25th Anniversary Party

You could work with the venue to have a limited menu or to do a prix fixe menu? that might be helpful. at my rehearsal dinner we worked with the venue to only allow like 3 entrees to choose from. that way we limited how much to spend or what they could order.

I don't think the venue allows for a fixed or limited menu. We have had other parties there before and everything could just order whatever they wanted.

Maybe YOU could create a fixed menu?

for instance maybe you could just let everyone know that your dinner party has a limited menu selection that you're hosting and then anything outside of that has to be supplemented?

at my venue, they had options to order other things but i wanted them only to go off the limited menu we set or else as you said, things would get costly. so we purposefully printed a fixed menu [the venue already had a fixed menu anyway but for the purpose of our dinner we only gave our guests the fixed menu].

I will definitely look into that. I did do a quick Google search and it does appear they offer a fixed menu, but it appears that's only for parties of 75 or more. I will have to reach out to the restaurant once the party is closer to confirm. Do you have any other recommendations of where I could host an anniversary party?

I plan a lot of events, one of the things I've done when we don't do a buffet is choose about 3 options for main courses and keep appetizers / sides the same for all. Most restaurants should be able to accommodate you with this by narrowing down the menu. Additionally you can provide people with drink tickets to prepay drinks.

We would only be having non-alcoholic drinks as my dad is a recovering alcoholic. I figured we could probably have drink pitchers.

This is very sweet of you, but as the host I think it's important to plan something you can afford to pay for. Guests invited to a party or event aren't likely to plan on paying their own way, as that would be very unusual and they might find it rude. There are lots of large family-style restaurants that will do some kind of limited-selection menu for you. We've done family parties at Olive Garden with a limited menu. Daughter's rehearsal dinner was at a brewery restaurant chain where we were able to choose from 3-4 levels of menu options. Good luck & happy anniversary to your parents!