How to have a simple reception

raeah219

Hello ladies, I've never posted here before. We havent even decided if we will have a DW yet but I am trying to look at costs and logistics to help us make our decision. If we don a DW the vision is about 30 ppl, simple beach ceremony. Afterwards I was thinking we could just go to a local restaurant for drinks and dinner. I know that it's rude not to properly hosts your guests by making them pay for their meals. So how could we go about having this simple laid back reception while still keeping with etiquette rules? 

Fairyjen1

    Pay for dinner at the restaurant? Maybe see if they can set up a banquet type menu for you? We are getting married at Disneyland, the reception lunch is included in the package, but for the welcome dinner the night before I have contacted several local restaurants and they have sent me information on banquet type menu packages. They range from 12$ PP at a pizza parlor to $60.00 PP for a 3 course dinner including one alcoholic beverage PP. 

   I did find that lunch or brunch prices are generally cheaper than dinner prices so if you do your ceremony early in the day you could do that and save a few bucks. We are having a lunch reception so people can enjoy the parks with us (or without us if they so choose) for the rest of the day afterwards, but the added bonus is that people tend to drink less hard liquor at lunch so we can get away with just hosting beer and wine. 

raeah219

@fairyjen I didnt even think that getting a special menu was an option so I will definitely look into that. 

Knottie37373131

I was having a hard time finding restaurants I think I would want for a reception. We are having between 30-50 people, likely on the lower end of that though. I feel as though since about half of those people will be traveling from out of town that I want something were we can stay for at least 4-5 hours. I am thinking that I am going to rent out a small reception space at a local inn. They also serve dinner and those who want would be able to stay there.

JennyColada

raeah219 said:

@fairyjen I didnt even think that getting a special menu was an option so I will definitely look into that. 

@raeah219, yes do! It is a great way to make ordering easier for your group, and also if you ask they could probably put something like "Congratulations Raeah and Hubby!" on the menu and it'll make for a nice keepsake!