Restaurant Reception

It's actually perfect. What makes you think it would be tacky?

I'm with @Mrs S - Why would that be tacky? It would be really hard to find a "venue" and host yourself I feel like...because most places have minimums, so you'd probably pay a fortune since you only have 15 people. I think if you rent out a restaurant, hire a DJ, serve food, and make a dance floor, that would be awesome!

I think it's perfect Well..it depends what restaurant. If you go to like..IHop then yeah, tacky.

We did that for our intimate (a dozen guests) Massachusetts ceremony. We didn't try to do music or dancing. However, we rented the private dining room at the restaurant, and served really awesome food. Even with no formal entertainment, people were chatting enough so that we kind of had to kick people out at the end of the three hours we had the place for.

Katie and Mrs. S, I'm planning a wedding on a budget too, so I'm trying to make it not seem cheap or cheesy with the reception. The ceremony is easy since I found a chapel that's budget friendly and very accommodating and is okay with people bringing in their own cake and/or champagne (even though they provide it at a charge) but I would pay a fraction of the normal charge to add cake and champagne to the package just for the setup fee.

I don't know what your budget is...but it shouldn't be that hard to do. Most restaurants are already decorated anyway, so you probably wouldn't even have to have decorations. You could DIY centerpieces if you wanted to make it more personalized...some restaurants don't even require a rental fee, just that you pay for food. For example, where we are having our rehearsal dinner, we just pay for the guests' food and we get the whole upstairs to ourselves...no rental fee or anything like that. They have a projector screen, podium, and microphone for us to use. You just have to find the right place and it won't be expensive at all (just pay for the food and a few little things)...and drinks if you're providing.

Are you looking to have a reception or a dinner? There are differences...

We had a reception for 45 guests in one of the best restaurants in DC area. I most certainly don't think it was anything close to cheap or cheesy.

We are doing a restaurant on the ocean. NO decorations or centerpieces needed, as the entire restaurant is glass and who can compete with the ocean for beauty? We picked a place on the pier so all you see is beach and water. And they have nice twinkly lights

And our menu was less than 1/2 of what banquet halls, etc. wanted to charge, with 3 choices that people can pick the day of (and not have to let me know ahead of time). Plus, they don't charge for flatware, cake cutting, dishes, etc.

Restaurant reception is not tacky, the smaller the guest the more money you can splurge on your wedding

I don't think it's tacky at all. Lots of restaurants will have a room designed for bigger parties, so if your restaurant has that, it would be a nice way to separate your guests from the rest of the diners for a little privacy.

We planned to do this. There are lots of limitations, but there are lots of conveniences. Deocrating is absolutely minimal. You may add a few details, like guest book, a vase to hold your bouquet, etc.

You want to make sure the room is private. You want to make sure it has a seperate sound system that you can turn the background music off for things like speeches, and the ceremony if you hold it there.

Some restaurants have a minimum for a weekend night, and you won't hit it with 15 people. You may be much better off looking at doing a late Saturday lunch instead.

I'm doing this for 25 people and my guests are loving it. We're doing a morning ceremony with a lunch reception and I've gotten really good feedback about it. We get a private room, but we won't have music or dancing. The manager is letting us decorate how we pleast, but since the place is already heavily decorated, we're just doing small centerpieces and tablecloths.

I think it's a great idea!

I think its a great idea for a small guest list...not tacky at all...

That is a great idea, one of my friends did this also bc they were on a small budget they went to the courthouse and then we went out to eat like 20 of us..had a good time and a year later they did a reception.

We too are having a restaurant reception, we reserved the private dining room for approx 40-45 guest. The best part is the room is free of charge...below is our dining room

Glad to see I'm not alone with the whole dinner reception concept... this is our room for 40 guests -