Planning a DC Wedding Help!

frandrea02

Hello everyone,

My partner and I will be getting married on 6.27.13 in DC. We both currently live in Austin, TX so I will be planning this from afar. We originally planned to get married in DC and then have a large ceremony and reception in Texas. Since then, we have scrapped those ideas, and will have all of it in DC. This will take our guest count down significantly to about 20 people max.

Here are my issues:

1. Where to have a ceremony? At first I wanted to go the JP route and have our guests sit in the room (is there enough space for that?) Then I remembered a church that performs same-sex unions and I currently researching that. If you have any cheap or free options I am all ears!
2. Where to have a reception? We are saving our dollars to have a really nice reception. My fiance wants to have it at a steak house, and I would love for it to be somewhere actually in DC. I would prefer a place that offers private or semi-private dining. We are keeping decorations to a minimum, so we would be relying on the restaurant to provide the ambiance. $30-$35 a plate would be our ideal budget.
3. Where to stay? This kind of ties into the first and second question, because I have heard that certain hotels will give discounts on rooms, ceremony, and reception if you do a "bundle" deal.
   

Thank you for reading! I am excited to hear what you have in mind!

starlite21l

Hi!  That is going to be a REALLY tight budget for a meal in DC.  From looking around and then talking to our wedding planner we've found that it is cheaper to normally find a venue and then bring in your own caterer and alcohol if they allow.  Since most hotels or larger venues are going to charge you a ~20% gratuity on top of the local tax to whatever your cost it.  So, that is going to add a huge cost on whatever meal you decide to have.

We've looked at Top of the Town in Arlington which has an amazing view of the DC skyline and lets you use any of their approved caterers and bring in your own alcohol.

We've also looked at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town which sits right on the water lets you use any of their approved caterers and bring in your own alchohol as well.

Check out the website www.partyista.com and that shows you lots of different venues for different events in the DC area.  Hope that helps!
 

frandrea02

Thank you for your response. I am thinking we may set our price per person to $75? Would that open any options up?

kgd7357

There a few good restaurants that you could do $75 for food per person. Drinks would be more. We looked at the following all in the Penn Quarter area and the food would come in around $75. These places are all walking distance from the Court.

1) Oyamel - Upscale Mexican. Sooooo good. The room is pretty small though. 43 is hard cap.
2) Carmine's - Italian. They have a lot of room options, so you can def get one for your size.
3) Zaytinya - Mediterranean. They only have semi private options, but can fit something like 60 in the raised level.
4) Hill Country BBQ - BBQ, duh. They rent the downstairs. Really good BBQ, but not as fancy.
5) Acadiana - Really up scale Southern Food. Also sooooooo good. They have two rooms. One that can fit like 70 and one that can fit 30, and they can combine them.
6) Brasserie Beck - Belgian food. This may be over budget though. But the food is great. I think their room fits 50ish.

Hope this is helpful!

kgd7357

Also, the Residence Inn Pentagon City have us a $119/night wedding rate, which I think is really food. It's right by the Pentagon City Metro, so you can easily metro to any of these places. Although if your date is actually 6/27/14 vice 6/27/13 that's the same weekend as our wedding, so they may not have any rooms left at that rate. Good luck!

frandrea02

I wish there was an edit button! Yes, my wedding is 6.27.14 lol. Thanks for the great suggestions. I am going to look into those now! And I will skip the Residence Inn. Congrats on being my wedding day twin!!

frandrea02

Right now, we are looking into Fuego Cocina y Tequileria, they have a semi private space that would be fitting for us. Thank you for the comments!

janetgt12

sorry a little late to the game, but here is a link i had discovered on opentable that will tell you the private and semi-private dining spaces of many restaurants: http://www.opentable.com/washington-dc-wedding-reception-venues

frandrea02

Thanks janetgt12! Fuego isn't working so well for my family, so I am still researching options. This is perfect!