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@stephlovessaul: I think it's great - I love restaurant receptions. I believe they tend to be a little bit less stress and also a bit easier on your wallet as well. I wanted to have one at a restaurant as well but we just couldn't find one that was big enough. I do still think there should be some sort of Emcee for the night, but you don't need an official DJ for that.
If you follow the blog, one of the bee's is planning a restaurant reception as well.
I'm having a restaurant reception at our favorite restaurant in DC! Even in the DC area, it was a better bang for our buck than finding a space and having to rent all the chairs, tables, and catering supplies. I had planned a bunch of dinners for my organization at restaurants, and should have known from the start that it would be the most economical!
Our restaurant has a patio that adjoins the space that's available for almost nothing, so if it's nice weather (fingers crossed) we'll have a nice outdoor area besides the private dining room. Their food is great, their event planner is included in the service charge, so the few centerpieces and decor for our cocktail-style reception will be all set up for me, AND everything from linens (not custom or anything) to plates is included in our pricing. I also like that since it's a fully-functioning restaurant, they can work with us if we need more food, wine, etc.
Here's a great Bee post that inspired me to look at our favorite restaurant - the restaurant is in DC and we considered it too!
We're doing both our ceremony and reception at a restaurant - in fact, both of our top choices were restaurants. It let us get a lot more character and flexibility in menu for a lot less money. For example, our second choice was a waterfront spot in the city with HUGE picture windows, and the rental fee they wanted for a 5h Sat PM rental in May was $500. You can't rent a community reception hall in this area for that amount of money!
Yup, having a restaurant wedding/reception in chicago. Think it'll make life easy.
Awesome!
The place we are considering is quite the blank canvas, I'm crafty and wanted to make decorations myself anyway so that works out... It's a convenient location for 90% of our guests and it fits into our budget and I've always liked their food... Even though neither of us are Italian... A large sitdown Italian meal always feels like a family dinner :)
@stephlovessaul: We didn't have our reception at a restaurant but we had our rehearsal at maggianos (chain italian restaurant) and while i was in there i just kept thinking how great it would be to have a wedding there - they had beautiful private rooms ont he second floor that were all dark wood and big enough to have a dance floor.
I think if the space is big enough for you then go for it! you already know the food will be good!
We're doing the ceremony and reception at a restaurant, too. It's a place we love going and they happen to have a very cozy private room that will easily hold our small crowd. I think it'll be perfect! Plus, there's that added yay factor that there's no fee for the room, just a minium order amount we need to hit. Which is - any way you look at it - still cheaper than any other venue I could think of to have our ceremony at. And with less than 12 people coming, including us... it just made sense. :)
@runschicago: What restaurant are you using? I'm having trouble finding options that have space for a ceremony too...
@kathryn83: We havent picked one yet! I'm the worst wedding planner ever LOL
That's what we're doing, so I'm all for it. Our place doesn't have a banquet space, so we're doing a "buy out" of the restaurant. I wrote a bit about it here (goals and meeting recap) http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/negotiating-for-a-restaurant-reception I wouldn't worry at all about not being Italian -- we're using a Moroccan bistro and are decidedly not Moroccan. But we love the food, it's a cuisine that can be prepared well for larger groups and can accommodate vegetarians. Win win win!
Do it! We were going to do a restaurant reception but the place was too tight. They only were requiring us to spend $8000 on food and drink to get the entire place - which is what they would have brought in that night.
So instead we found another restaurant in the area who are actually catering the wedding at my fiance's parents house! What could be better than that! The prices stay restaurant prices vs caterer prices. Its insane what these venues charge nowadays and then you are forced to eat dogfood that costs 150-200/head. Ridiculous.
We are in the Santa Barbara area so prices there are simply astronomical. I was appalled when I first started doing my research and thought it was undoable on the budget we had. I'm happy I did the research though. DIG, DIG AND DIG SOME MORE. The gems are there.
My fiance and I chose to have our reception in a private room in a restaurant. Not only is there no site fee, all linens are included and they are giving us free reign to decorate as we wish (including having open flames, yay tea lights!). The restaurant is right on the water so our guests will have that benefit, plus the restaurant will be having live music around 10 (after our reception is done) so our guests will be able to have that perk, if they choose to.
I definitely feel like this is all pro's...the only con we have so far is that we are wondering about the noise from the other patrons. But so far, so good.
I thought about this and after we decided on a destination wedding we are basically still doing this. Our party will be under 50 people including the wedding party and I do just want an intimate and fun family dinner so to speak. I don't want it to feel like a regal and exclusive party or a function. We will only be having people that mean something to the both of us and just relaxing and eating and drinking and dancing and visiting. We aren't even having a DJ just hooking up our mp3 to the system at the restaurant (with premade playlists) so it doesn't feel rehearsed and directed. Still going for elegant and glamorous though-for fun!
I thought about this and after we decided on a destination wedding we are basically still doing this. Our party will be under 50 people including the wedding party and I do just want an intimate and fun family dinner so to speak. I don't want it to feel like a regal and exclusive party or a function. We will only be having people that mean something to the both of us and just relaxing and eating and drinking and dancing and visiting. We aren't even having a DJ just hooking up our mp3 to the system at the restaurant (with premade playlists) so it doesn't feel rehearsed and directed. Still going for elegant and glamorous though-for fun!
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Considering a banquet room at one of my fav, casual, been going there forever and never even thought about...Italian restaurant... Anyone gone this route? Pro's Con's? Too many choices! Thinking possible dinner and dancing a real family party, not a show....
Thoughts???