pre-ceremony hospitality set-up?

[DixieBelle]

Morning ceremony drama...episode 4.
Please may I have your honest opinions.

Our ceremony is scheduled to be in Epcot, starting at 9am. Since we are being so rude as to require our guests be out and about so Very early, MIL thinks we need to set up a hospitality room for coffee, juice, pastries, etc. so that our guests will not absolutely drop dead of hunger before the pre-reception starts at 11 am or so.

I do see some of her point, so I checked catering menus at two of the hotels most people will be at. OMG! Yet another $23 or so per person before service charge/tax, etc, adult and child! for a very basic continental menu. And, we, of course, must provide transportation from the other hotels to the hospitality place! So another $100 or so for another hour of bus charter.

DH wants to rent a suite for the night, let his parents be host, and make a publix run the day before. Suite rental, one night, around $1750. Food, plates, cups, decor, etc about $600. Also not sure the hotel would appreciate all the traffic in the guest areas.
We could almost order everyone a pot of coffee, a carafe of juice and a few pastries from room service to each room for what this would end up costing! with tip!

I feel like I am missing something, a reasonable solution. I am already convinced that we have too much food on the brunch menu, so maybe cut that back a little and do the catered thing? $2300-$2400 is a lot of money, but what bothers me to no end is the probable waste. Pre-ceremony, pre-reception, brunch. It is a lot of food, a lot of money. I don't know what to do.

Suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[sambycat]

i think a morning suite or other opinion is lovely and very generous but not necessary. IMHO, people are able to figure out to grab a snack or cup of coffee if they need it before (i would!). if i were at home, i would not expect to be fed pre and post wedding, and it isn’t like food isn’t until 4pm or something and you expect folks to do your bidding all morning.

that said, it certainly would be very nice and generous (but also how would everyone get to this place?). we split our brunch menu slightly so that there were danish and coffee available when people arrived for the “pre-reception”. this was all at the whitehall room/patio. the only tidbit i would throw out to future brides is that things changed and they set up our food and everything (which was lovely) on the patio and i was expecting it to be in another ballroom - thats what i was told. so for a brief time, there was a bae set up but not available to our guests because we wanted mimosas etc.. served once we arrived, trying to watch our bar costs! in retrospect, had we known they were going to set things up how they did (it was lovely!) we would have just said forget about it and had the bar open - we felt horrible at the thought people might have been told the bar wasn’t open yet!!

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Can you warn them ahead of time to grab a granola bar or something?

 

[steph0188]

I think if you tell people, or on the itinerary (or whatever) you actually say pre-reception food at 11am, then they should be able to realise if they want/need to eat before the wedding then they will do.
It's very true if you were getting married at home you wouldn't get food before the ceremony. x

 

[sambycat]

Oh good points from PPs I meant up include- we did outline the menu and times on our "welcome" sheet info If MIL I'd super Fing Jo, what about a welcome bag favor for the day of including a water bottle and granola bar or something? We don't want people passing out at Epcot!ofcourse, You want people hungry for the big spread that awaits them!

 

[lurkyloo]

Oooh! I like the food-in-the-welcome-bag idea! Or even on the bus! Somebody could be sitting in the first row with a bag of waters and a basket of granola bars (somebody very, very kind and generous with their time).

Another con to the hospitality suite idea is that then people have to get up even EARLIER to get to the suite, then get to the wedding. If I were a guest, I'd stick a snack in my mini fridge the night before and sleep in.

If they absolutely have to have a suite, I suggest renting DVC points and getting a 1- or 2-bedroom villa instead. It'll be cheaper.

 

[BethieTink]

We have a 9am ceremony in Epcot as well, and this thought hadn't even entered my mind. I figure that our guests are functioning humans and get up early every morning to go to work and know if they need to eat or get coffee or whatever. If they have kids, they know if and what their kids need to eat, so they can take care of that too. The only person I am worried about getting something to eat is me, since I am the one who has to be up at about 4:30. Maybe DH too, but he is a diabetic and he knows when he needs to eat.

I say save the money and aggravation, the food courts are open for everyone fairly early, so your guests (and mine) will be fine.

 

[lpizzuro123]

We also had a 9:00am ceremony in Epcot also. Disney provided a water station for our guests at the ceremony location. We had a private bus for our guests that brought them to the ceremony. Having someone passing out bottles of water and maybe granola bars is a great idea.

Our ceremony was over by 9:30 and the bus brought everyone over to ADH and by 10:00am everyone was have pre-reception food and coffee. We also split our brunch menu and had the pastries and muffins for this. We did get additional coffee and tea service. The coffee and tea that came with our brunch we used for later in the day with our cake. We ordered extra to have during our pre-reception. We also had champagne punch and soda and water during our pre-reception and then a full bar during our brunch reception.

I really do not think getting a separate room with pre pre-reception food is necessary. Where is your ceremony and what will your guests be doing between the end of your ceremony and your 11:00 pre-reception?

Linda