With a 450-year history, St. Augustine is the perfect location for any wedding. Known as “The Nation’s Oldest City,” the area is dripping with Old World romance and home to many historical landmarks, such as the Castillo de San Marcos, the Fountain of Youth, Our Lady of La Leche, Fort Matanzas, and the St. Augustine Lighthouse.
Here at The Treasury Venue Collection, we’re honored to be a part of the history of this incredible city! The gorgeous wedding venues in the Treasury Venue Collection, The Treasury on the Plaza and Lightner Museum, are a part of the rich cultural tapestry of Florida’s Historic Coast.
While we stay true to our roots, we’ve also managed to reflect the changing times to create modern-day magic for any wedding. Let’s take a look back through the timeline of the Treasury Venue Collection to watch our metamorphosis take place!
2014
The Treasury Venue Collection began with The Treasury on the Plaza, which was originally built as a bank in 1926. The bank operated under several different names until 2013, when Wells Fargo moved into the old Woolworth building, leaving this beautiful space vacant.
We couldn’t let such an architectural gem in the heart of St. Augustine go to waste!
The entire first floor underwent an extensive renovation to transform the space into an event venue like no other. Although the renovations included adding many modern amenities, our top priority was to preserve the historical integrity of the property. One of our favorite examples is the use of the marble from the bank teller stations to create the counter inside The Vault Bar!
Memorable Moments
We held our first weddings and events in late 2014. Many couples weren’t able to see a single photo of the venue set up for a wedding before they booked their wedding! Nevertheless, we had so many amazing couples who put their trust in our team to bring their wedding vision to life.
Jennifer and Jonathon’s 2015 Wedding at The Treasury on the Plaza. Photo by Ashley Steeby Photography.
2015
Word got out quickly that there was a unique new venue in the heart of the Oldest City! Several of the first few weddings at The Treasury were featured in national magazines and wedding blogs like The Knot, Grey Likes Weddings, and Style Me Pretty.
Over that first year, we worked on developing relationships with other wedding vendors in the St. Augustine and Jacksonville areas. We are so fortunate to be in an area that has so many incredibly talented, hard-working professionals in the wedding industry! After carefully evaluating the best vendors for The Treasury on the Plaza, we developed our Preferred Vendor List. This list has constantly been updated over the years to reflect the best vendors that our area has to offer.
Memorable Moments
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes…Treasury babies! It is always such a joy for our team to see our past couples expand their families. Many of our couples come back on their anniversaries to visit us and bring their little ones along to say hello! Anisha and Brandon, one of our couples who tied the knot in 2015, brought sweet baby Peyton in on their first anniversary!
Anisha and Brandon’s 2015 Wedding at The Treasury on the Plaza. Wedding photo by Irrok Photography.
2016
There were many exciting changes to The Treasury on the Plaza in 2016, the biggest of which was the addition of our second venue, The Lightner Museum!
Originally constructed in 1888 as the Alcazar Hotel, the Lightner Museum is a stunning example of Spanish Renaissance Revival architecture that perfectly captures the spirit of the Gilded Age. One of the most unique features of the Lightner Museum is that events are held in what was once the world’s largest indoor swimming pool!
To better serve our couples, we also created some amazing wedding packages and bar packages, featuring the best amenities and beverage options in the St. Augustine area. It’s all part of our commitment to make your wedding as stress-free as possible.
Memorable Moments
In early 2016, We were thrilled that The Treasury on the Plaza was featured on NBC’s The Today Show! The show did a segment on the projected Powerball jackpot of $1.5 billion inside The Vault Bar. Reporter Kerry Sanders thought that The Vault would be the perfect place to store those billions!
Many of our 2016 couples came up with creative ways to make their weddings stand out. We saw string lighting backdrops for wedding ceremonies, live and faux trees incorporated into wedding ceremony and reception décor, and photo and video projections on the walls of The Grand Ballroom.
Photo by Monika Gauthier Photography
2017
In 2017, The Treasury Venue Collection launched a very exciting new experience for couples getting married at both the Lightner Museum and Treasury on the Plaza: bar tastings!
As part of the wedding planning experience, couples have the opportunity to meet with their event manager and our bar team inside The Treasury’s famous Vault Bar to relax, chat about their wedding vision, and select the perfect drink options for their wedding day.
Memorable Moments
In 2017, our couples put a lot of importance on creating a really fun wedding experience for their guests. We saw unique entertainment options during wedding receptions, such as balloon artists (Twist of Fun!) and live painters (KW Event Painting and Wed on Canvas).
2018
Our venue might be historic, but our couples live in the modern age! To make seeing the venue a possibility for couples all over the world, we created a virtual tour of The Treasury on the Plaza. Guided virtual tours are available with a member of our sales team, so you can ask questions, learn about package options, and check availability for your perfect wedding date!
