At Home Receptions?!?

[DIsNeYSweEtHrTs]

Hey everyone,
My fiance and I have decided that an Intimate wedding is for us. We are very excited, but we also realize that we need to have some sort of celebration back home for everyone who isn't coming to Florida.

For those who have done this, what kind of reception did you have, or are you having?? Is it going to be a full-out banquet reception, or something different? I'm trying to get some ideas for ours...(also - our budget is quite small, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated!)

 

[dznystar]

My DF and I are in the same boat. We're actually having a Custom at WDW in June. We don't really have much choice because our immediate family is larger than 18, since children are included in the count. We are on a very tight budget and will have to have a reception in Atlanta after the wedding. Luckily, my family will hopefully be helping out with a lot of it, and I will do the decorations myself. But I have no idea what kind of location to choose. At a house? or should we rent a space somewhere? Help please.

 

[redland1]

There is a site dedicated to elopement weddings. It's called letsrunoff. They have a section where they discuss celbration and reception ideas...

 

[Sparkles9306]

My DF and I are doing an Intimate and then we're doing a reception at home for everyone who wasn't able to attend. We're going to be doing a buffet banquet. We're also planning on wearing our formal wear. I've found that with just doing the basic Intimate we have some money left over to do a regular reception.

 

[Maggimus]

My DF and I are having an intimate wedding on Nov 14th and then an at home reception on Dec 2 to celebrate. (I live in Tennessee) We have booked a farm house that does receptions and whatnots (www.twincedarfarm.com) and we are having a small local restaurant chain (Buddy's Bar-B-Q) cater to it (at only 6.50 a person-- there are ways around big catering). We have bought small decorations like candle votives, favors, etc... but the barn is almost exactly what we wanted and is already decorated indoors. We are on a small budget due to the wedding as well...

Good luck!

 

[DIsNeYSweEtHrTs]

I love the barn and b-b-q idea. That would be sooo much fun! Wish we had something like that nearby!

 

[JandJ]

Before my mom passed we had planned a casual at-home reception in my parent's hometown. We canceled when mom became ill and was in the hospital for a long time.

We booked a gorgeous banquet hall with French doors on 3 sides and pillars and hardwood floors. Mom and I found a wonderful caterer who had just started her own business, so she was trying to build clientelle and gave us a great rate. The samples my mom and I taste-tested were better than those of the more established caterers we tried! See if there are any new caterers in your town, they are usually cheaper. We also got a local lady to make a traditional wedding cake. We were going to have passed trays and buffet hors devours and soda, water, beer and wine. I did not plan to wear my wedding gown, just a pretty dress and DH would have worn a nice shirt and slacks. We made a CD of our favorite songs and the banquet hall had a system with built-in speakers to play it on repeat. We bought little treasure boxes from Oriental Trading, and planned to put high-end tea in there with Bischoff cookies and chocolates with a note "Tea for Two from Us to You! Thank you for joining us in celebrating our marriage." Initially, DH and I wanted this to be small, no more than 40 people, but mom had the guest list up to 132 at the time we canceled. DH and I thought about doing a similar party for our one-year anniversary but daddy is now ill and I do not want to put myself through that stress!

 

[DIsNeYSweEtHrTs]

Oh my, I'm so sorry about your mother. It sounds like you both had planned a beautiful (and yummy!) reception. I was thinking of doing somthing similar to the reception you had planned, I just wasn't sure if I could do it without spending a fortune (after all - the main reason we switched to an Intimate was budget!)

My prayers are with you and your father...

 

[JandJ]

Oh my, I'm so sorry about your mother. It sounds like you both had planned a beautiful (and yummy!) reception. I was thinking of doing somthing similar to the reception you had planned, I just wasn't sure if I could do it without spending a fortune (after all - the main reason we switched to an Intimate was budget!)

My prayers are with you and your father...

Thank you, I didn't mean to get all "down" this morning . . . this is a happy topic


I am trying to remember how much everything was. The hall was gorgeous, not even my first choice, but really beautiful and close to my parent's house. It was $1,000 which was high but it was part of the country club. Our first choice was not available on that day, but it was a hall owned and operated by the county. It would only have been $100 and it was still very pretty. Check in your town for a place like that. Or if you belong to a church they may have a hall you can rent on a Saturday. DH wanted to keep it casual with open seating and simple decor. I got plastic tablecloths and paper plates, cups, napkins, and plastic utensils and cups in our wedding colors. That was super cheap on-line (just search "paper plates" and compare prices). For the tables I bought 8 glass vases at Michael's for about $3 each and got a deal on roses through a local florist, buying in bulk I could have gotten several dozen for not a lot of money and then just put them in the vases myself. It would have been simple but classic. I think the food is what people remember the most, so you can skimp on decor, favors, music, etc. but have good food - and plenty of it - and everyone will love it!

