Wedding reception in church hall?

afrenchprincess

Hello I am in the beginning stages of planning the wedding that will be happening in Septemenber. Because of budget we are thinking of having the wedding in the church hall. My priest can't meet with us for another few weeks and the church secretary is out sick. So I can't get answers from them. It will be a very small wedding and I am not expecting anything extravagant but I would like to do a chamapagne toast and have some music with dancing there. Is that allowed on the church premises? I know that at our sister church that we are clustered with they have activities all the time where they serve alcohol but my church isn't that big so we haven't had those functions before so I don't know.
Also, what do you guys think about having a reception at actual church hall?
Tacky? Have you ever been to a wedding reception at a Catholic church before?

Just wanted so information and advice

TIA!

Theresa626

This is a question that definitely requires an answer from your church only.  My church has functions at church all the time and they've had fundraiser dinners with alcohol served, etc.  They rent it out for parties from the different church groups.  BUT, they strictly forbid anyone from having a wedding reception on property.  In addition, no wedding party is to ever bring alcohol to the church grounds at any time.  So, the rules for weddings are different than for if you were a church club.  

I have been to wedding receptions in church halls. All of them were short with no dancing and very minimal food and very minimal decorations.  They all lasted about forty five minutes to an hour.     All of them had small hors d'oevres and cheese and cracker type platters that were made by the bride and her relatives.  They had some candles on the tables for decorations and I think they made table cloths at one.  One of them brought a tv from home and played music from her dvd player on it.  

Calypso1977

as Theresa said, really only your church can answer these questions.

i see nothing wrong with a reception in the church hall.  i think you are wise to do something simple if that's what your budget allows, rather than feel compelled to do something fancier out of fear of being tacky.

you could probably even provide a simple buffet meal within your budget - often platters of pasta and the like are relatively inexpensive.  you may very well be able to do more than you realize.

also, depending upon your numbers you might look into doing something at a restaurant. we fed 75 guests an all you can eat italian buffet for $2200, including taxes and gratuities. 

samurai21

That all depends on the church. But my home parish is pretty small, and every picnic or church dinner has had at the minimum a keg, if not a bar.

Most church hall receptions I've been too have been in the afternoon after a morning ceremony, so no booze or dancing, just mingling and apps and cake.

CourtneyJ2010

We are having our reception in a church hall with dinner, dancing, alcohol, the whole nine yards and it is going to be for 6 hours. The only thing we can't have is hard liquor. And if it is a wedding reception it must be preceded by a Catholic wedding ceremony.This is obviously a big parish and the hall is huge and gorgeous so I never even once thought people would think tacky and I surely hope noone does. 

afrenchprincess

The reason l said tacky is b/c. Yellowish Cynderblock walls and an open layout like the kitchen area to the side and then spaces that arent't defined with a few poles in the room. It's in a basement that's why there are poles. Any suggestions. I am not trying to to spend so much money to make it look like a a hotle ballroom just something nice and simple I am fine with that. Any suggestions?

wparsons1223

We are using the church hall with dinner, alcahol, the whole nine yards. However we could only have an open bar. Due to local liquor laws, we could provide alcahol but not sell it. So check with the church on that. The local laws may affect it.

It you dont like the decor, check out local Knights of Columbus Halls or American Legion. The more modern ones can be pretty nice. The Restaurant is a good idea too.

KatieJL121

Like previous posts said, this really depends on your church rules and it may also depend on your area.  I don't think having a reception in a church hall is tacky at all.  We're having ours in our parish hall because it's convenient for our guests and much cheaper than some of the other options around town, but it will still be very nice.  We are also having an evening wedding and a long reception (4+ hours) with a full dinner, alcohol (beer, wine, margaritas, etc.), a DJ, and dancing until very late in the night.  In my area, this is the norm for Catholic weddings.  The only restriction for us as far as the alcohol goes is that we had to hire a certified bar tender to serve drinks.  

As for the appearance of the church hall, I suggest asking the people at the church what others have done to spruce it up a bit.  I'm sure they'll have some advice.  You can rent colored table cloths or find them for cheap online which is an easy way to add some color to the room.  You could also wrap colored fabric around the poles to tie it into your color scheme or use Christmas lights.  Also, if you dim the lights and use candlelight then things look much more elegant!  You can buy votive candles in bulk online...that's what we did.  Just a thought....Hope this helps! 

GulfCoaster

We had our reception in the church basement!  It was a full dinner reception, with a limited bar and music/dancing -- 5 hours. 

Our church had recently renovated the hall (hardwood flooring and white walls), so it was prettier than some church halls.  Because it was a basement, it did have poles in a few random locations, but that wasn't too much of an issue -- the caterer arranged the tables just fine and no one's view was blocked.  It was all one big room with a kitchen off to the side and a little bar area next to the kitchen.  We actually didn't decorate the hall at all except for the centerpieces done by my MIL.  It turned out to be lovely, and super convenient for guests because they didn't have to drive to a separate site for the reception.  (Oh, and plus, we only paid $500 to rent it for the entire evening.  That was nice.  In total, we paid far less than we would have anywhere else in our area, including the restaurants.)

A lot of your questions will depend on the church and its particular rules.  But I definitely don't think it's tacky to have a reception in a church hall.