Butler’s Courtyard: Wedding and Reception Venue

If you’re planning your wedding, you’ve probably noticed that there are a lot of options for wedding and reception venues in Houston. But one of the best isn’t in Houston, but a little south off I45 in League City, between Houston and Galveston. Butler’s Courtyard is a great venue with historic charm and you should definitely consider it for your upcoming wedding.

About Butler’s Courtyard

Butler’s Courtyard was built in 1909. While it was originally a bank, it has housed a post office a cafe, a drug store, and even had apartments up stairs. Over the years the building fell into disrepair and Butler’s Courtyard was converted into a wedding venue by Nancy Richard and Janice Gunnin-Wilson in 2002.

Now Butler’s Courtyard is run by Nancy’s daughters, Amber and Shawna, who hope to one day leave the venue to their children so that their family legacy can continue on.

Butler’s Courtyard is a family business, and family is at the core of everything they do. They treat their couples like part of the family, inviting them to return to take their family photos as their families grow. Butler’s Courtyard prides itself on having exceptional service and everyone is treated with respect and care. 

We can honestly say it has one of the best staff’s of any venue we’ve ever been to. For them, service isn’t just some marketing word, it really is the heart and soul of everything they do.

Venue Spaces

Butler’s Courtyard’s sits on an entire block of League City’s Historic District and is full of old rustic small town charm.

The original bank building, now The Grand Hall, is all brick, is lit with beautiful chandeliers and floor to ceiling windows, and still has the bank vault. The mixture of exposed brick, the well worn wooden and metal features, and the warm lighting make Butler’s Courtyard a great choice if you’re looking for industrial chic.

The courtyard itself holds a small gazebo for ceremonies. The Barn next to the courtyard and the the massive oak trees give the outdoor ceremony space a cozy rustic feel. Weddings in the spring and fall are especially nice at Bulter’s Courtyard. They are beautiful and elegant, but bright, warm, and relaxed. When the light hits just right, there isn’t a better out door ceremony space. After dark, the courtyard is lit by string lights, which give it an awesome warm glow that feels simple and romantic.

The courtyard also has a brick patio reception space covered with a white tent. We love this space because it feels so intimate and private. It also photographs amazingly well.

Wedding guests at Butler’s Courtyard usually flow in and out of The Grand Hall and the courtyard. They may go stand out under the string lights for some fresh air and some quiet, go into The Grand Hall to get another drink or get some A/C, or dance under the tent. This is one of our favorite features of Butler’s Courtyard. Too often guests feel stuck in a reception hall with loud music when they really want to catch up with family and friends. And nobody likes to really get down on the dance floor when 3/4 of the guests are just watching them and not joining in. With the way the reception flows at Butler’s Courtyard, all guests can easily be accommodated.

The highlight of Butler’s Courtyard’s charm is The Rose Cottage, a whole house for the bride to get ready in decorated with wedding photos from a century ago. No cramped bridal suite prone to get messy, but a beautiful space for you and your bridesmaids to relax and get ready for the day.

All inclusive wedding packages

Butler’s Courtyard offers all inclusive wedding packages that include the venue, customizable catering options, a cake and cake table, chairs, tables, and linens, DJ and in-house sound system, a security officer, a Day of Coordinator, and set up and tear down.

The only thing not included in their packages are flowers, photography, and a minister. And we can help you with one of those (and make recommendations on the others)!

Saturday weddings in peak wedding season (non peak is January, February, July, August, and September) begin at $12000 for 100 guests and 4 hours.

An additional 30 minutes of time for your ceremony, as well as an hour of rehearsal, the sound system, and the set up of woden benches can be added for $1000.

A TABC bartender, cups, ice and napkins is $400, and you supply your own beer, wine and champagne. An all-inclusive bar begins at $18 per person and increases based on variety of level of liquor served.

Butler’s Courtyard Amenities

• Covered Outdoor Reception Space
• Open Outdoor Ceremony Space
• Indoor Reception Space
• Indoor Ceremony Space
• Handicap Accessible
• Bride and Groom Suites
  Built in Sound System
• On Site Parking
• Catering
• Day of Coordinator
• Chairs, tables, and linens
• Security Officer on site

Butler’s Courtyard Capacity

	Indoors	Outdoors
Ceremony	160	250
Cocktails	150	250
Reception (seated)	100	250

Our Review of Butler’s Courtyard

There’s a handful of places that we would be content to be at every week and Butler’s Courtyard is one of them. It is one of our favorite venues in all of Houston.

The variety between the industrial chic of The Grand Hall, the rustic charm of the barn, the coziness of the Rose Cottage, and the serenity of the courtyard, mean that there are endless opportunities for new and fresh ways to photograph weddings. It is so important to us that we never create stale and repetitive work for our couples and Butler’s helps us to do this by having so many great places.

The nature of an all inclusive package with a day of coordinator who works at Butler’s Courtyard makes every wedding there run so much smoother than a lot of other venues. Your coordinator isn’t running all over town making sure the flowers got to the church, and the caterer showed up at the reception hall. Your wedding is an organized event run from a central location, which always makes weddings at Butler’s Courtyard more stress free, relaxed, and ultimately enjoyable. 

The best thing about Butler’s Courtyard is the staff. The second time we ever photographed at Butler’s Courtyard we were blown away that they remembered our names and remembered details of the previous wedding we had photographed there, a year before. They really are people oriented and seek to make their venue as welcoming as possible for your guests and to make sure your wedding day is amazing. 

We will warn you that you need to be aware of your ceremony start time. If your ceremony begins to early, the sun will be shining right into the grooms face as he watches the bride come down the aisle. And the light on both of you and your wedding party during the ceremony will be too bright. The best thing to do if you’re having your wedding at Butler’s Courtyard is to have a first look so that you can push your ceremony time back until you’ll be in the shade and still have time for portraits of the two of you!

Real Butler’s Courtyard Weddings

Check out a few of the weddings we’ve photographed at Butler’s Courtyard to help visualize your own wedding.