October 2012 Weddings

Venue stressors

My venue has a minimum of 125 adults for a Fri/Sat/Sun wedding.  Out of 146 adults I invited only 103 can attend.  Yesterday FMIL, FI, and myself went to the venue to taste more of the food (they were NOT impressive the first time around) and try to figure out how to meet our minimum. 

The biggest thing is, I have a lot of family/family friends in AA.  One thing I did NOT want was more than the three hours of open bar.  I feel like 1 hr cocktail hour, wine on the tables and two hours after that mixed with dancing ect would be enough for the people I'm with.  Even the people who aren't in AA, with so much tension between divorces and even families who aren't divorced hating each other...I don't want to add alcohol and get out drama! haha

The coordinator pretty much said the only way to come close is to add that extra hour.  I OKed it then, but I am really regretting it the more I think about it.  That would be taking 630 out of our total cost. (a total of 826.33 with tax and service charge)  My dad suggests even just adding food no one will eat to get the minimum up, but I don't want to pay for things that no one is going to enjoy!!  I don't know if I feel comfortable going to the venue and saying I just don't want it (she already snapped at me when I told her our guest count)  We've already upgraded pretty much everything that would count towards food/bev (unless we see if we can add snacks for a late night thing?)  We're already getting SO much food though! haha if everyone isn't stuffed...they have problems!

Re: Venue stressors

  • If you don't want to up the bar tab could you change the alcohol types to a more premium options so that takes care of part of your cost discrepancies without adding an extra hour to the bar?

    Other ideas:

    1) Add a cocktail hours - passed apps, etc
    2) Add a late night table - cookies and milk, sandwiches, fruit trays, that kind of stuff.
    3) Does the venue offer any other upgrades like nicer linens, chair covers, etc?

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  • I would see if they have a late night snack that they can do.  If you really don't feel comfortable adding the extra open bar, I wouldn't do it.  I would rather have extra food than a drunken fight.
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  • 1.) We already have cocktail hour and upgraded our hors devours
    2.) I LOVE that idea of a late night snack table
    3.) I wish we could upgrade our linens, but our total needs to be of food/bev the linens/chair gets thrown in "other" expenses! 

    I hope they go for the late night snacks! 
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_october-2012-weddings_venue-stressors?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:56b9bcef-1e34-456e-81f5-cfaa107456b2Discussion:b8d67ee8-0809-4185-b2d0-aa976e0d1d12Post:019ccd91-08d5-4d4d-8a59-554b4618ad3b">Re: Venue stressors</a>:
    [QUOTE]1.) We already have cocktail hour and upgraded our hors devours 2.) I LOVE that idea of a late night snack table 3.) I wish we could upgrade our linens, but our total needs to be of food/bev the linens/chair gets thrown in "other" expenses!  I hope they go for the late night snacks! 
    Posted by thale0924[/QUOTE]

    The late night snacks are a great way to go.  My FI and I did this with our caterer/venue. We went with a slider station (burger or thai chicken) and a belgian waffle cart.  The cart is the mobile vendor from one of of favorite brunch spots.  Hooray!  I think cider and donuts would be a great option, too.
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  • I don't think any venue would shy away from late night snacks, in fact ours asked "what do you want for late night" rather then asking if we were going to do it.

    We're bringing our late night snacks out at 10 pm since by then people have been up and dancing for a couple hours and are generally ready to have some munchies again.

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