Atlantic Dance Hall-ways to cut costs on food?

[eacosta1120]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. We basically decided on the ADH. We got the menus from Disney and they are higher than we had anticipated. We really want to have a dinner reception and also want to include an open bar...which leaves us very little left for the real food. We want to stay as low as possible with food costs for the reception and cocktail hour. Any suggestions on cutting costs and such? Right now, we priced all Disney and non-Disney services for a 75 person wedding and the cost is $24,000-26,000 depending on the food cost. We'd like to get this cost as close to $20,000 as possible which is the high end of our budget.

[scottish/canadian]

We had 75-ish at ADH and it was perfect. We had a head table, cake table and four rounds on the dance floor and used the rest of the tables that lined the dance floor. We didn't need any of the tables tucked in the corner so everyone felt like they were a part. The buffet took up most of the one corner and we had a photobooth so it filled the other side. It was perfect. The upper balcony was great for our prereception too and it makes for a great entry down the big staircase (although some nervous bridesmaids in super high heels!)

We also didn't need any extra decorations. Loved it!

[tiggersam00]

ADH all the way!!! I just got back from seeing it this week for our wedding and it is amazing!!! Soooooo clean, soo pretty an such a unique venue! I was absolutly in love with ADH (so was DF btw). And it has an awesome disco ball lol!

[Janell]

Our photos(by Randy) at Living Seas came out great. It is darker in there, but I would not let that stop me from going to Living Seas. What would stop me from choosing LS now, is the whole photographer thing. So I would go for ADH now.

[caryndisneydiva]

Our photos(by Randy) at Living Seas came out great. It is darker in there, but I would not let that stop me from going to Living Seas. What would stop me from choosing LS now, is the whole photographer thing. So I would go for ADH now.

i was just about to say the same thing. our pictures from randy came out great in LSS, but now that they've changed that policy, i'd probably choose a resort location.

[lpizzuro123]

I am trying to decide between the Living Seas and Dance Hall for our reception. We'll have 75ish people and I'm afraid the ADH may be too big, but that the Living Seas doesn't allow for good pictures. Suggestions? Comments? HELP!

We had 50 people at our Disney wedding and our reception was at ADH. We had our sweetheart table and 5 tables of 10 on the dance floor and the size was perfect. Our prereception was upstairs and our reception was downstairs. There is a deck upstairs and on the main floor and you can go outside and get some great views of The Boardwalk and Beach and Yacht Club. We loved the open feeling of the ADH. I have posted some of these photos before but I will post some now. I have tons - let me know if you would like to see more.

Checking out our cake when we first arrived. You can see the upstairs in this photo where the prereception was.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/3cc1a02b.jpg

Everyone on the dance floor with Mickey and Minnie.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/8ebca5fe.jpg

View of the dance floor from upstairs - you can see part of the buffet set up in the far lower right of this photo.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/cf1f32a2.jpg

Dancing on the dance floor.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/35bfa95d.jpg

Our centerpieces.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/8c7ee9af.jpg

Our guest tables.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/MistyBefore-Formal-Bonus479.jpg

Everyone having fun.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/MistyBefore-Formal-Bonus564.jpg

Balloon Bouquets we had placed around the dance floor.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/90036.jpg

More dancing - we did alot of that.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/MistyReception2of2077.jpg

Part of our brunch buffet.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/1009c193.jpg

On the deck with the guys.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/5f51012b.jpg

In the lobby with Mickey, Minnie and the bridal party.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/602b2f4a.jpg

In front of the ADH before the reception.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q136/lpizzuro123/2a8b303e.jpg

Ok - enough of that.

Another great thing about ADH is you can get some great photos of The Boardwalk.

We were just down in Disney this past weekend and went to ADH with Sam (tiggersam00) and her DH (Dave). They are having their reception at ADH also and they both loved the place.

Let me know if you would like any more info.

Linda

[Pirate's Princess]

Ok I feel like a lost in the dark newb. What do you guys mean about the pictures at the Living Seas Salon. Are you not allowed to have an outside photographer there? Or is it just dark? Or what? I'm super confused.

[Janell]

Ok I feel like a lost in the dark newb. What do you guys mean about the pictures at the Living Seas Salon. Are you not allowed to have an outside photographer there? Or is it just dark? Or what? I'm super confused.

Yes, your not allowed to have an outside photographer at any park locations.

LS is a darker location, but the photos came out beautifully.

[tiggersam00]

Linda and her DH and myslef and DF went this week and loved it! Her pics of ADH really helped me decide, also Tracy's pics (Twiu). I will post my (kinda crummy quality) pics from this week when I get home for you to see. I love all the cocktail tables around the dance floor for mingling, and the bars areas and restrooms were spotless... also, on a funny note we saw a "regular" ADH nightime guest having a ball on our visit:lmao: he was doing knee slides across the dance floor and everything, I only wish I had thought to take a pic of that!!:rotfl2:

[honey2741]

If you have less than 50 people, will DFTW allow you to still use Atlantic Dance Hall for your reception? Thanks.

[tiggersam00]

If you have less than 50 people, will DFTW allow you to still use Atlantic Dance Hall for your reception? Thanks.

I believe so, you just have to meet the minimums:thumbsup2. I love ADH!

[Pirate's Princess]

But what if you invite the photographer as a guest? Would they be allowed in? Thanks

[lpizzuro123]

I really doubt it. If you use an outside photographer that has worked at Disney before I am sure they would recognize them. Also, Misty and her husband were all over the place taking photos - they were definately professionals. Setting up shots and such. They were able to get in backstage to take those wonderful prewedding photos. We had alot of people taking photos at our wedding but you could definately tell who the professional was.

