DInner and bar questions

[Stephie77]

I am just curious. Was anyone able to do a cocktail hour, appetizier, salad and entree for under $100.00? We are having our ceromony at noon and then planning the whitehall room for reception. we are also looking at the bar prices, if we are having a 3-4 hour reception for about 40-50 people, is it better to do the set price per person for the bar or a la carte? Did it cost a lot for the a la carte bar in that time frame? Thanks for any info!

 

[lpizzuro123]

We did not do the bar package but our ceremony and reception were early and we had brunch food.

Our ceremony was at 9:00am so our cocktail hour was from 10:00 to 11:00. We just had coffee, tea, juice and champagne punch. Our reception was from 11:00 to 3:00 and we did a pay per drink. We had 50 people at our wedding (3 were under 21). I think if we had a later reception we would have went with the package.

Linda

 

[lurkyloo]

I am just curious. Was anyone able to do a cocktail hour, appetizier, salad and entree for under $100.00?

Yes - especially for an afternoon reception. For one thing, you may be able to serve certain dishes from your reception menu during the cocktail hour so that you don't have to pay for a separate cocktail hour menu.

we are also looking at the bar prices, if we are having a 3-4 hour reception for about 40-50 people, is it better to do the set price per person for the bar or a la carte?

Unless the majority of your guests are heavy drinkers, you almost always do better going with a Bill On Consumption (a la carte) bar. People usually end up getting money back after the wedding!

 

[Stephie77]

Yes - especially for an afternoon reception. For one thing, you may be able to serve certain dishes from your reception menu during the cocktail hour so that you don't have to pay for a separate cocktail hour menu.




Unless the majority of your guests are heavy drinkers, you almost always do better going with a Bill On Consumption (a la carte) bar. People usually end up getting money back after the wedding!

Thanks Lurkyloo! we are looking to try to stay in the 15,000 range if possible and when we were doing the numbers last night it was 10,000 just for the reception. I did not know about serving certain dishes during the cocktail hour. I really don't want a buffet, but it looks like it might be the most for our money. I would rather a small cocktail hour, and the sit down meal.

I just downloaded you e-book and very excited to start reading it.

 

[Stephie77]

We did not do the bar package but our ceremony and reception were early and we had brunch food.

Our ceremony was at 9:00am so our cocktail hour was from 10:00 to 11:00. We just had coffee, tea, juice and champagne punch. Our reception was from 11:00 to 3:00 and we did a pay per drink. We had 50 people at our wedding (3 were under 21). I think if we had a later reception we would have went with the package.

Linda

Thanks Linda. We are looking at an afternoon lunch and want to have hard liquor since the bridal party are liquor people. I will see what is the best options are. Just want to start planning!!

 

[tommymomo]

I think that you should do what ever your future husband suggests. From what I know of him he is a hell of a guy

 

[Stephie77]

I think that you should do what ever your future husband suggests. From what I know of him he is a hell of a guy

oh he is? yeah i guess he is alright-ill keep him!

 

[tiggerrifficheidi]

We had a plated lunch at Narcoossee's (but it was GF Catering).

I did the tasting session and am SO glad. I thought we needed way more food than we did. I realized at the PS/TS that some things weren't worth the money (not enough bang for the buck).

We had:

Premium Cheese Display (during cocktail hour) for 9.50 a person
*this was perfect! the cheeses were really high quality and VERY good. It wasn't your average run-to-the-grocery-store type of cheese. One of the cheeses I had a couple days later at California Grill. It was a great value, IMHO!
Plated Dinner (salad, duo-plate with beef filet with blackberry demi and mahi-mahi with limoncello buerre blanc, mashed sweet potatoes and veggies, and the chocolate slipper with mousse)-$72 per person
Cake-$8.50 per person
Drinks BOC (it averaged about $13 pp)

So, we were at $104 per person (adult)...but that was before the service charge.

BUT...everyone said we had TOO MUCH FOOD. So, I would recommend not doing MORE than that.