newbie needs some help

rubber*soul

Hi everyone. I posted this on the budget board as well, but I figured since the etiquette board gets a lot of traffic, I'd post it here as well.

Hello knotties! I've been lurking on these boards for a while now and finally decided to make a profile. Anyways, I need your help. Fiance and I have a relatively big guest list. All of the reception venues big enough to accommodate our guest list either have their own chefs, or work exclusively with particular caterers. The thing is, there is this AMAZING restaurant that fiance and I love. Since we're frequent patrons, we know the owner and manager pretty well, and the owner offered us a great deal on food and drinks. We would love to have this restaurant cater our wedding, but we're not sure if the venues we've looked at would be willing to negotiate with us on this aspect. Have any of you budget brides been able to negotiate to bring in an outside caterer? Can you give me any tips? I've done the math, and we'd be saving a lot of money. Thanks for any advice/help you can offer.

Calypso1977

can you have the reception at the restaurant in a private function room??  it may mean cutting yoru guest list, but that's usually pretty easy to do if you eliminate "and guest" and parents friends who dont know you, etc.

loop0406

Ask the venues if they require in-house catering. There has to be some that don't require that

danieliza1127

Most don't allow it and there's not much you can do to convince them otherwise.  I think in some cases it's related to the food safety laws in your area.  The only thing you can do is talk the venues directly and ask.

Otherwise, you could try to find a large hall that will accommodate your guest list, like the VFW or the Moose or something.    They pretty much all allow outside caterers.

I assume the restaurant itself isn't big enough to handle your guest list?  If it is, maybe you could just rent the whole restaurant out for the night?

Another option would be to use the restaurant for your rehearsal dinner instead of the reception.  The guest list for that should be considerably smaller so you could just have it there at the restaurant.

[Deleted User]

you could also consider having a tented reception on a property without an exclusive caterer, whether it's a historic site of some sort, or privately-owned land. you'd have to research what's out there in your area, or you might know someone with an appropriate spot (don't forget about permits if you go this direction).

nice screenname.

rubber*soul

Thanks for the quick responses. I have cut down on the guest list as much as possible, but we both come from big families and are very close to them. The restaurant we love is no where near big enough to accomodate our guest list. If I wasn't saving so much money on food and drinks, I'd let it go, but it's such a great deal! I guess there's no harm in asking. Danieliza1127, forgive my ignorance, but what is a VFW hall or the Moose?

danieliza1127

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_newbie-needs?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:d859cdb8-501b-4ae7-9068-f27c0e78244dPost:2c493cd3-1175-4e73-ab31-54af9476823f">Re: newbie needs some help</a>:
[QUOTE]Danieliza1127, forgive my ignorance, but what is a VFW hall or the Moose?
Posted by rubber*soul[/QUOTE]

You know big community halls?  No?  The Moose, the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), there are plenty of others.  Sometimes if you know someone who is a member, you could book their big banquet hall and they usually require outside caterers. 

mkrupar

I would also suggest asking if the owner of a restaurant knows any venues. Maybe they've catered somewhere before that would work.

Bean32

Come post on the Philadelphia board. I can't think of any venues off the top of my head, but the girls there will definitely be able to help!

Bean32

Also, if you go to The Knot's main page and search Venues in Philadelphia, you can then use Advanced Search to narrow the list down to only places that allow outside catering.