Reception Venue Help!

Knottie80790228

Hello, my fiancé and I recently got engaged, and we are in the beginning stages of brainstorming our wedding.  Our wedding is in November 2016 and as recent college graduates and beginning graduate school my parents have offered to pay for our wedding.  We are planning on doing a lot of DIY for the decor and appetizers because of how cost effective it is, and the only problem I am having is finding places for our reception who just offer a room rental fee and not a wedding package.  He and I do not want a $25,000 grand affair and we tend to gravitate to the elegant but simple approach, so I was wondering if anybody knew WHERE to look for places that just offer their reception halls where we can bring in separate caters.  

Thank you for any help!! 

JoanE2012

OP - Where are you from?  Once we know, @wrigleyville can move your post to the appropriate local board (this one is international) and you should get better responses.  

PS - Appetizers are great, but keep in mind if your ceremony or reception is crossing a meal time, you need to offer enough appetizers to constitute a meal.  That is often more expensive than just offering a traditional meal.  Something to keep in mind.  Good luck!

Lauderdale Pink

@JoanE2012-you are correct about moving the post, but if she just needs general ideas, this board is good too.  Some of the "local" boards get very little action.

So, on that note, are there any civic centers or community centers in your area?  Bear in mind that if you go with one of those, you may have to rent furniture and most likely provide your own dinnerware and glasses.  If that is the direction you are taking, you may want to buy because Smartyhadaparty.com and Party City are both very reasonable.  

For DIY food, Italian is usually the most filling and least expensive, plus it does great in disposable chafing sets (also disposable) with sterno. 

For DIY decor, your best bet is Dollar Tree. If you look on Pinterest and Youtube, you will find millions (seriously)of ideas for vases and flowers.  Good luck and best wishes.

jacques27

Local parks, community centers, VFWs, and even  your college all likely meet your criteria.

However, please please please make sure you price out apps and DIY before committing to that idea and compare it to other options that offer some services (they don't all cost 25K).  Because starting from scratch means you pay for EVERYTHING!  This means linens (even if it's just napkins), renting chairs (every butt must have a chair to sit in for both your ceremony and reception), and the individual items for various DIY projects can come to way more than the cost of just buying invitations or centerpieces or décor, etc.  Not all DIY is cheaper and I see it a lot, especially around the holidays when people think making something is going to be more cost effective, but if they didn't have all of the items just lying around the house already, the cost of the individual items for the project is more than just shopping around for a good deal on a purchased item.  Sometimes DIY is more about the personal touch than it is about being cost effective.  Or sometimes partial DIY is the way to go.  My friend who bought cheap vases somewhere and then negotiated with a flower vendor at our farmers market (where they sell HUGE bouquets of flowers for $5 during the summer) to just bring her bouquets of pretty flowers (she wasn't picky to variety) spent at least $200 less and only a couple of hours of time than our other friend who made her centerpieces who did a brooch bouquet and paper flowers for centerpieces and spent at least a full work week worth of time on this project when you add it all together.  Please make sure you are factoring in the cost of your time and the added stress this puts on you as you try to finish graduate school.

Additionally, apps isn't always cheaper, as others have mentioned.  The cheapest option is to have your wedding at a non-meal time and serve cake and punch afterwards.  And that's perfectly acceptable.  But if your reception is going to be near a mealtime, then you need to have enough apps to constitute a meal, which means you need to have at least 12-15 pieces per person and 5-9 varieties and variety = added expense.  Meanwhile,  you can get some awesome catering deals from restaurants or delis (particularly Italian, Mexican, or BBQ cuisines or from independently owned local restaurants) that would come out to way cheaper than having a variety of appetizers.

JoanE2012

Lauderdale Pink said:

@JoanE2012-you are correct about moving the post, but if she just needs general ideas, this board is good too.  Some of the "local" boards get very little action.

So, on that note, are there any civic centers or community centers in your area?  Bear in mind that if you go with one of those, you may have to rent furniture and most likely provide your own dinnerware and glasses.  If that is the direction you are taking, you may want to buy because Smartyhadaparty.com and Party City are both very reasonable.  

For DIY food, Italian is usually the most filling and least expensive, plus it does great in disposable chafing sets (also disposable) with sterno. 

For DIY decor, your best bet is Dollar Tree. If you look on Pinterest and Youtube, you will find millions (seriously)of ideas for vases and flowers.  Good luck and best wishes.

@Lauderdale Pink - You're right!  I was thinking specific locations and not general ideas.  Oops!  

wrigleyville

OP - we'll keep this open here since we can provide good, general ideas, but you might want to post this on your local board as well. Just put "XP" in the title so they know it's a cross-post (posted on two boards).

ambiguousbride

My sister had her wedding reception at the VFW, which to the best of my knowledge is nation, and it was 250.00 to rent the hall and kitchen. You get 100.00 back after everything is cleaned or they will keep it as a cleaning fee. The VFW my grandfather is a part of has a large commercial kitchen with buffet racks and trays and other kitchen tools, a full bar, and fenced in back yard. Obviously you run a tab for the bar but they include pitchers of soda and tables, chairs and table clothes in the rental fee.
Some chapters have restrictions on decor so if you do go that route be sure to ask before you start slaving over anything.
We did the cooking for her wedding, I made the cake, but I have heard of people getting their hot catering from pizza places and delis at very good rates, some will even provide a wait staff if you want.

Mason jars are very popular diy decor right now, not sure what you consider elegant but that is an option. Oh another thing from my sister's wedding, she got all her flowers from Price chopper and shop rite the day of for 60.00 it covered 4 bouquets and all the centerpieces.