Wedding Reception Ideas - WINNERS CHOSEN Post # 5, 3, 19, 12- SEE LAST POST

[rbunnymom]

My son is engaged and will be marrying in a year. I am trying to help them figure out where to hold the wedding reception. They don't want to break the bank and so far all the places they have contacted are $5000-$10,000(including food). Surely there is something much cheaper. Do you know of any places other than the standard halls to have a reception? Also, any ideas on food and decorations?


Thanks for any and all input. I will choose 3 random posts to receive a RAOK on Sunday, April 3 at 9pm cst. You may post more than once but can only win one RAOK.

[CW&M Mom]

I am copy/pasting from my other post

Do you know someone who has a huge nice big yard?

thinking...

some of the places my family has used.....

Peace Gardens
rented a cabin/lodge in the mountains
used a family members back yard that was huge and beautiful
A beautiful greenhouse/shop
hotel conference rooms

we even had one a a sports arena (okay that one was probably $$$$ except there daddy owned the arena LOL!)

[mrsthrifty]

My SIL is getting married at the end of this month in an orchard... They got a great deal for that and are having reception outdoors...Last year my BIL had his reception at a beautiful little farm with a gorgeous pond (no animals!) and they got married on a Sunday and it was a bit cheaper because of that...Both of these places were in the $1500 - $3000 range. Best wishes to them and you!!

[cpaige]

Friday and Sunday weddings will always run you less money. Is anyone a member of The Elks, VFW, etc? Try there. My sister had her wedding on my parents deck, and the reception at a restaurant in a beautiful room over looking the water. Trust me, while it seemed to have cost a fortune, it really was a great price!! Good luck!

[nlowndes]

We had our reception at a coffee shop, maybe not big enough for yours. It was really nice! The coffee shop was decorated in red and white, which happened to be the colors of my wedding. We bought little bud vases from the dollar store and put 1 red and 1 white gerbera daisy in them with a ribbon on it and used those for decorations.

[Chrysalis101]

We had a cake and punch reception in the basement of the church we got married in.my parents were members so it was all free.

My best friend got married at a church that had an indoor basketball court. We use half the court for her reception, but there was no dancing and it was also a cake and punch reception. Again it was free because the groom's grandpa was a member.

Another friend got married and had the reception in a hall, but they got married on a Thursday so it was $3,000 including dinner and DJ.

HTH,

[Mama Stu]

We just had a reception for my DD. They rented a lodge type hall on the river. It was very nice, with a kitchen, bathrooms, large hall. Right next to it was a bridge over a local river here. It cost them $300 and they had it for 3 days. A day to set up, the day of the reception, and the next day to clean up. Then they got back $100.


I did the food. It wasn't anything elaborate, but it was nice and cost them very little.

Have you tried doing a google search for places in your area? Good luck. If you are on facebook, ask there too.

[sdasilva27]

Lots of state and recreation departments have places that you can rent pretty cheaply. VFW, country clubs, and hotels are also great choices but it depends on what their budget actually is. I'm doing mine in 6 mos at a hotel and for 60 people, it should run me about $8k including everything, ceremony, reception hall, food, decorations, cake, dress, tux, everything. I'm sure we could've gotten off cheaper but I don't want to be stressed out so I'm paying more for that.

[jenrose]

This is what I did:

Rented the banquet room at a Hotel. You can usually find them pretty cheap. The one I used was a King Oscar Hotel and they gave me a free room for the night for DH and I to stay there on our wedding night. I did our Wedding & Reception in the same room. We had the guests already at their tables during the ceremony.

The tables and table linens were provided. I did the food myself. I went to Costco and got big bags of snack foods, a friends neighbor is a caterer and they had a bunch of meatballs that they didn't need so we did those. MIL & her best friend (who owns a subway shop) provided platters of subway sandwiches etc. I got a keg a beer and borrowed a friends kegerator. Bought a few cases of different wines (from a wine rep I know so I could get it cheap), got sparkling cider from Costco.

I got a prelit garden arch and decorated it with silk flowers for the ceremony.

As for table decor. My mom had a bunch of mirror squares she got for a project but hadn't used them yet. So I got some fabric that matched our wedding colors and cut it into squares. I put that in the center of the table with the mirror on top of it the opposite way so the points of cloth were stuck out under the sides of the mirror. Then got some cheap glasses in 3 different heights from Ikea. In one I put a floating candle, In another was some shiney stringy stuff in our wedding colors and in the other one was something else that I can't remember right now (maybe more fabric) LOL. And then I had our little goodie boxes around there as well.

Threw some confettie over the tables and it was good. Oh I also had some disposable cameras on the tables for the guest to take pictures with.

On the walls we used tool (sp?) around the room. I got a cardboard wishing well for the sign in table to put any cards in.

OK, Now I think I'm just rambling. LOL. I'm a very casual type person so this fit us well and for my entire wedding I spent less than $5,000. I think it may have actually been less than $3,000.

[libertybelle]

Now even though it may not be too fancy:
Check out your local VFW or American Legion. Many have halls or pavilions to rent and some will cook your dinner for a price.
Decorations I have found some great diys at the dollar trees or some of the other dollar stores. Candles in glass bowls, mirrors with candles. There are so many things out there. Also for flowers, check into a vocational technical school, I used to go to one and our floriculture program did live and artificial flowers for a low cost.
I will tell you my plans. My SO wants to have an outdoor wedding. So I have plans to rent the pavilion at our American Legion. We are doing the food though, pot luck. I think we are going to do a pig and everyone can bring the fixings. I want to have cupcakes, instead of the huge cake. I plan to have my friend do a cake that we can cut. I have some assorted glass vases and jars that I am going to put daisys in. These my mom picked up from a garage sale. We are such a layed back country family that this fits for us.