Linda

[Janell]

I am not sure you will find a photographer that is known by Disney to go to an in the park wedding as a guest. Due to this is how they make their money and wouldn't want to upset Disney and then Disney not allowing them to shoot Disney weddings. I am sure if the photographer really was friends with the bride and groom that could be different.

I agree, you can tell the difference between the professional shots and family and friends shots.

If I were to plan a wedding this year under the new rules. I would ask myself is the location more important or is the photographer?

For me I would have choose photographer over location. Because you can have a beautiful location and have bad photos. Or you can have a very good location and beautiful photos. Looking at our photos, the ones at LS were nice, but I love our Boardwalk photos. Which we went to because we were staying there after the reception and Randy joined us for more photos. I would suggest you have some time just you and your groom, to take photos at the boardwalk if you do ADH. It will be fun with the guest, but more fun just you two.

[Pirate's Princess]

Thank you! You all have been so helpful! I really wanted LSS...we'll see.

[DisneyBrideToni]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. We basically decided on the ADH. We got the menus from Disney and they are higher than we had anticipated. We really want to have a dinner reception and also want to include an open bar...which leaves us very little left for the real food. We want to stay as low as possible with food costs for the reception and cocktail hour. Any suggestions on cutting costs and such? Right now, we priced all Disney and non-Disney services for a 75 person wedding and the cost is $24,000-26,000 depending on the food cost. We'd like to get this cost as close to $20,000 as possible which is the high end of our budget.

You dont necessarily have to stick with the menus they provide. You can mix and match or take things off so your cost per person can go down than what the menu states. All you have to do is make sure you meet the minimum food and beverage total for your location.

[monana]

we had a brunch reception at ADH, we just picked a whole bunch of food that we wanted and then went from there. If you don't have a station where there's a CM manning the station you can cut cost there. But we really wanted teh omelet station. But in all we had 42 adults and 6 children.

Our pre-reception we had coffee, fruit punch, and assortment of freshly baked breakfast pastries, like croissants, muffins, and cinnamon buns
Here’s our buffet menu:
Island fruit salad- fresh fruits toasted coconut with banana dipping cream and mango-papaya dipping cream
Made to order Mickey Mouse waffles with a choice of warm blueberry, strawberry and banana foster toppings
Hickory smoked bacon
Caesar salad with crisp romaine, creamy Caesar dressing, shaved parmesan and toasty herb triangles
Hawaiian Macaroni Salad
Spring rolls, we had different choices shrimp, vegetable, or chicken along with sweet chile or ginger soy dipping
Parmesan crusted breast of chicken laced with mushroom cream and asiago cheese infused mashed potatoes
We had coffee, tea, water, and the fruit punch.
However we did have a cash bar for alcoholic beverages, as well as bill on consumption for soda.

The total for the meal was $50/adult and $25/child. The children had the same food we did, so no special menu changes.

[tinkerbela]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. We basically decided on the ADH. We got the menus from Disney and they are higher than we had anticipated. We really want to have a dinner reception and also want to include an open bar...which leaves us very little left for the real food. We want to stay as low as possible with food costs for the reception and cocktail hour. Any suggestions on cutting costs and such? Right now, we priced all Disney and non-Disney services for a 75 person wedding and the cost is $24,000-26,000 depending on the food cost. We'd like to get this cost as close to $20,000 as possible which is the high end of our budget.

I can help you with this. My DH and I had our reception at ADH and had a big list of Boardwalk menus to choose from. We chose the one that cost us, at the time $70 a person. We had about 30 people grand total coming to our wedding, which by the way is no problem for hosting your reception at the ADH as long as you meet the night minimums. There was so much food on the menu that we knew not only us would not touch but our guests as well. So, I called our EP and asked if we could take some of the food off the menu. She said, "Yes". Then I asked if the price would change once the food was taken off. She said, "Yes". I took a lot of the appetizers, some entrees, and desserts off the menu. The price went from $70 to $45 a person!! A big difference and money saver. I took a lot of the desserts off the menu because I wanted everyone to eat the cake. One of the desserts on the menu was cake! There was just a lot of food on the menu that I didn't want to see go to waste because I knew we all wouldn't eat any of it.
I hope I was very helpful to you in planning your DW at ADH. Congratulations and best of luck to you!!

[eacosta1120]

thank you all so much. i appreciate the help so much. i'm hoping to be able to cut the food cost a bit and do the open bar and stay as close to the $125/person minimum as possible. thanks so much! keep the suggestions and specific menu options coming!

[Malibelle]

We had our reception at the ADH for 100 people. The cost of the food was quite reasonable at the time. This was 2 years ago.

We had a cocktail hour that included:
Antipasto tray
cruidte tray
fruit tray
2 hot horderves

Dinner included:

Carving station with Beef Tenderloin
Pasta station included Penne Vodka and garliv/veggie pasta
Buffet include:
Chicken marsala
Mahi Mahi
roasted potatoes
asparagus
tom/moz salad
Toss salad

The cost per person was around $68. That is very reasonable compated to the area I live for food.

We did open bar but paid the bill on consumption which was the way to go because we ended up getting money back because people didn't as many drinks like we estimated.

We used teh tables in the hall and place 2 large round tables on each side of the dance floor. It worked out perfect.