Wedding Venue HELP!!

Re: Wedding Venue HELP!!

• MesmrEwe member

  

  March 2015

  Fist off, bringing your own food and beverage isn't going to cut costs nor stress at all.  Bringing in your own alcohol actually shifts more of the liability onto you and FI than it would be if you were to provide a hosted bar with a venue using their bartenders for an entire evening.   Next, which of your guests are you planning to make work at your wedding instead of enjoy themselves if you plan to provide the F&B yourself?  If you're meaning hire your own caterer and bar service, that's a different situation, check out Little Log House Pioneer Village south of Hastings.  Otherwise, if you're DIY, your only chances are going to be community centers and even then many are getting stricter about this.  There are possibly a couple independent farms that rent out their barn for a reception site, but still.. Is it really worth it to make your guests work.

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• Knottie27313328 member

  

  March 2015

  I don't know where the making my guests work is coming from, maybe I miscommunicated in the original post. It would be somewhere where you could bring in your own caterer and I would rather shop around caterers rather than HAVE to go with the caterer that is partnered with a venue. Also, I would rather buy a couple kegs of beer for $100/piece and cases of wine at Trader Joe's rather than what was quoted me at $355/piece for a keg of Michelob Golden Light. I also used to bartend and have a few old coworkers that would be more than happy to come in and bartend for tips from a bunch of service industry folks. They aren't necessarily close friends that would have been invited to the wedding, more people that I know could handle a lot of people ordering and are very efficient bartenders. I am also open to hiring a bartending service, but hoping I could do so while buying the alcohol at wholesale pricing. 

  
  

  Also, for the liability, it's a separate insurance plan that you can take out for $1,000,000 that tacks onto your home insurance policy. It's a one-day only insurance policy that usually costs around $50 (but we would have to research this as well with various places, either way, totally worth it). This is cart before the horse if we can't find anywhere that lets you bring it in. 

  
  

  Since I posted this, I have found a few places where you can at least hire a bartending service by reaching out to those services that you can hire (which is definitely an option). But definitely still looking and looking for any tips anyone has! 

  
  

  Thanks for the feedback!

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• MesmrEwe member

  

  March 2015

  It was the part where you said "Bring our own food and beverage in" that had me thinking that you were DIY...  I've been hanging around the national boards where many come on thinking of DIY the food/drinks hence the canned response on that end.. 

  Check with the area ski hills as many allow you to use your own caterer.  Many hotels also allow you to do so as well.  It's also a lot easier if you start with checking out caterers then ask for recommendations based on your event size for reception venues.  But also, don't limit out in-house service too.  Hudson House is a great place with all in-house but they've been incredibly reasonable every time we've used them for events.   

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