WW will have a hay day with this one! Set the scene - Church Wedding, minor gap of about an hour NBD because it was about 15 minutes from church to reception given logistics nothing closer, upper end hotel, linen service, chair covers, specialty lighting, nice centerpieces, head table with lighted backdrop...
At the door - we were greeted with koozies... The line to the bar was insane, so figured I'd wait until after dinner to grab something. Apps were nice, awesome actually.. The second we sat down for dinner the bride stands up and says "And just wanted to let you know - it's no longer an open bar, but a cash bar!" to which the entire room shot her a stink-eye and a verbal snarl! Yes - the crowd VERBALIZED it! And the energy of the room just dropped. The second dinner was over about 50% took off, before cupcakes - which were NASTY! This is what bugs me - putting money into all the other details then serving horrible Butt-r-crème (the nasty leave a shortening coating on your mouth) with bland cupcakes... I can tolerate cupcakes, but darn-it, just like any dessert, my expectation is that it better taste like something people want to eat instead of taking a bite and leaving the rest. If you don't like it, choose something you DO like! (the bride and groom didn't even eat the cupcakes, they had a filled cake they had made in a different frosting instead)...
Oh - and yes, they did have the "Dollar Dance!" can't forget that! We stuck around until around the kids' bedtime as the kids started to get tired.