The Manor- A different kind of rave!

speidelm

I'm a serial poster today! Usually I'm a little more quiet on here, but I guess I need to distract myself from the drama that is my sister!  Maybe posting a rave will balance out my rant for the day!
I just went to finalize my menu the other day at The Manor and absolutely love them. They threw in everything we could have hoped for and have been so accomodating. This is actually the third wedding we've had at The Manor. Two of my older sisters were married as well. We actually stayed and talked for a while with the Banquet manager and mentioned that my mom paid the same price for my sister's wedding in 1993 that she paid for mine and asked why they haven't raised their prices. According to Roman, their prices WERE a lot higher, but when the market went down they cut them by 20% because he said 'the beginning of your life together is not the time to stress about money and where it will come from". Now that the market is getting better, they have raised them, but for some reason I really liked hearing him say that and thought I would share-- especially for all the other Manor brides out there!  At least I know they aren't trying to milk us for every penny, like some other venues we went to look at!

jrgoogrl

We have to make our appointment to finalize our menu too! It's going to be so hard to decide....all the food sounds soooooo good!

speidelm

Don't worry! They make it easy! They throw in everything! By the way.... the menu changed since you signed your contract! Someone mentioned that on here a while ago and I called and asked what would happen with our menu and their answer was "whatever you want!" Now they have prime rib instead of chateaubriand and they'll let you pick and chose what you want from the new and old menus. Could they be ANY easier!?

speidelm

WAIT.... did I read that right?!?! Did I get something done before you!? haha
Usually I'm weeks behind you!

jrgoogrl

I did hear that! I went in a few weeks ago and Rolf gave me the new menu, but already told me that we can pick and choose what we want from both menus! That makes me soooooo happy! Except, I can't find our old menu =(  Damn construction! We've been moving things around so much I can't find my Manor folder. Oh well, I'm sure they have it. Are you doing the viennese table? Also, did you ask about stations during CH?

speidelm

We are doing Viennese. The only difference on the menu really is they replaced Stuffed mushrooms with Quesadillas (we switched back to the mushrooms) and they took off the lobster medallions... we asked for those back. I think that was really it. Couldn't get them to throw in lobster tails though booooo... my fiance was heartbroken! haha we figured the medallions were close enough!

ginabean82

I'm going to The Manor on Saturday to put down my deposit!  I'm so excited to have my wedding there and reading your post made me even more excited!  It was a beautiful place and the price was amazing compared to others we looked at!

jrgoogrl

Mmmm! Sounds good! I'm so excited! FI and I need to sit down and figure out when we want to set up the appointment. With 45 days left, we have finializing the menu at The Manor, get to see our mock centerpiece, meet with our DJ and work on the ceremony. Lol! How are you doing with things? Also, if more rsvp's don't start coming in soon, I may just scream! LOL!

speidelm

Oh god... you just reminded me.. CALL FLORIST!!
I think I'm ok... we did the ceremony, just not the music. Going to try to do that this weekend, but he has his bachelor party. When and where is yours by the way? I'll laugh if you're in AC on 3/5! We have to meet with our DJ too... rehearsal dinner invites, bridal party gifts... those are the major things! FINALLY booked hair, have my first fitting this weekend... bridesmaid dresses are in... got our rings engraved...  I think we're moving along! We didn't get ANY responses today! Our mail has been awful though and I'm worried people didn't get them. I know one of my bridesmaids didnt get their invite and so many people didn't get shower invites!

speidelm

Congrats Ginabean!! I love it there! They are SO easy to work with. Anything you ask they answer with "Whatever you want"... literally. Even with payments. We had a misunderstanding because our contract was drawn up once with 200 people and once with 150 so the second payment came as a surprise to my mom because she was thinking the amount was based on 150 people and they were thinking it was based on 200.... so she was panicking that she only had a certain amount with her and they were like "It's okay. Whatever you want. How much do you want to leave today?" They have been SOOOO EASY!

jrgoogrl

We picked out our ceremony music, working on day of stationary now, my bags for the OOT bags are on backorder....hopefully they'll be in next week. My bachelorette party is I believe March 25th and/or 26th. I have no idea what we're doing...lol! But I do know that AC has been thrown around. I'm actually going for my second fitting on March 5th. FI's ring is being designed, so I hope it gets done soon because I also want to get it engraved. We haven't gotten ANY rsvp's since Friday! It's so annoying!

Whose your florist? Also, are you staying at the Residence?

cherylnj81

Yay this makes me happy, I hope they are still this easy for our wedding next October!

speidelm

Our florist is precious petals and we are staying at the residence!

mcjays

Can you tell me what the prices at the Manor are, per person? I just looked them up - looks beautiful!

speidelm

I'm not exactly sure what they are now because I think they did go up a little from when we booked and it depends on the time of year. I would call them. They'll tell you right on the phone. Whatever the price is, it includes a lot!

TripleJTobe

If you call/ email, they will email u pricing. For the most part depending on day/ time/season they vary from $80-$115 a head. We were quoted $95 for a Saturday night in April.

speidelm

Yay! Another April wedding at The Manor. Jrgoo and I are April 9th! I hope the flowers are out, but I think it will be a little early... 

Smidger

I'm getting married at The Manor July 30th. I didn't know they changed their menu, so thanks for the update! I know we have a ways to go before we do our menu, but I guess we have more options to choose from now than we did originally which is exciting!

