Do or don’t say it’s a wedding?

My fiancé and I are playing on getting married May 2028 in ATL (leaning towards Decatur, GA). While it’s still a bit out, I want to lock in a reception venue because I have heard horror stories about places getting booked out and there is only one weekend in that May that works for us to get married.

This was always going to be a low-budget wedding because both of us are finishing grad school and my parents and his dad want to do the standard, traditional way of paying for weddings (hi bride here). My parents both have low-income jobs and I’ll not have a lot of money saved up for wedding after only one year of full-time work prior to wedding. My fiancé will have just graduated from law school a few weeks before our wedding so he won’t have a lot to contribute yet himself. Hence maximizing the budget is key, the budget is going to be about $10,000. One place I’m really trying to find my bang for my buck is with the venue. I was originally looking for a reception space for 125 guests. Ceremony to be held in church. But most of those spaces that can hold that much charge like $3,500+ and include needing to use mandatory vendors for catering and what not that also cost an arm and a leg.

My fiancé did manage to find a space that seems like it could potentially be cheaper. It most definitely is when you are just looking at renting a hall for the 12 hours we would be wanting to rent it for. But they also offer a “wedding package” that makes almost no sense for what is included in the package. I know one of the biggest tips you get from people is unless it is necessary to disclose, don’t say it’s for a wedding because of how much the upcharge is for that. And I think for sure that this place is up charging just because it’s a wedding. Should we try to get around it and not say it’s for a wedding or should we try and negotiate the package price down since we don’t need the few other things they have in the package other than the reception space?

Here are the links (we’d be using Cochran Hall):

https://decaturlegacypark.com/plan-an-event-wedding/

https://decaturlegacypark.com/facilities-rental/