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Rivermill at Dover Landing/Liberty Lane Catering (Repost from NH Board)

frenchiekinfrenchiekin member
First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer First Comment
in Massachusetts-Boston

Reposting from NH Board in case any MA brides have experience with this venue (I am a Boston-area bride myself)...

Hi ladies!

Recently engaged and first-time poster.  First I just want to say these boards are so helpful for local resources and advice, so thank you! :) 

My fiance and I recently checked out the Rivermill at Dover Landing in Dover, NH and really loved it.  We've been searching endlessly for a unique venue (we're not the hotel ballroom/country club type) that can hold 175-200 guests (large families) and doesn't totally break the bank.  We love the look and feel of the space, and Britt has already been amazing just in our first few emails and tour.  We have reached out to 2 of their preferred caterers, Liberty Lane and Flat Iron/Orchard Street, just to get an idea as to whether they will be able to work within our budget.  We are trying to stay between $10-12K total for food (full dinner with taxes/fees, NOT including cake) AND bar (will most likely do consumption-based open bar to a certain $ limit, with whatever $ we have left after the food budget, no less than $3K).  We spoke to Kevin at Liberty Lane who said our budget would be tight with 175+ people, but do-able if we compromise on some things.  Reducing the guest list is unfortunately not an option, but we are totally willing to do more fun, casual fare over fancy/pricey food.

I am hoping for some advice from some MA brides that have been married here, have booked here, or have looked into it and decided against it for whatever reason.  Is our budget realistic for Liberty Lane?  We are trying to stay at $25K for the whole wedding (dress and honeymoon not included) and will be doing a lot of DIY in terms of flowers and decor.  The venue fee here is reasonable compared to other venues we've looked at, but we want to make sure we aren't getting in over our heads and will end up with a lot of unforeseen costs at the end!

Thanks everyone in advance for your advice - anything is helpful and appreciated!! :)



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Re: Rivermill at Dover Landing/Liberty Lane Catering (Repost from NH Board)

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    BlueBirdMBBlueBirdMB member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    Have no specific advice on this venue or caterer, but for us, food and drink was more like 75% of our total budget.  You seem to be planning on 15k for everything else.  Do you really need 15k for everything else?  Can you budget that and put more towards food and drink?  At the end of the day, the food and drink are matter most to the guests.

    I'd say 10-12k for 175 is doable in general, but yes, it will need compromises.  Instead of a consumption bar to a certain $ amount, how about a limited bar?  Such as just beer and wine?  Then you don't need to be embarrassed if you run out of money and people get cut off mid wedding.  For me, I was not willing to compromise on food at all, which is why we spent about 75% of our budget on food and drink.
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    frenchiekinfrenchiekin member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer First Comment

    @BlueBirdMB - thank you for the advice and input!  The "other" 15K includes just under $5K in the venue rental fee (which includes reception and ceremony space, tables/chairs/linens, in-house coordinator, bridal suite), which is a large chunk.  So really, the venue/food/bar budget is mor like $15-17K.  The photographer is our next top priority (after food), so we are budgeting about $3K for that.  The rest of that budget is of course flowers/decor, invitations, DJ, rings, and all of the other little things that I'm trying not to forget to include! :)

    The issue with the bar at this venue is that they have one specified bar provider (who will likely be our caterer also), and the prices aren't cheap... full open bar for 5 hours would be about $12K for 175 guests (their per-hour prices way over-estimate how much people will drink, IMO).  We are trying to get creative to be able to offer as much of a hosted bar as possible for as long as possible without totally blowing our budget.  If we did consumption, it would turn to cash bar when/if it ran out.  I know cash bars are a touchy subject on these boards, but it's not uncommon in my family and circle of friends (we went to 2 all-cash bar weddings this year and no one took issue with it).  We are obviously trying to avoid it, however!

    Thanks so much for the advice - every budget planner tells you that food should be 50% of the total, so it's nice to see a different point of view based on what your particular priorities were! :)



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    BlueBirdMBBlueBirdMB member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    That's a huge amount for open bar!!!! OMG!  We spent $30 per person full open bar.

    Have you already signed a contract/set on Dover Landing?  
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    frenchiekinfrenchiekin member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer First Comment
    I know!  The price you paid was more what we were expecting.  We really love the venue, the bar is the one thing that's got me worried.  It's $20/pp for the first hour, $12/pp for the 2nd hour, then $9/pp for every hour thereafter (for full open bar).  Beer/wine only is cheaper, but not that much!  It seems crazy high, especially for NH.  We are meeting with them this weekend, so maybe we can negotiate a bit.

    No, we have not signed anything with this venue yet and are still looking around, but we really loved this place (hence all the number crunching to make sure we can actually afford it first).  Again, thanks for all your help!


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    BlueBirdMBBlueBirdMB member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    Good luck!  It's great that you are crunching numbers before signing.  I did that too and there were no surprises later!
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