I'm actually most curious about the cake situation. We are obviously going to go with the cake from The Manor, and I've been dying to know what some of the flavor options are and how they look. If you are also going with the cake The Manor includes and have chosen it I would love some feedback on it!

Thanks for this rave. It's resparked my love for this venue!

speidelm

we just picked our cake the other day when we finalized the menu. Their choics were pretty standard and they said if there was something special you'd like they could do that for you too. The cakes I think were white, chocolate, hazelnut and carrot with either butter cream, whipped cream or cream cheese frosting. And the fillings were pretty standard too-- Any fresh fruit, canoli cream, tiramisu, bavarian cream or french custard, chocolate mousse. That's all I can remember off the top of my head. The cake design you pick should be in buttercream too. I don't think they like a lot of fondant.

ginabean82

TripleJTobe-u were quoted $95 for a Saturday night in April?  That's a good price, did you negotiate with them at all?  Was anyone here able to negotiate with them?  We are putting our deposit down this weekend and now I feel like we didn't get that good of a price compared to you guys!  When we went there they gave us the price of $92 for a Friday night in April plus $5 per person for ceremony.  They also threw in the venetian desserts for free.  Should I have negotiated more?  Is negotiating even an option?  Regardless though, it's a beautiful place and I couldn't see myself getting married anywhere else!

speidelm

I don't think they budge on price, but you can get them to throw in things for free. This was my family's third wedding there and we didn't even get a deal on the price, but they were able to throw in a lot of extras. When did you book? I know they JUST raised their prices recently and redid the menu.

peaches85

We actually were able to negotiate with them for the price of a Friday wedding in July, but we ultimately decided to have a Sunday wedding (because a lot of our family members wouldn't be able to make a Friday wedding) and instead of lowering the price for that date they threw in a viennese hour for free.

Jrgoo & Speidelm - I've been thinking about you both lately (in a totally not creepy way, haha) because I know your weddings are coming up!  The other day I realized that I'm less than 5 months out and I started to wonder how both of you were doing with planning.  I'm so glad to hear everything's going well for you both!  I can't wait to read your post-wedding reviews (especially jrgoo since you're using Colorblind, too)... I feel like the last wedding at The Manor was Diane's last summer!

speidelm

I can't believe how soon ours are!  We're stressing because our room holds 200 and we invited 263 thinking we'd get a lot of out of state nos! They kind of talked me off a ledge the other day and said no matter what they could make it work, but I don't want it to be overcroweded in there!

peaches85

Ohhh, i hear you on that!  You're in the Imperial, right?  That's where we're going to be and our guest list just got up to around 200 people, so we've been stressing a bit because of the cost and the size of the room... we really don't want the room to feel cramped.

Aside from the lobster medallions and mushrooms, were there any other special requests that you and your FI made regarding your menu?  And did you go with the prime rib or the chateaubriand?

speidelm

we're actually in the Virginian. We didn't add anything else really. I was pretty satified with the menu the way it was. We did the Prime Rib for dinner. YUM! Can't wait for that!!

peaches85

Ohhh, okay!  That's right... I think I'm in the Imperial, you're in the Virginian, and Jrgoo is in the Regency! 

Yeah... I'm super excited about the prime rib.  I'm not a fan of chateaubriand and when I asked Preston what his preference was he said it was the prime rib, hands down. 

maddie7

$5 per person for ceremony?? Thats where they are making money. 

Kristinathebride

So excited to hear this!!!  Roman is so wonderful!  Our wedding is in October at The Manor and we are so excited, already haha, to choose our menu and this is great!  Roman was really great with us too, extended our cocktail hour and threw in some things already!!!  So excited; thanks for posting!

speidelm

I was thinking about asking for an extension somewhere too. Did they put up any resistance about that and did they charge extra? We had to move our cocktail hour up from 7 to 6 because we have so many people from out of town that would have nothing to do between our ceremony, which starts at 3 and ends at 3:30, and the reception, but I'm kinda bummed about the wedding ending at 11. I haven't decided if I want to have it go longer or just kind of breathe a sigh of relief when it's over and go up to LeDome when it ends with everyone!

peaches85

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_manor-different-kind-of-rave?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:c2b61fe8-f8bb-4154-a26d-8bec17ee74fePost:cfb05d5d-d94a-40cf-82ce-4f8f2e30aa8c">Re: The Manor- A different kind of rave!</a>:
[QUOTE]I was thinking about asking for an extension somewhere too. Did they put up any resistance about that and did they charge extra? We had to move our cocktail hour up from 7 to 6 because we have so many people from out of town that would have nothing to do between our ceremony, which starts at 3 and ends at 3:30, and the reception, but I'm kinda bummed about the wedding ending at 11. I haven't decided if I want to have it go longer or just kind of breathe a sigh of relief when it's over and go up to LeDome when it ends with everyone!
Posted by speidelm[/QUOTE]
We recently decided to add an extra hour to the reception and it's going to cost an extra $10pp.

I do know that another bride who recently got married there (oops, I guess there was another bride after Diane!) was able to use Le Dome as an after-party location.  One of her bridesmaids, I believe, called up The Manor and asked if they would be willing to keep it open late and, while I don't know the exact details, they did keep it open for them.

Tara2316

We had our wedding there in October and they were beyond accommodating. You ladies will not be disappointed. We also got the new menu and everything was amazing.