rates are certainly very affordable, many of our policies, as well as being a primarily outdoor venue do add additional costs that clients need to keep in mind and plan for. Below we will breakdown our policies and outline some key things that you need to consider and budget for within your overall wedding budget. At the conclusion of this page, we will break down a total wedding budget estimate based on the overall Nashville wedding market. Please keep in mind that these are estimates based on the 2024 market.
Time of access
Our weekend rentals give our clients a generous 14 hours of venue access from 9:00am-11:00pm. For many events this accommodates ample time to load in, decorate, celebrate and load out before the house is locked at 11:00pm. If additional time is needed, we provide the option to add on an extra day before your event at a reduced rate so you can set up beforehand and enjoy the day of your event with a little less labor and more time with your loved ones.
The cost of an additional day for set up ranges between $500-$1,500
Event Insurance
Purchasing event insurance is an industry standard at most venues. Any clients who have over 50 guests and/or alcohol in any form (regardless of how many guests you have) are required to get a one day event insurance policy. More information on that may be found here.
Depending on where you acquire that policy, it’s typically about $150-$200
Tenting
Allie Chambers Photography
Rebecca Denton Photography
Tenting is the best back up rain plan for any weddings at Ravenswood over 50 guests, however, it is often times a large and unexpected cost for some clients. We always recommend reaching out to tenting companies to get an accurate quote for what a tent will cost that fits your specific guest count and needs. Below will breakdown an estimated cost for a classic, white frame tent per guest count, including all labor fees associated with delivery, installation, and teardown of the tent:
40x40 (up to 80 guests): Starting at $2,750
40x60 (up to 150 guests): Starting at $4,500
40x90 (up to 250 guests): Starting at $5,500
Labor and delivery fees account for a large percentage of these costs and are unfortunately something that is often times overlooked in a budget. Side walls, tent pole drapes, clear top tents, sail cloth tents and/or other style tents will increase the above costs.
Lighting
Erin Fox Photography
Rachel Moore Photography
While our property is beautifully lit by floodlights on the mansion, as well as pathway lights throughout the property, additional lighting is needed for our paved reception area. String lights under the tent and sometimes from the tent to the back porch area are common lighting additions. The glow of lights in the evening adds a wonderful element to outdoor events. Below is an overview of lighting in two different ways:
Add basic string lights to your tent through your tenting company: Starting at $1,000
Hiring an outside lighting company to do string lights and chandeliers: Starting at $3,000
Rentals
JordanAndAlainaPhotography
Ashley Spangler Photography
Set up and Breakdown
One of the many benefits of your rental investment with Ravenswood is that over 200 rental items are already included such as tables, chairs, ceremony backdrops, etc. This definitely helps keep your overall outside rentals costs down. You are, however, required to have a licensed and insured company do all set up and breakdown of our rental items if you have over 50 guests. This is most often handled by your tent/rental company you’ve hired for other decor such as linens, plates, & glassware. They are able to set up and teardown their own inventory as well as the Ravenswood inventory. It’s worth every cent to have the pros handle this for you!
Depending on the company, the labor to do set up and breakdown of the Ravenswood Rental Items can be anywhere from $500-$1,000
Outside Rental Items
Things like table linens, additional chairs for your reception, different styles of any tables or chairs, china, glassware, flatware, napkins, and any other catering equipment not covered by your caterer are items that you will need to budget for.
The average rentals budget is between $1,500-$3,000 depending on client’s overall style. This can range up to $5000+ should a client desire to use all outside rentals.
Catering
Sarah Nicole Photography
Mckenzie Thompson Photography
While we love that you have the freedom to choose whichever licensed and insured catering company that you would like, our policies do have catering requirements that you will need to factor into your budget. These are requirements regardless of guest count.
Catering Policy: At Ravenswood, we do not allow dropped catering. Caterers are required to remain on site during meal service, regardless of the food style. They must do all set up, maintenance, and breakdown of food related items, as well as pick up food related trash at the end of the evening. When discussing this with your caterers, please ensure this is factored into your contract with them for service staff. If your caterers do not provide service staff, you will need to contract a separate catering staff for your event. We have catering staff companies on our vendor guide list.
Service staff: These costs vary depending on the caterers that you use, as well as your overall event size, however, service staff costs typically start at $1,000+. This is on top of your per person meal price.
Catering costs: The average client spends around $25-$45+/per person on catering. This does not include the staffing labor or taxes.
Alcohol
Caitlin Steva Photography
Justin Wright Photography
There are two costs that clients should keep in mind pertaining to alcohol - the alcohol purchase itself as well as the ABC licensed bartenders to do all service of alcohol related beverages, which is a requirement at Ravenswood Mansion.
Alcohol Purchase: Clients typically budget between $800-$1,500 for alcohol, depending on event size and desired alcohol types. (ex: beer/wine only vs full bar)
Bartenders: Some caterers can provide bartenders, however there are also bartending service companies that many clients choose to hire. Clients typically budget between $500-$2,000 for bartenders or a bartending service company, depending on the level of service they prefer.
Coordinators
Katelyn Nicole Photography
Emily Green Creative Photography
For all weddings, we require that clients have a minimum of a day of coordinator on site for all events surrounding the wedding. They must be an industry professional and remain on site from beginning to end of client’s event. The average client budgets between $2,500-$5,000+ for their coordinator since they are a vital part of the success of their event. Many clients choose to hire a month of coordinator or higher level of service to ensure that all lose ends are tied up prior to their event. They are worth every penny…we promise!
Final Breakdown
While the above items note a few things to keep in mind when budgeting for your event based on our requirements at Ravenswood Mansion, we are breaking down a complete wedding budget in greater detail below. The below breakdown was created based on the Nashville wedding market in 2024 and is by no means a guarantee of wedding vendor pricing. We understand that wedding budgets vary drastically based on a client’s overall style and desires and that there could be vendors that provide certain services at a lower or even higher cost. The below breakdown is for an average wedding of about 150 guests. Based on the below breakdown and our experiences with weddings at our facility, we recommend having an overall wedding budget of $45,000+ for weddings of around 150 guests. This allows for all of our requirements to be met and for you and your guests to be most comfortable at our facility - rain or shine!
To help you plan for your wedding (whatever your guest count), download our helpful spreadsheet. You can update the guest count and get a budget for your wedding based on Nashville market averages in 2024.
