Restaurant Reception

I have heard of our and I say do it. No set up or clean up. I would get a private room.

View Quoted Comment That's what I like about the idea. No mess, less stress.

View Quoted Comment You and I both lol.

This sounds similar to what we did for our rehearsal dinner. However, we didn't serve alcohol because my dad is a recovering alcoholic and it was already going to be difficult for him to be around it at the wedding. The restaurant we had it at had a large private room with a dance floor and stage if we wanted to hire a DJ, but since it was just a rehearsal that was unnecessary. We had the option of paying in advance but my mother-in-law was paying for it so she paid at the end of the evening. We gave them a $150 deposit to reserve the room. You could definitely try to find a similar space if you want to have any dancing or anything like that. I have personally never been to a wedding like this, but my family has thrown parties like this. For our rehearsal, my mom decorated the tables because we didn't want just plain white tables, but that is totally a personal choice.

We were looking at this. The restaurants we spoke with would have set a specific menu and alcohol was additional.

My future SIL did this for her wedding. I do not know all the specifics but I believe they paid for it all in advance. They served a lot of appetizers family style and we chose our main dish. The restaurant was BYOB so we all brought our own alcohol to share and it was a really good time.

This was initially our plan for our DW (until the guest list grew too large). I think doing a restaurant reception for a small group is The absolute best way to go – everyone gets to choose whatever they want from the menu, it is a relaxing sit down dinner, and no clean up afterward! How the restaurant handles that varies from place to place. Some of the places I contacted would just treat it like a reservation. Others required you to Rent out a private room. Only the ones that require to rent out a room needed advance payment. Payment was just the cost of renting the room, then you would pay the tab at the end of the meal.

We did a restaurant reception for 28 guests. I highly suggest somewhere with a private room. We did a pre-set menu with a buffet style serving, coffee, tea, and soda. We were originally going to let people order and pick up the tab but the restaurant would only do that if we kept it under 20 people. We placed a deposit and paid the entire tab after. They had alcohol packages as well if we wanted to add that but we didn't. It turned out really nice and they set the tables with their standard single rose center pieces. It was all very cost effective!

I did a reception at a restaurant and it is nice because you don't have to consider renting different parts such as the cutlery or tables and chairs, etc.

This is exactly how we did our reception and everyone that attended raved about it and how it was one of the best weddings they had ever been to because it was no fuss (we just hosted dinner—no DJ/dancing). The restaurant we chose was at the same resort where we had our ceremony, and we rented a private dining room, which was a small fee. We had 2 different dining rooms to choose from, and each had a different minimum spend (due to the room size, so something to keep in mind if you are aiming to stick to a set budget). The room we chose had a private patio in the back, so we were able to still have a cocktail hour to keep our guests pre-occupied while we took our pictures.

For a private event, you will likely have group pricing instead of the menu pricing, so another thing to keep in mind when meeting a minimum spend. If you are planning on hosting a cocktail hour, you may have a choice between stationary displays or passed hors d'oeuvres. We chose to do 3 different passed hors d’oeuvres, and passed on adding stationary displays or doing just stationary displays. The pricing if we had done one or the other for our head count was pretty similar. We also rented a stationary bar for the patio which was $250.

For alcohol, we had the option of purchasing a beverage package which included tea, coffee, soft drinks, and our choice of just beer and wine, or beer wine and liquor (two options to offer either premium or deluxe liquor). All of our guests stayed at a different resort than where we had our wedding, so we knew people weren’t going to get hammered. We decided to go with charge on consumption for the alcohol. For us, our guests didn’t end up drinking that much, so we ended up being a couple hundred dollars below what the beverage package would have cost for all of our guests, so charge on consumption worked for us. We capped the drink limit at a certain price point per drink and had the sommelier choose 3 different wines to serve with a set limit on the bottles.

For the meal itself, the restaurant had the option of a five course table service pre-fixe dinner menu or family style service. Family style service offered a cost savings, but we chose to offer a pre-fixe menu instead so that our guests could choose their starters and entrees. There were 3 different menu options to choose from for both family style and pre-fixe, all at different price points, so I mixed and matched the items that I liked and the restaurant adjusted the price per head accordingly.

We chose not to purchase a cake from the restaurant, but rather serve one of our favorite cakes from another place, so another cost to keep in mind if you are bringing an outside cake or even outside alcohol is a cake cutting fee and corkage fees.

For payment, we just had a credit card on file to secure the dining room (we had booked a wedding package and paid in full for the ceremony part of the day, so that’s probably why we didn’t have to put a deposit down up front for the restaurant room), and estimated charges for everything that we agreed upon were charged to the card the week of. Gratuity was already included in the initial charge. About a week or so later, we received our final folio of charges for additional charges beyond what was already paid, and we just signed an online credit authorization form for the to charge the remaining balance to the card on file.

View Quoted Comment I had the opposite happen. My list was originally over 60 because of my family being so large. My fiancé and I don't like being the center of attention, so we shortened it to close family and friends only. Otherwise, we'd both be too anxious to enjoy our day. From what I read so far, renting out a room seems to be the best option for us. Plus, I don't want to break my brain over thinking what kind of food everyone is going to like and their special dietary needs. Thanks for the info!

View Quoted Comment I spent hours looking at different table setting ideas, tablecloths, centerpieces, and chairs... A friend of ours has a gorgeous wedding, but I don't remember what kind of chairs and plates she used! So, why am I stressing over it? Anyway, the less I have to do, the better. I'd rather we just have a good time, eating, laughing and looking like a fool on the dance floor!

View Quoted Comment This is so helpful! Thank you. I definitely would do the charge on consumption. I know my guests will drink, but I can't imagine any of them getting hammered.

View Quoted Comment Very pretty!

View Quoted Comment She did a great job decorating! I definitely don't have an eye for it, unless I copy off Pinterest! Lol

View Quoted Comment I'm not sure where she came up with the decorations. I know it was my sister-in-law's idea to put the glitter around the edges of the candle holders. She knows I love glitter so it was perfect.

View Quoted Comment

It really is the best way to plan a stress free wedding. Like you don't have to think about much of anything at all, clean up, tear down and you just get to enjoy it.