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Hi, today I booked a K of C for our wedding reception.  Last minute.  We couldn't afford our fancy hall anymore and are canceling it.  Our wedding is in August, so it was amazing to find anything left on our day, at that time, and also near our church!!

This was a KofC, and also we came across American Legion nearby our church as well.  Their prices are significantly different from each other, but the quality is as well.

The K of C is 4,600 for 100 people, though kids and teens pay less, so actually for at least 7 guests it would be even less.  We'd have it for 4 hours.  It comes with cocktail hour/hor devors (I can't spell it!), open bar, dinner with 6 choices (out of the 36 from which we'd choose) on the menu, even desert (ice cream bar). The menu looks great!!! They do everything for us, they set up tables, chairs, decorating, linen, forks/knives, napkins, -- well it's basically what any hall would do. They even do a few things in our color scheme.  We have to buy our own cake if we want one or they provide one separate from the package for $3.00 a slice (so if we had 100 people it would be $300 -- though they recommended get only a cake for 75 people, since people tend not to eat it all anyway -- this might save us money.  We have to provide entertainment.  We want a DJ so they said if we wanted they typically recommend a DJ (who they said is 500 or 600 dollars and does weddings) all the time, whom they know well and DJ's events there.  Also: it was very pretty!  You wouldn't know you were at a k of C. They put up a traditional bride and groom seat and family/bridal party seating.  It looked like the old ballroom we originally booked, even though it was just a K of C! My fiance and I want to have an extra hour and we found out that was 500 dollars for the extra hour.

The other is an American Legion. It is only 1500 (for 100 people).  It comes with a bar, and tables and chairs, and tablecloths.  They set up.  That is all.  We have to do all the rest.  After they do some cleaning up we have to do our own cleaning up at the end.  I don't remember what their extra hour policy is. We spoke on the phone a couple of times and I got this info.  Afterwards I consulted with friends who'd been to K of C's.

Today, b/c we loved it and we had to get something fast, we picked the first one.  We never visited the second one.  We were so impressed with what we got from the K of C.  We put down a 500 deposit.  This is a Catholic not for profit agency, so the balance is due the week before the wedding and we can cancel anytime, and be refunded all of our money except the deposit. 

Obviously I LOVE the first one and would prefer it very much.

HOWEVER I'm on a very tight budget.. 

I'm hearing people, including the ones who've been to K of C's before, my family, and fiance saying to me I made the right choice to choose the first one.  they say it's not worth it to do the 1500 one, too much stress, we'd be decorating the day before (when we have the wedding rehearsal), that we would wind up spending the same amount of money anyway on catering and decorating and bringing in other things.  and we'd be the ones in charge directing things when usually the family are supposed to be guests and we want to enjoy ourselves, we don't know if our guests will want to help out with that. they feel we made a smart choice. 

What i'd like to know is: does it sound like they are right? would we have wound up spending the same amount of money? b/c we might be able to get our 500 back.

thanks...

I'd say you made the right choice. For what your getting at the Knights of Columbus place, your saving a lot of time, stress, and money that you would have to at the legion hall.

Good choice!