What is your vendor policy? Are there any exclusive partnerships?
What are vendor load-in and load-out times?
What are vendor insurance requirements?
What is The Gathering Place’s capacity?
What is included in my rental vs. extra?
How many hours do I get?
Who will be there the day of my event?
Where do my guests park?
When can we do the rehearsal?
Do you have outdoor space?
Who handles set-up and clean-up?
How should I layout my event?
What is your vendor policy? Are there any exclusive partnerships?
Nope! We want you to have the freedom to choose every one of your vendors for your special day. We do encourage you to have professionals if you can afford them and we can provide you a list based off of who we have worked with in the past and highly recommend!
We ask that vendors be willing to check out the space before the event to be fully equipped.
Vendors that have not previously worked at our venue, please contact gp@bettertogather.com.
What are vendor load-in and load-out times?
You have access to the venue at 8am and everything, including your personal belongings must be completely cleaned up and out of the venue by midnight.
Licensed and insured vendors that have undergone our safety and onboarding process may be allowed access to set up and tear down after midnight to insure that everything is ready for our cleaning crew by 6am.
What are vendor insurance requirements?
We require proof of liability insurance for all food and alcohol being served in the venue, which licensed vendors should have anyway! We also require you to purchase day of event insurance (provided on our vendor recommendation list) 14 days in advance of the event.
What is The Gathering Place’s capacity?
The Gathering Place comfortably holds 150-200 for weddings and events with a seated dinner.
Please inquire for theatre style seating or other events not requiring tables.
What is included in my rental vs. extra?
When you reserve The Gathering Place, you get the venue for 16 hours, tables and chairs for 110 guests, bridal and groom getting ready suites, full service catering kitchen and access to your very own free online wedding planning dashboard. The Den (the downstairs of the Gathering Place) is available as an optional add-on. You can also add on extra days or half days before or after your event to set up/tear down.
How many hours do I get?
8am until midnight (16 hours unless you have a conversation with your host and attain access to extra hours/days).
Who will be there the day of my event?
Your venue manager is your venue representative from the day you book up until the day of your wedding to make sure everything with the venue functions perfectly for your day. The host will be there day-of to welcome you and let you inside of the venue. They will be there, behind the scenes, for the entirety of the day and will be the last one out to lock the doors. The host is the dedicated person to tend to all facility needs.
Where do my guests park?
We have two parking lots about 1.5 blocks away from The Gathering Place that can each accommodate 75 guests, an attached parking lot can hold 15 guests (we suggest this for grandparents), plus additional non-metered street parking.
When can we do the rehearsal?
If you would like to do the rehearsal at The Gathering Place, we require that you purchase the half day before. This could relieve a lot of stress for you, as well, to have the half day before to decorate!
If you choose to forego the half day rental before the wedding, we suggest hosting the rehearsal off-site at a church, family property, etc.
Do you have outdoor space?
Unfortunately, we do not have any outdoor space! Although, we do have plenty of beautiful brick buildings + all of downtown nearby for great photo-op moments!
If you are looking to have an outdoor ceremony, you can use any outdoor park in Billings for the price of a $100 parks permit that you can get here. Because this is a private event, you do not have to fill out the liability form. If you would like alcohol at the ceremony, it would just be an additional $75 permit, which you can go in and get at 390 N. 23rd St. (Riverfront Parks do not allow alcohol).
For any other questions about ceremonies in the park, please call the parks district at 406-657-8371.
Who handles set-up and clean-up?
Typically, you or your chosen service providers (be sure to work this out with your team in advance) will handle all of the set up and tear down of tables and chairs. Deep cleaning (sweeping, mopping, bathrooms) is included in your rental fee; the client is only responsible for trash pick-up! Leave the space as you found it and leave the deep cleaning to us!
How should I layout my event?
Included in your wedding planning dashboard, is a free template of The Gathering Place for you to play with your floor plan. Your venue manager will also be available to advise you on the direction of your floor plan.