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Need Cake and Punch Reception Venue Ideas

emanon321emanon321 member
25 Love Its 10 Comments First Anniversary Name Dropper
in Wedding Reception Forum
I'm interested in a cake and punch reception for a max of 50 people. My fiance and I are not interested in a dance party and it's not within our budget to offer a huge plated meal. We want it to be an intimate relaxing time where we can socialize with our closest family. Unfortunately, my dream church for the ceremony does not do receptions. Hence, I am at a loss finding a place to hold such a gathering. Country clubs want to charge an arm and a leg for plated meals and high minimum rates. Resorts are even worse. And no one has a backyard suitable or the skill to pull off a DIY party. 

Does anyone have any ideas? Has anyone held/been to a cake and punch reception? 
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Re: Need Cake and Punch Reception Venue Ideas

  • wandajune6wandajune6 member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its Third Anniversary First Answer
    It isn't fancy but what about a VFW hall or community center?

    I'm assuming that since it's just cake and punch, you're not going to be doing this at a meal time. With that being the case, there might be more venues who are flexible if they're also hosting later events.
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  • JMalettasJMalettas member
    500 Comments 100 Love Its Second Anniversary First Answer
     I've never been to a cake/punch reception, but have been to bridal showers at community centres. Community centres are definitely a more affordable route to go. (They usually rent out a morning or afternoon slot. Since it obviously won't be over a meal hour, this would likely work well). The downside is, that a lot of them don't include plates/cups, etc. So you'd have to purchase/rent those separate, as well as hire someone to make the cake/punch. You can purchase affordable cakes though, and potentially always make your own punch. 

     *J
     
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  • JennyColadaJennyColada member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its Third Anniversary First Answer
    You could perhaps do some restaurants (although you'd likely have a food & beverage minimum to meet).

    Parks and community centers (as @JMalettas mentioned) at a great idea as well!
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  • Almie425Almie425 member
    100 Comments 25 Love Its First Anniversary Name Dropper
    How about a park pavilion?
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    2500 Comments Fifth Anniversary 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    What about a resturant that has a party room available? Just because it's in a resturant doesn't mean that you have to offer a full meal as long as it's not during a meal time. Then you have people to serve right away too.
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  • emanon321emanon321 member
    25 Love Its 10 Comments First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Thank you to everyone who has posted their suggestions!

    I've never thought of community centers before. I will look into it. 

    I thought of a park before, but it seems a little too Do-It-Yourself for my family. I guess I'm afraid it will look like a birthday party for a five year old... put together by a five year old. XD But I will look into this one as well on Pinterest and Google and see if I'm thinking of this all wrong.

    I do really love the restaurant idea. Restaurants are already decorated, have real plates, silverware, and glasses, and would come with servers and cleanup. However, is there such a place that could hold 50 people? How would you google for something like that? I feel like most restaurants would only hold 30 at most. 
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  • JennyColadaJennyColada member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its Third Anniversary First Answer
    Different restaurants just have different space.

    You can search based on your location:
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  • grumbledoregrumbledore member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its First Anniversary First Answer
    emanon321 said:
    I'm interested in a cake and punch reception for a max of 50 people. My fiance and I are not interested in a dance party and it's not within our budget to offer a huge plated meal. We want it to be an intimate relaxing time where we can socialize with our closest family. Unfortunately, my dream church for the ceremony does not do receptions. Hence, I am at a loss finding a place to hold such a gathering. Country clubs want to charge an arm and a leg for plated meals and high minimum rates. Resorts are even worse. And no one has a backyard suitable or the skill to pull off a DIY party. 

    Does anyone have any ideas? Has anyone held/been to a cake and punch reception? 
    The church won't let your use their parish hall to serve a slice of cake and a drink?  I might ask again and be very specific about what you are planning.  They may be unwilling to have a big dance party there, but happy to let you serve cake/punch.  I've never been to a church that didn't have a social hour after services with snacks and coffee.

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  • grumbledoregrumbledore member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its First Anniversary First Answer
    I think you might have a hard time getting a room at a restaurant for the type of reception you are planning - there's nothing wrong with what you are planning, but it's not very profitable for the restaurant...

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  • JennyColadaJennyColada member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its Third Anniversary First Answer
    grumbledore said:
    I think you might have a hard time getting a room at a restaurant for the type of reception you are planning - there's nothing wrong with what you are planning, but it's not very profitable for the restaurant…
    It really varies based on the restaurant. Where I worked, we just had a $200 minimum for our private room (but it was more for 20-30 people than for 50). We were a smaller restaurant, and did have people occasionally rent out the entire restaurant space (we once had a seated 60 person dinner). Generally we'd require a minimum of $2000. But for 50 people that's pretty do-able for dessert and beverages (even NA).
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  • emanon321emanon321 member
    25 Love Its 10 Comments First Anniversary Name Dropper
    When asking the church event planner, I was very specific about no dancing and even wrote "cake and punch" a couple of times. But all I got back was one sentence, "We do not hold receptions at the church." Which was rather disappointing because I was envisioning the reception in the lovely garden they have out front. Ah well, something about putting the cart before the horse type of thing. 

    Thank you for everyone's opinions! Please keep them coming. My mom and I are not the greatest party planners. 
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  • cinalli2bcinalli2b member
    First Comment
    I would look around at your parks/pavillions...you wouldn't need much decorations...table cloths and centerpieces would do the trick...depending on the time of day(if in the evening) you could have floating tealight candles as centerpieces with a flower floating around. You could also put clear christmas lights around trussles/posts/etc. Trust me, no one really pays that much attention anyways. I wanted to have exactly what you are doing but my fiance's family isn't on board at all. I'm having approx 150ppl and they insist I have to feed them! Best of Luck!
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  • theartistformerlyknownastheartistformerlyknownas member
    10000 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers First Anniversary
    Definitely look into community houses in your area... you could even look up bridal shower venues on Yelp since 50 is right around that size, rather than searching for wedding venues which will be larger. Some restaurants could definitely handle 50 people... that's about the size of my rehearsal dinner and we found quite a few restaurants that could accommodate us.
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