 

[allisonswonderland]

We are having a custom - b/c we have too many and are having an at home reception that is turning to cost as much as the stupid custom wedding UGH! We selected a golf club - b/c I live in a small town and all we have are KC Halls and Elks Clubs they all smell like smoke and were bulit I am not sure when but they are tacky - the point of that is that I selected the golf club because it is a functioning restaurant and it would require little or no decoration except centerpieces which I have been buying at Hobby Lobby since last year (they are ceramic Ivory Pumpkins w/ silver stems - I got them all at half off they are all different shapes and sizes) the problem is the buffet menu is only 4 bucks more than the appetizer menu where we get 5 appetizers and on the buffet menu I get all the appetizers, salad 2 entrees 3 veggies......so not that you care but that is what we are doing - can you tell that I am completely stressed about this???? AAHHH!!! It is one week after we get back from Disney--

 

[D&R love Disney]

We had a hall reception about 6 weeks after our intimate wedding. It was great. We did all the decorations ourselves (balloons and floating candles). I wore my dress, DH wore dressy clothes. We had a catered buffet and we also brought our Disney wedding pictures for everyone to see. It was a great time. We had about 100 people and the party lasted quite late! The food was the biggest expense and everyone raved about it so Dad got over the cost LOL!

 

[TinkerFairy]

We're doing the intimate wedding down in WDW and having a huge reception back home the week after we get back.

We paid a extra 20 dollars per male who was renting a tux, and After Hours is letting us keep them all a extra week so we can all dress up for the reception as well.

I was dead set on wearing my dress to the reception. Spending that much on it, I wanted a huge fairy tale party when we got home.

 

[jmmastra]

We are having a custom wedding on May 1 with 50 ppl and a reception at home on May 20th. We are using a local banquet hall and doing a daytime package which is $60 per person for 100 hundred people. At first I wanted to do a simple brunch with specialty drinks but that would have cost us more. This will be a sit down lunch with a four hour open bar. This package also includes all the linens, cocktail hour and champagne toast. So the price is very good. I found lanterns for center pieces and we are not having a DJ. Instead we are using an IPOD with all of our favorite music and my uncle will be our announcer. I am lucky because I have a friend who is a makeup artist who will do my make up and her husband is a photographer who will take the pictures for free
The women will wear their dresses again and the men will wear dark suits. As part of the groomsmen gifts we are buying them yellow ties to wear for this occasion.
I am making the cake...or actually cupcakes, so that will cut down on that cost. I really did not want an all out reception at home, but this was actually the most cost affective!

 

[JJClemson]

I am doing a custom w/ 70 guests in WDW on June 25, 2007 (could not get much smaller than that b/c 60 people are DF's and I's close family , so intimate was obviously not possible).

Then, on July 1, we are having a reception in my home town in NJ w/ about 80 guests. This will be the extended friends and family of my parents. We are having a cocktail garden party at this lovely manor, where we were originally going to have our only reception (before we decided Disney). It is beautiful and needs no decoration, and we are allowed to use indoor and outdoor facilities. It is $50 per person, but this is very good for a 3 hour open bar and passed hour dourves in the NJ area. We are just having background music, so we do not need to pay for that. I am not sure if I will have another wedding cake... hmmm... could be yummy I will walk in w/ my wedding gown on, but then change to a less formal sundress.

Then, a few months later, DF's parents are throwing us another "at-home" reception in SC. They have a lovely house on the lake and his mom is an amazing chef, so she is doing all the work herself! We are waiting for the Fall b/c we want the weather to cool down. This will be more of a relaxed bbq type party b/c we want people to use the lake, go boating, etc. It should be fun!

All of my "weddings" will be so different, but so much fun! HTH

 

[dznystar]

Has anyone had an at-home reception at their house? I'm trying to save as much money as possible, and after our Custom of approx 60 people, and another reception in Clermont, FL, I'm not sure I'll have much left for a reception in Atlanta. Ahhh! How frustrating.

 

[FormrCastMbr]

We are talking about having a backyard bbq or pigroast...catered of course...nothing is set in stone and may change a million times!