Renting A House For A Wedding: The Why, Where, What, & How

Finding the perfect wedding venue is the first and hardest step of planning a wedding (in my mind anyway). It took us 3 years to find the wedding venue of our dreams and in the end it wasn’t a ‘real’ wedding venue at all. In fact, we ended up renting a house for a wedding… sounds a bit out of the ordinary, I know, but it was amazing!

I won’t lie, renting a house for a wedding isn’t easy, but trust me, it’s hella worth it. You have a completely unique wedding venue and usually a lot more control over planning.

We rented a house for our wedding so I’ll go over all the steps it took from why we did it to what you’ll need, and how to ultimately plan the wedding of your dreams!

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

Why Rent A House For A Wedding?

We chose to rent a house for our wedding for a few reasons…

Your Pick Of Perfect Backyards (And No Stress)

If you’re interested in a backyard wedding, renting a house might be the perfect solution for you. We loved the idea of an intimate backyard wedding but didn’t have a backyard to host it at.

First, it would have COMPLETELY stressed out my parents to host it. Second, their backyard is in a suburb of Montreal making it less than ideal for a romantic backyard wedding.

By renting a house for a wedding, yow you have so many more backyards to choose from. Plus, you don’t have to worry about cleaning up your place and keeping it tidy in the days leading up to your event.

It’s A Very Unique Wedding Venue

Let’s be real, not a lot of people are renting a house for a wedding. Including houses to rent widens your search from just wedding venues in your area. You can find some truly unique venues that probably haven’t been overused yet.

We ended up at a Manoir from the 1800s. It had hosted weddings in the past, but not nearly as many as a typical wedding venue. So not only does it open up your search to new locations and venues, but there’s also just a lot less people that got married there.

You Can Save Money…

You might be able to find a house to rent that’s cheaper than a typical wedding venue – but this isn’t always the case.

Our wedding venue was probably the same cost as a generic wedding venue. The difference though, is that we had two amazing nights for the price of one.

When it wasn’t the wedding ceremony, we got to enjoy the venues pool, sauna, jacuzzi, and even wine cellar!

So we saw more value in renting a house for a wedding for two nights than spending it all on one night.

Perfect For Smaller Weddings

If you’re looking to host a small wedding (under 100 people) the options can be quite limited. At most venues, there’s a minimum guest count that you’re still paying for whether you meet the requirement or not! Plus, you never want to feel lost in a large venue if you aren’t enough people.

That’s where an Airbnb wedding venue comes in! Most homes cannot fit 100+ people. For example, ours had a maximum of 72 people! Now you aren’t paying for guests that aren’t there and your venue won’t feel too big!

What To Look For When Renting A House For A Wedding

Find A House That’s Hosted Events Before

This is a game changer. Unless you know the area, or you’re already a skilled party planner, chances are you’ll need all the help you can get for planning your DIY wedding.

So, when looking for a house to rent for your wedding, find one that has hosted events before (even better if they’ve hosted weddings). This will make planning 100x easier for you to wedding plan.

This way, your venue might have recommendations for local vendors, and how to set up the house to host an event. You don’t want to be the guinea pigs for this venue.

P.S. It’s also a good idea to use vendors that have worked at your venue before. This way they’ll be familiar with the space and can give recommendations for your event.You want all the recommendations you can get!!

Don’t Just Choose A House With The Perfect Outdoor Space…

Even though your dream might be to have a backyard wedding, the weather doesn’t always cooperate.

So when looking for a venue, make sure it also has enough room inside for everyone and a nice space for the ceremony just in case.

And it isn’t just rain you have to worry about. Depending on where you are, an outdoor wedding when it’s too hot or sunny isn’t enjoyable. You’ll also want to take the wind into account – you don’t want your hair in your face during the ceremony!

If there isn’t the ideal indoor space, you can also consider renting a tent. Just double check you’re allowed and there’s space outside for it to be set up.

Find An Airbnb Wedding Venue That’s Close By

Preferably find an Airbnb wedding venue that’s relatively close to you and where the host lets you visit before the wedding…

Because it’s most likely more of a DIY wedding, you’ll want to be able to visit while you wedding plan for a few reasons. First, you should realistically visit the venue before you book it (as you would with any other wedding venue – this is a really big event that you’re hosting and the pictures might not always be accurate).

Then, if it’s all perfect after your first visit and you decide that it’s the venue for you, it’s very convenient to be able to visit a few time leading up to the wedding. We visited at least 3 times before the big day. We had to double check where everything would be set up, take measurements, we met with the caterer to make a floor plan …etc.

Where To Find A House To Rent For A Wedding?

Finding a house to rent for a wedding is one of the hardest parts. I mean, you can’t exactly search for a wedding venue house to rent.

You’ll need to do a lot of searching and digging on house rental websites. For example, you can book an Airbnb wedding venue (but that’s easier said than done…).

Looking On Airbnb Is Tough…

Depending on the size of your wedding, you may or may not be able to use Airbnb for your wedding venue. A lot of rental houses on Airbnb have rules that say no parties or have limits to the number of guests.

