Florida-Central Florida

AW: Booked our ceremony/reception location!

My FI and I booked our ceremony and reception venue today! Our wedding is officially Febraury 27, 2011 at Town Manor in Auburndale, FL!

The place basically sold itself...it's gorgeous and Nandy (the wedding coordinator) was so nice.

We got a decent price on the package..it was a little out of our initial budget, but we'll manage. Everything is included so that's going to help a lot since I'm going to law school next year and will have zero time for anything. Hoorah!

Hope wedding planning is going well for everyone else!

Re: AW: Booked our ceremony/reception location!

  • edited December 2011
    Congrats, its such a weight off the shoulders to have the biggest part done!
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
    225 image Invited
    127 image Making the Trip
    98 image Missing out
    0 image MIA
    RSVP date February 19th
  • SarahSmile23SarahSmile23 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
  • SarahSmile23SarahSmile23 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    you HAVE to take pics by the blue wall! we loooove this pic of us from there.


  • edited December 2011
    Sarah--I absolutely love that picture of you and your husband by the blue wall!! I will have to take your advice on that! I loved Town Manor, and it sounds like you really liked it too so I feel even better about the decision =D
  • DecembergrlDecembergrl member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Hey girls...we are looking at this venue now after reading and peeking at your bios! Could you tell me what the cost is for that location? Per person costs, rental, etc. Also, I saw that you put that puff n stuff was your caterer..can you bring in caterers to this location?

    Thanks!!!
  • SarahSmile23SarahSmile23 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    puff n stuff was the caterer they used!

    i dont remember the cost, but it wasn't cheap. i THINK we payed 11k for 80 people? there is a venue rental cost that is fairly all-inclusive and then then per head food cost. alcohol is seperate. we took a gamble and did a consumption bar where we paid per drink after the wedding instead of an open bar, and we saved about $600. if you don't have a lot of big drinkers, do it. calculate how many drinks people would have to get for the open bar to pay for itself. it was like 4 or 5 and we knew some people would only have 1 or 2 and that only a couple of people would order the max.
  • SarahSmile23SarahSmile23 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    the 11k didnt include our alcohol payment at the end of the night
  • edited December 2011
    frozenxthoughts: Congratulations! I think you may have been the couple who looked at the venue right before my bf and I. We went Saturday (yesterday) at 11am. We really loved the place, too but don't know if it will be okay for our budget. What's funny is that Nandy told us that the couple right before us who came that morning (apparently you) took the date we wanted, 10/10/10. I wonder why she would say that if that obviously isn't your date! Hmmm... Now I'm sad! (because of her, not you of course lol)
  • edited December 2011
    Congrats! Sarah's wedding there was gorgeous! I'm sure you and your FI will have a beautiful wedding there as well! :D
  • edited December 2011
    wow, that's crazy! We had to be the couple that looked at it right before you! But yeah, our date is definitely 2/27/11...nowhere near 10/10/10 haha. Maybe Nandy just got confused?

    It really is a gorgeous venue, but it is definitely expensive. We opted for a short brunch type wedding on a sunday with the ceremony/pre-reception/reception. It's going to be about 4 hours long which I think it just fine for a morning/early afternoon wedding. Our total came to just about $9,300 for 55 people and we also added a couple things too. This cost includes cake, cake cutting, DJ, ceremony musicians, pre-reception finger food, brunch, some decor and a couple other things. It's a nice package, but this cost DOES NOT include alcohol or the gratuity/taxes (there's about a 20% gratuity charge). We're just doing a champagne toast without alcohol since it's an earlier wedding. We're also responsible for flowers. Altogether with my parents' help we'll be able to stay under $14,000 for the whole wedding. I'm seriously considering just having a rehearsal dinner at my parents house haha. It would be a lot of fun just like that.

