Need some help!

Starfly81

Hi everyone! I'm new here and I need some help =(

We're looking at an October wedding. Small wedding. 30-35 people tops. We don't want the huge reception, we just want a nice restaurant for dinner or a late lunch. We're looking for some options in the Troy/Royal Oak area. Also, we're looking at a ceremony venue as well. Obviously, nothing crazy big, since we want small and intimate. Our max budget for all would be $20-25 a person.

Also, we're looking for a photog that could just come do the ceremony. I can't justify paying almost 3x what our reception budget is for a photog.

ANy help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!!!

Sue-n-Kevin

Welcome to the Detroit board!

You are looking for a venue that is roughly the size of what some brides secure for a rehearsal dinner (NOTHING wrong with that, but that's about the size of a small wedding).

I know when we were looking at rehearsal dinner venues, most of the "chain" types of restaurants (ie Bahama Breeze, Buca di Beppo) perform a magical increase of a "per person" price for large parties and it ends up around the amount you mentioned..........without alcohol (not sure if you are having that).

We had our rehearsal dinner at Eastside Mario's in Livonia, they have a private room, and it was less than $20 per person, you select up to 5 items from their standard menu, and the guests are given that selected menu to choose from. There's also a private room at Roger's Roost in Sterling Hts, not sure of the per person rate though.

I'd say look at "non-chain" types of places in the cities you mentioned. To get restaurants versus banquet hall types of places, look for rehearsal dinner restaurants.

There is a small historic village in Troy, link here: http://www.troyhistoricvillage.org/ . They do have a chapel, not sure about what options are provided in the other buildings.

Good luck.

kmschwartzkopf

Maggiano's in Troy is a nice building and has awesome food and they have private areas. Their regular menu would probably be over that budget but I am not sure what their event menu pricing is like. Your entire budget for the guests is 20-25, should that include alcohol, dessert/cake, or favors, etc? If any of those are applicable, then it may be hard to find anything in royal oak or troy. We used the bar side of our bowling alley nearby (its actually pretty nice) and had the food catered by my favorite italian restaurant in Oxford (which is cheaper than maggianos and other local places around here) for about 40 people for our rehearsal dinner. We didn't have to pay a rental fee but we paid for the alcohol as well and our total was about $1000 which would be slightly more than your listed budget.

If you don't supply alcohol then I wouldn't expect a problem finding a nice restaurant in that budget range.

Goodluck!!!

Meegles4

I had my shower at Camp Ticonderoga in Troy. We reserved the upstairs area and it was bright and homey. Perfect for the size group you're thinking. It was also in that price range for a lunch time shower, not sure what their dinner prices are like.

Have you also considered a brunch reception or something like that? Could save you a bit on costs.

Starfly81

Thanks for the suggestions ladies!