Rehearsal/ welcome happy hour?

Meljo01

So we are having a destination wedding in Charleston in October.  We have rented a large house for our wedding party and parents to stay with us for the week prior to the wedding.  We are not allowed to have any "large gatherings" at the house other then the guest staying with us! 

Since most of our guest are coming out of town we would like to do something for them to do the friday evening but can't afford a full rehearsal dinner!?!?! So I was thinking of a happy hour, allowing guest to come and go for an hour or two period, get some cocktails and apps on our tab!  Afterwards they could go on with dinner plans or what not.

Does anyone have suggestions of bar/restaurants in the DT Charleston area?

MoochieMCH2

We invited all of our guests to join us for drinks at Social (on East Bay Street) after our rehearsal dinner.  It was an open invitation -- sort of "here's where we'll be if you'd like to see us" -- so everyone was on their own for buying drinks.

Social has a small upstairs loft area that will hold 30-40 people (standing).  When our group couldn't fit in the bar area, we asked to use the loft.  (I didn't want to "plan" an official event so I didn't ask to reserve it in advance.)  It was a little warm up there, but allowed us to mingle without a problem.

djgrunderman

Our rehearsal dinner is cocktail hour with dinner at Water's Edge, Mt. Pleasant--beautiful spot, but that may be too far from downtown for you.  Everyone is heading to Red's across Shem Creek for drinks after the rehearsal dinner.

jg215102

We had our welcome dinner at Sticky Fingers and were very happy there. They have a couple upstairs rooms and can do a full sit down meal or just apps.  I'm not sure how much you were looking to spend, but I thought we got more for our money at Sticky Fingers than at The Vendue Inn rooftop bar.  We ended up spending around $1500, but we did a full meal and open bar (beer and wine) for 70 people for 3 hours. 

Meljo01

Thanks for all the recommendations! @Moochie...Social looks really nice on their website!  We ended up booking at Southend Brewery.  They offered a free private room with games to entertain like pool and darts.  Hoping to stay under the $1500 price range, offering open bar and light appetizers (veggies, fruit, cheese trays, spinach/artichoke and hummus dips).  We also liked that they had local brewed beers!

Again thanks!