    Any other questions, let me know!
  • edited December 2011
    Sarah--just out of curiosity...how long was your wedding total? Ours is going to be 4 hours.
  • edited December 2011
    Congrats on booking your place!  What a big accomplishment. =)
  • SarahSmile23SarahSmile23 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_florida-central-florida_aw-booked-ceremonyreception?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:66Discussion:6db1656e-d545-46a6-8149-5959643ff9e0Post:9316acee-ca31-4ed7-b46c-b4470b4650d7">Re: AW: Booked our ceremony/reception location!</a>:
    [QUOTE]Sarah--just out of curiosity...how long was your wedding total? Ours is going to be 4 hours.
    Posted by frozenxthoughts[/QUOTE]

    they only allowed us to have the venue for 3.5 hours from the time the gates opened until the send-off. i hated that we were so limited on time and regretted booking the venue. if i could do it all over again, i'd book some place i could have for 4.5--5 hours. i think most weddings/receptions are too long, but 3.5 hours was so freakin short.

    nandy isn't consistent with what she offers people and it annoys the shiit out of me. you get 4 hours, another girl got to have vodka...the more "extras" she gives other couples, the less i'll recommend them. haha. it's sad but true!

    i can guarantee your wedding will be gorgeous, though. :)
  • SarahSmile23SarahSmile23 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    oh, and if she refers you to Third Day Photography, DO NOT BOOK THEM!!!

    one more thing, we added a manned pasta station for $400 and it was a HUUUGE hit!
  • edited December 2011
    Oops! I failed to look at our paperwork when I was quoting time: we're only getting the entire place for 3.5 hours as well-- 10am-1:30pm I do wish I had just one more hour, but we're having a very early wedding and then probably flying back home (since there's a good possibility we'll be living in a different state come next year). While it seems short...the average reception is only 4 hours long with a 15-20 minutes ceremony so we're almost dead on with the average. I wish adding another 30 mnutes wasn't so dang expensive or else I'd consider it. I think we'll be okay with the time thing. I agree with you though, a lot of weddings do feel a little long, but this does feel a little short.

    Don't worry...I have a couple photographers I'm going to interview before booking. I'll stay away from that photographer haha.

    Thanks for advice :) I hope it turns out nice. I'm excited about the location, but that is kind of lame Nandy isn't consistend :(
  • SarahSmile23SarahSmile23 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    well...it's better to leave them wanting more than to have them staring at their watches, right?

    btw, i totally put on the invitations that it started at 4:40 even though gate time was 4:30 and told guests to come by 4:15 so we wouldn't waste any time!

    i didn't mean to insult your venue. i just got annoyed with how inflexible they could be lol! but one thing i loved about TM was how hands-off my planning was. SO EASY! and our cake was the best wedding cake i have ever had in my life.

    lol @ photographer. seriously. we booked him and he wouldn't even write or call us back. we finally canceled him because he was so unprofessional and then we booked tab.
  • edited December 2011
    That's good you canceled the photographer before it got much worse! Tab did a great job on the pics...best decision ever :) everything happens for a reason.

    oh you don't have to apologize...I can understand the frustration since it's the biggest day of your life! The pictures and everything turns out great and I'm glad the cake turned out well. We mainly picked Town Manor because it's in ag reat location for family and friends and I desperately needed hands off planning. Plus, I love the vintage style of TM. My mom went to a wedding at The Courtyard at Lake Lucerne and said it was pretty, but you could hear the traffic wizzing by outside lol. That was the only other venue I knew of that had a decent all-inclusive package.

    I'll remember to have on the invitation for the guests to come by a little earlier. How strict are they on the time limits? I can't imagine its rigidly 3.5 hours, or is it? It's hard to have everything go exactly as planned you know?
  • SarahSmile23SarahSmile23 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    yeah, nandy is a pain in the ass about trying to keep everything to her specific timelines. i had to snap at her once because she was being pushy about making us come inside to do the 1st dance when we were taking pics. i didn't want to be micro-managed on our wedding day! lol.
  • edited December 2011
    I don't blame you! It's your day! I'll have to remember that, lol. It's not nice being pushed around especially since you both invested so much money into having your wedding there. Thanks for the heads up.
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