Reception in Backyard

schafenm

Hi everyone, I am very new to this website and my fiancee and I are throwing around ideas for our wedding. Due to the fact that we would have almost 300 invitations go out I am nervous about renting a venue for the recpetion, bc we would not want to spend that much on a reception. His family is very involved in their city and there is no way the invitation list can be shortened. Seeing that our priorities are food, drinks, and dancing; we thought using my aunts house as a reception location as an option. 

My aunt's house sits on a little over an acre of land and is a plantation style home. There is a pool, and a pool house I thought that caterer's could use. We were thinking of tenting an area for sitting when people eat, and we were thinking of putting a dance floor that will be lit with christmas lights on the perimeter. The DJ would set up on the balcony of the 2nd floor.

Has anyone ever done this before? I think it would be fun, bc we wouldn't have to worry about going home after 3 hours. Our family and our friends are big drinkers and partiers, as are a lot of people who live in the south are. Any inormation on caterer's, party planners, rental companies, etc would be gretly appreciated. If we did a traditional wedding at a venue we would like to keep it under 30K, but I think if we do it this way we could keep it under 15K. This way we would have a good chunk of change saved up to have a down payment on a house. 

Thanks ladies, sorry the post is so long!

ZeroOrchestra

A few things that popped to my mind to think about: Liability insurance Bathroom availability Checking with caterers on what equipment they might need access to Noise ordinance in the area, any close neighbors? Parking

dorothyinAus

One of my friends got married at her uncle's Plantation-style home in St. Bernard Parish.  It was a great set-up with the sole exception that she chose an outdoor, afternoon wedding in August!  It was hot and humid (as you could have guessed), and the icing melted off the cake before they got to cut it.  But aside from the weather considerations, it was great.  She had a large tent with a band-stand dias stage and a rented dance floor, because the area available for dancing was too far from the house for the band to be at the house.  My advice is to make sure you have a place for everyone to sit -- even if you are doing a passed hors d'oeuvres meal, make sure you have places for everyone to sit.  I'd look into renting tables and chairs as well as tents and dance floors.

And ditto previous poster, check with the parish about noise regulations and whether or not you'll need a police detail -- sometimes large parties need a police detail for traffic/parking and escorting guests to their cars.  If you do, include the detail in your count for meals and have someone bring the meal out to the officers.