Bridal Shower Locations

Talkativ15

Hello Ladies!
Soooo I`m in a pickle and need some advice!  I am getting married in October 2011...and my childhood best friend is getting married in August 2011.  We are in each other's wedding parties as well.  I have been lucky enough to have my future mother in law offer to pay for my shower so my girls are taking care of favors and invites.   There are only 4 of us in my friend's wedding and her shower list just came back at 83 people.  I know I cant afford to spend a lot on this...and I have a feeling at least one other girl cant as well. We are not getting any other help on payment that I know of too.  Are there any venue's or halls that you can think of that would accomidate this amount of people that are reasonable priced?  We are looking to book in June.  Let me know any suggestions!!  Thank you!

KBinRI

Wow, that's 25 more than I had at my entire wedding. Is that every woman on the guest list or just the absolute must-invites? Honestly, if it were me, I'd have a heart-to-heart with her or her mom and see what we could do about paring down the list. But if you don't want to do that, the least expensive way I can think of to do this would be to rent a space and bring in your own food. However, that might not be the level of shower your friend is hoping for, you know?

If you could pare the list to about 50, you could rent the Aspray boathouse in Warwick. That costs $75 for 12 hours plus an extra $25 if you want to use the kitchen. Tables and chairs are included. It's not fancy, but you could decorate it. http://www.gaspee.com/AsprayBoathouse.html

Or there's the carousel at Goddard Memorial State Park in Warwick on the EG line. You can rent that for $200 for the entire day plus a little extra for tables and chairs.No alcohol allowed in state parks, though. You also could look into a pavilion at Colt State Park, but I seem to recall someone here saying they were already booked up for summer.

Other than that, there are places like the West Valley Inn, which hosts all-you-can-eat family-style dinners that cost like $11 per person, so maybe their regular event menu is reasonable as well. However, even if it were that cheap, you're still looking at over $1,100 when you figure in tax and gratuity.

I went to a baby shower brunch at Ivy Garden in West Warwick, also a buffet-type place, and it was decent. Here's the menu for that; it's a minimum of $13.95 per person, though: http://www.ivy-garden.com/b_menu_build.asp

My friend had a pretty big brunch shower in that atrium room at the Crowne Plaza - probably about 80 people - but I can't imagine it was inexpensive. 

Good luck!