Another way that couples could visit us from the comfort of their own homes was through the magic of television! In August, Holly and Austin’s Treasury on the Plaza wedding was featured on an episode of TLC’s Four Weddings (to rave reviews!).
Memorable Moments
We were also thrilled to host our first LGBT+ weddings at The Treasury in 2018. Sam and Krista had a fabulous wedding celebration, complete with a drag queen performance!
Ashley and Kristin’s wedding later in the year was also a huge highlight. We loved that one of these gorgeous brides rocked a black gown on her wedding day!
Ashley and Kristen’s 2018 Wedding at The Treasury on the Plaza. Photo by Stout Photography.
2019
Providing impeccable hospitality has been a cornerstone of our values here at The Treasury Venue Collection since the very beginning.
Thanks to amazing reviews from our couples, in 2019, The Treasury on the Plaza was inducted into The Knot Best of Weddings Hall of Fame! This is an honor that is only reserved to the top 5% of wedding vendors in the nation and we are honored to be included among them!
We were also thrilled to be included in Southern Bride’s “Top 10 Historic Wedding Venues in the Southeast”!
Memorable Moments
2019 saw St. Augustine as a hotspot for destination weddings! We hosted so many out-of-town couples and got to experience firsthand the excitement of gathering together to celebrate love in our amazing city!
Photo by Sarahdipity Photography
2020
It was a tumultuous year for the entire world, but through it all, the Treasury Venue Collection managed to not just adapt to the “new normal,” but grow and—ultimately—thrive!
As many couples were forced to rethink wedding plans and postpone weddings, our team worked diligently throughout lockdown to take care of our existing couples and provide resources to those who took advantage of quarantine to start their wedding planning journey. (Our virtual tours were a god-send!)
With 2020 being such a crazy year, our team rethought our package options to try to make the wedding planning process as easy as possible. We launched inclusive Intimate Wedding packages for both The Treasury on the Plaza and Lightner Museum for weddings of 100 guests or less.
These packages have become extremely popular at both venues!
To keep our guests safe, we installed Air Scrubbers and created Covid-19 safety protocols for the moment we were able to open up our doors again. We also took advantage of the lockdown to make some improvements to our buildings. The Exchange Gallery at The Treasury saw some of the biggest changes. We installed new laminate dark wood flooring and ceiling tiles. These small changes completely transformed the space!
Photo by Ashley Steeby Photography
Memorable Moments
Imagine having to postpone your wedding not once, but twice! That’s just what happened to one of our couples, De-Shazo Wilkinson and Jacarra Wilson. But don’t worry, these two had a happy ending! First, their original venue in Orlando was forced to close, then COVID-19 hit. De-Shazo decided that he didn’t want to wait, so he surprised Jacarra Wilson with an intimate wedding ceremony at the Treasury on the Plaza.
The couple was surrounded by family and close friends, but those who could not make it had their picture printed and placed on chairs so they were truly surrounded by their loved ones.
Photo credit: Monarch Studio
2021
With 2021 being the year of new beginnings, it was only fitting that we provide our couples with a more accessible and aesthetic website.
Our new site has an easy-to-use layout and includes new features, such as the Wedding Package quiz to help couples find the best package for their needs, a new Meet the Team page, and more photos and videos to help couples imagine their perfect day!
It was perfect timing, too, as many of the couples who had to postpone their events in 2020 were returning in 2021. So far, it’s been our busiest year to date!
Review from Jillian P on The Knot:
“The Treasury team made our experience so amazing! Not only did they help us through COVID postponement, they gave us honest feedback when planning every detail. Navigating wedding planning during a pandemic was no easy feat, but we always knew the Treasury team had our best interest. From our special time in The Vault before the ceremony to our exit, they made sure we were catered to. We are so glad the Treasury will always be a part of our wedding story. Thank you Bailey and the entire team!”
Review from Sarah H. on The Knot:
“…I also want to mention how professional Brandy and her team were with handling Covid-19 concerns and postponements. They created policies and set safety protocols which really helped to put a lot of our guests’ minds at ease. While we definitely had our moments of uncertainty, Brandy and her team were always there to help. Again, it’s so hard to describe how grateful we are to have worked with this fantastic team at this stunning venue. We are beyond thrilled to have had our big day even in the midst of the pandemic and will cherish that night and all the planning leading up to it, forever.”
Reviews like these mean everything to us! We are so grateful to all of our “COVID couples” who trusted our team to make sure that their wedding day would come, and that it would be better than ever! These weddings were all the more sweet, knowing the challenges that everyone overcame to get to that moment.
Memorable Moments
This year, it became much more “normal” to host weddings on non-traditional days of the week, such as Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. These weddings were such a blast! Couples and their guests often got to take more time off and enjoy all that St. Augustine has to offer.
2022 and Beyond!
We are so honored that so many couples have chosen The Treasury Venue Collection to be a part of such an important moment in their lives.
We can’t wait to see what the future holds and help many more couples say “I do.”
