Weddingbee boards

We are exactly 6 months from our wedding today.  Mind you, this is a very small (25 - 28 people), informal wedding.  This is the 2nd marriage for both FI & I.  No attendants other than our children. 

So, we went this past weekend to our wedding city in North Georgia, to check out places we'd like to have a dinner at after the ceremony, which is being held outdoors at a resort that FI's mom belongs to.  We are trying to keep this very small and initmate, and also very budget friendly.  We visited the two places that were the most highly recommended, one being a winery which had quoted us $24 - $30 per person for dinner in their main dining room.  The other, was a steak house that ended up being just way too small to accomodate that large of a group without renting out the entire restaurant, which really isn't in our budget.

So, I get an email today from the coordinator at the winery.  They now want (keep in mind, this is not in a private room, just in the main dining room) $50 per person, with a minimum charge of $1000, plus 28% for tax & gratuity, for food only, plus an additional $2 per non-alcoholic drink, and alcohol by the glass charge, and an additional $550 to park our guest's cars!!!!!!!!!!!   This is almost double what the original quote was!   I was in complete and utter shock, and just forwarded it on to my FI to see what he said.....

He replied:   "Hell NO"   

Great.  So, back to square one....  I have already contacted most of the restaurants in that area.  This is a VERY small town, so most of the restaurants are also very small, and they've all said the same thing, we'd have to rent out the entire restaurant for several hours, plus the charge per person for food & drink.   We're not looking to have a huge reception, just a place that can seat & feed 25 people or so, for maybe 2 hours tops.  I reached the point of tears, and begin scouring the internet again, since we live 4 hours from where we are getting married.

Finally decide to look into a restaurant that we really hadn't considered before because they serve their meals "family style", and it's old-fashioned southern comfort food.  JACKPOT!!!!  They have several banquet rooms, one of which will seat up to 40 people.   We can rent this room for 2 hours for $200, and then it will be $17.95 per adult and $7.95 per child.  They can serve beer & wine in the banquet rooms, and they will also set up a table for us to have a cake on.

This is not exactly the venue I was wanting, but we're going to be able to now do this entire dinner for under $1000, and the food is way better than the fancy entree's they were going to serve at the winery. 

Freak-out moment over.... 

@TheRen:  We're looking in Dahlonega, Georgia.

Here's the restaurant we're currently going to use, I guess:

http://www.smithhouse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=42

And the location for our ceremony:

http://rranchga.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97&Itemid=135

Wonderful, glad everything worked out...I hate those panic moments!

@TheRen:  I will not be putting a deposit down until next week, we'll need to wait until payday at this point because we've made a lot of purchases this week for the wedding, plus FI wrecked his car & had to pay a deductible!  So, I've got a little time.  If your friends know of anywhere else, I'm willing to check out anything.  Thanks!