Bar Crawl/Rehearsal Dinner

LaceyS25 · May 2012

Just curious if anyone has ideas for a bar crawl for our wedding weekend.

Also looking for ideas for a "rehearsal dinner". Both FH and my parents are divorced so if we do a family only rehearsal dinner it will be about 16 people and will be slightly akward...we can't afford to have a big sit down dinner to include everyone, so we were thinking of doing cocktails/appetizers somewhere so we can include all of our guests...any ideas on that?

silverspark7 · May 2012

I went to a wedding recently where the bride and groom lived here in NOLA but almost all the guests were from out of town. They did a cocktail and appetizer thing at Tommy's Wine Bar in the Warehouse district for their guests, and the immediate family had a sit down rehearsal dinner after cocktails were over. After dinner, everyone went to The Rusty Nail -- a great dive bar with a great patio area.

There's tons of stuff you could do though. I would pick the area of town (Uptown, French Quarter, Warehouse District, etc) for your cocktail event and then tell everyone to meet at a certain bar after if they want. That way the party can continue, but not on your dime.

MarcusandMelissa · May 2012

You could also host a party at a hotel and have a cash bar. That way you can see everyone in one place but you can also be guaranteed to have good service and enough room for everyone. For instance, we are having a Welcome Party the night before the wedding for all of our 100 guests. We are having it at the Royal Sonesta, in the second floor wrap around balcony Bourbon Street room, and we are providing a good amount of food (not cheap but doable) and then a cash bar.

Queen Jane · May 2012

We did a bar crawl and it was soooo much fun. We used Molly's as a starting point, grabbed to go margaritas from el gato negro, walked down to R bar and finished the night out at The John.

LaceyS25 · May 2012

Thanks for the ideas! I have some info on Tommy's Wne Bar...how was the food there?
I may want to stay in the FQ area though since our primary hotel is the Royal Sonesta and most people will probably want to walk and not have to cab anywhere.

QueenJane-I have only ever been to Molly's. Where are the other bars located and what are they like?

RYLZ · May 2012

We did a pub crawl the night before our rehearsal and followed most of the route Queen Jane suggested to me in a post from February (thanks again, by the way!) and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Since many guests were staying at the Omni, we made the roof bar there, our first stop-- they've got yummy, strong hurricanes.

Lacey, what's your budget for the RD? That was one area we really tried to save on the budget so I have a few options I could send you, I found along the way.

LaceyS25 · May 2012

I will have to take your advice, Bezlu and QueenJane, on the bar crawl...From what I have seen you both had great weddings! Bezlu..I don't have a set budget, but the less we spend the better! I will be glad to hear any suggestions that you may have to offer. I have been looking into a lot of different places and haven't found much that would work for us.

Queen Jane · May 2012

El Gato Negro is just down the street from Molly's, R bar is on Royal and The John is over in the Marigny. It's not a terrible walk, and we definitely wanted to skip Bourbon, staying closer to Frenchman. We chose the togo's purposely at the point we knew we would be walking the longest. Really though it's not that far.

silverspark7 · May 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_louisiana-new-orleans_bar-crawlrehearsal-dinner?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:84Discussion:fa457f43-7525-44d6-9dfe-f55a2e23a265Post:cd846cc5-55f5-42ea-82bb-29e0f54199a0">Re: Bar Crawl/Rehearsal Dinner</a>:
[QUOTE]Thanks for the ideas! I have some info on Tommy's Wne Bar...how was the food there? I may want to stay in the FQ area though since our primary hotel is the Royal Sonesta and most people will probably want to walk and not have to cab anywhere. QueenJane-I have only ever been to Molly's. Where are the other bars located and what are they like?
Posted by LaceyS25[/QUOTE]

<div>I think Tommy's actually let them use an outside caterer or bring in their own hor d'oeuvres. Not 100% sure, though.</div>

RYLZ · May 2012

Thanks, Lacey. A couple options I found along the way: Acme oyster house has a private room. The rental is $300 and there was no minimum if we used the 3-6pm slot. So we thought about renting the room and just doing oysters and beer. They're set up for connecting you iPod to their sound system and room is actually pretty nice and has a balcony. if you wanted a meal, their buffet options started at less than $25 per person (no alcohol). Tijague's was also willing to do drinks only and provide their balcony. Open bar started at $12 per person per hour and they had reasonable apps available if you wanted to add on. The Bourbon Orleans was willing to let us use the pool area and set up a bar with music. I liked this idea the most but didn't trust it would be warm enough. What we ended up doing: We had our rehearsal at the chateau bourbon hotel in a ballroom. They set up half the room like our church (saved $500 fee not actually rehearsing at the church) and the other half of the room was set up banquet style for our 30 guests. Even though it was early evening, they let us use the lunch menu so it was $27per person. We saved money eliminating gumbo and dessert and instead paid $90 for plum street snow ball to set up in the back of the room. Since we had a sort of casual "back yard BBQ" vibe, we just served iced tea and lemonade--saving in alcohol. For the rest of our guests, instead of also having them at the RD, we provided a cute welcome drink ticket in their welcome bags inviting them to the Bombay Club for our "signature" martini and an aunt and uncle from each side of the family held a table at the bar to greet guests-- we showed up at the end after the RD. A lot of people met up there before going off for their individual dinner plans but we only had to pay for the actual number of drink coupons submitted. Our bill was less than $250 and people really liked the bar and chose to meet up there again the night after the wedding. Hope that help!

LaceyS25 · May 2012

Thanks for the ideas....I really like the drink ticket idea! I may use that one, so that way we can include everyone but not have to pay the expense of a full open bar for a certain amount of time. Did you limit the time frame that it was good for so that people had to show up that night in a specific time frame to get their drink? Do you have a template that you used to create them?

RYLZ · May 2012

The coupon was inserted in our welcome book on the page that had restaurant recommendations, and it said please stop by for a pre-dinner cocktail at the Bombay Cafe between 6 and 7:30pm. In the middle was a picture of a martini glass, and below it is said "Bezlu-tini" and a line at the bottom instructed them to present the bar tender with the coupon. So yes, it was it was for a limited time.

I'll try to PM you a copy but not sure a Word file will attach. You could PM me your email address and then I'll email it to you.

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