The easiest way to filter through to find an Airbnb wedding venue is to increase the number of guests to the maximum so you’ll see the larger homes on the platform. But! That’s not all! Before booking any house, read the house rules to make sure you’re allowed to host parties.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a filter just yet to only show the homes that allow events.

Alternative Websites To Airbnb

There are a few other house rental websites that you can search for homes on such as VRBO, or Plum Guide.

You can also search on local house rental websites in your area. For example, at first we were interested in a wedding in the Laurentians in Quebec. There are several cabin rental companies in the area that we were looking at. These were a lot more official than Airbnb and for the most part weren’t opposed to events.

Use Google To Find Blog Post Recommendations For Your Area

Someone might have already done the research for you. So it’s worth searching for some local blogs on this topic.

Research on Google the best Airbnb wedding venues in your area. There were quite a few blog posts about Airbnbs in Montreal for parties. It’s a shortcut to know which ones are open to hosting parties. The downside is that they might not be up to do date with the newest listings.

How To Host A Wedding At A House You Rented?

Now that you’ve hopefully found the perfect house to rent for a wedding, it’s time to start planning! Here are some tips that I learned from my Airbnb wedding.

Book Multiple Nights

You should 100% book your venue for a minimum of 2 nights (and maybe even three… you can thank me later).

Because this is more of a DIY wedding, you need time to set up your wedding. So let’s say your wedding is on Saturday, book your venue starting Friday. This way you can spend Friday setting up all the rooms with decor and rentals.

If your wedding is Saturday night, you’ll automatically need to book it for another night as well. Most check out times are in the morning… which doesn’t really work. So you can spend the night at your Airbnb and leisurely check out the next morning.

If you want to make it even less stressful, book it for a third night so you can have time to clean up the following day!

A hidden bonus is that you can also use the same venue for the rehearsal dinner the night before and the brunch the following morning. It really just saves you from having to find and book two other venues!

Hire A Cleaning Service

If you’ve booked your venue for multiple nights and are using it before the big day, hire a cleaning service to come before the ceremony and reception. We tried to block off certain rooms that we were using for the wedding but we still had someone come to clean the hallway and bathrooms before the wedding.

This way we also didn’t have to worry about running out of toilet paper in the main bathrooms, they were all replenished for the big day!

Extras You’ll Need For Renting A House For A Wedding

Renting a house for a wedding is not your typical wedding. So with that in mind, you will definitely need to bring a few extra things that you wouldn’t normally need (or think of).

You’ll want to ask the venue if there’s a high enough hook for you to hang your wedding dress. Our’s didn’t have any but the doors were very tall so we bought door hooks to hang all our long dresses on (like this one on Amazon US | CA).

If you’re having people sleep over before the wedding bring a handheld steamer. You can ask the venue, they might have one. Ours didn’t, so we bought this one from Amazon (see it on amazon.ca here). This way, your family and friends won’t have wrinkly suits and dresses from being packed.

Again, if people are staying over, you want to keep the venue as clean as possible. Not everyone will be keen on walking around in their socks, so we provided everyone with slipper socks to wear around the house (like these on Amazon US | CA). This way no one was walking around with their dirty shoes.

The house we rented for our wedding was one giant house with multiple rooms… that didn’t lock! I mean you’re all family, but in order to avoid anyone walking in to the wrong room we bought hanging door label signs (like these on Amazon US | CA). It was also a convenient way for everyone to find which room they were staying in. Doors do have a tendency to all look the same!

Tips For Having People Stay The Weekend

You’re renting a house for a wedding, turn it into a weekend event! Of course, it adds a lot more work but it’s worth it!

Obviously, you have way more meals to think about. The easiest answer is to have the weekend be completely catered, but that adds a lot of cost. We opted to just cater the two breakfasts that we were there for.

We did more of a DIY wedding so brought up food for the rest of the meals. We cooked food at home, froze it, and then reheated it at the venue. We also did a massive Costco order for snacks. We ordered in pizza for one meal as well (always an easy go to!).

FYI Renting A House For A Wedding Is A LOT More Work

I’m not going to sugar coat it here, you’re in for a lot more work! You’re most likely starting with a blank slate that was never designed to host weddings. There isn’t a predesigned floor plan for a wedding so you might have to get a little creative.

For example, our venue was a Manoir with 5 separate rooms on the main floor instead of one giant open space. So we had a cocktail dînatoire style wedding reception because there wasn’t enough room to have everyone at a table AND have a dance floor. So we opted for standing cocktail tables instead. We had food stations separated in different rooms and had to set up the bar on the veranda outside.

You’ll also have to deal with packing all your wedding essentials for the weekend and those fun extra if you want them. But like I said, it’s worth it! Just don’t put too much stress on yourself!

Destination Wedding Must-Haves

Read More Related Posts

• The Best Québec Destination Wedding Venue: Manoir Maplewood
• How To Have An Eastern Townships Wedding From Montreal

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Last update on 2024-11-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API