In looking for a Venue for our reception, the cheapest place I found was going to cost us a total of $9,000. This included catering, alcohol, tables/chairs, linens, the venue price and tax and gratuity.
Trying to be creative and cut cost, I came up with the idea to have our reception in a restaurant. I found a really fancy restaurant that is decorated elaborately and willing to rent the entire place out to us for the day/night. This was only going to cost us $6,000 and that is rounding up quite a bit. So overall we were saving at least $3,000 by having it in a restaurant.
My Dilemma- This particular restaurant, although decorated beautifully, uses the colors red, gold and burnt orange as their color scheme. Their chairs are very nice, but they are a bronzed looking wooden finish with red cushions. and The main focus of attention is on three booths that are red with a red wall background and sheilded with golden curtains.
The middle booth is removed serving as an entrance to a second room where there is a bar area and more tables. We are having somewhere between 100-150 guests and the one room is not large enough to accomodate them all. This is all fine, however our colors are white, navy blue and yellow and I am worried that the decoration may take away from our color scheme and I am not sure what to do about the red booths. Also, the restaurant only has whit and black linens.
Originally I planned on having navy blue table covers, white chair covers, of course white china with a navy blue napkin. I am pulling the yellow out in my centerpieces with vases filled with lemons and spring of forsythia. Now, I may end up having to do white linens and buying or renting a navy blue overlay, which I guess is fine and also renting navy blue napkins or just going with the white ones and providing a navy blue menu instead to pull out the blue.
Also, I'm not sure what to do about the guest/seating. I was thinking of putting the older guest and guest who I know will leave early in the room that is more secluded and further away from the band and then having our table in the room with the band and dancing, etc. However, I don't want anyone to feel left out and I also don't know how that would work for the cake cutting and all of the other little rituals that you do at a reception because I don't think they will be able to see us.
The napkins, overlays and chair covers will probably cost an extra $900 at most and I guess is still better than the extra $3,000 we would pay at the other venue but I am just so unsure about the other stuff. What do you all think, I need opinions
Re: Wedding Reception Suggestions/Ideas
On a side note, I would have loved to have found a reception place that would provide food, alcohol, the actual space, tables, chairs, linens, and tax/fees all for $9000...that to me sounds like the deal of the century!
I am not sure what your timeline is, but if you are really unhappy about the decor, it may pay to keep looking. One thing about renting the linens is you will have to enlist someone to bring them to the restaurant, set them up, tear them down, and account for them at the end of the party to make sure you have all of them. Since the restaurant already have the white linens, and you are using yellow in the centerpieces, how about just renting navy blue table runners and napkins? No one is going to pay much attention to the chairs they are sitting on, as long as there is one for each body.
Not sure about the seating arrangement problem. Mine will be in one big open room, so I do not have that issue.
Have you looked at a museum, an aquarium, a historical house/mansion, or something like that? Have you looked a bit out of your area, say 30 minutes away or less?
Just throwing a few suggestions out there. Happy Planning!
Our wedding date is November 12, 2011
RSVP Date October 12th, 2011
Our wedding date is November 12, 2011
RSVP Date October 12th, 2011
Our wedding date is November 12, 2011
RSVP Date October 12th, 2011