Reception at home after your DFTW

[DisneyDudet]

Since I'm having an escape wedding and can only invite close family (I am the only person paying for this wedding), my parents (and fiancé) wanted a reception back home for more family and friends that we couldn't invite to the one at WDW.

I have now figured out why I chose Disney (besides it being the OBVIOUS venue for me). All we are planning is a reception and its becoming a nightmare! Due to financial and job situations for my parents, we do not have quite the budget for a reception that we all has hoped for. We have been looking for venues that are inexpensive, don't require us to use catering (we want to have a simple sundae bar and cake), and look pretty. Apparently that is impossible. I can't ask my parents to sacrifice money they don't have in order to have the reception I picture having. So, I'm going to have to sacrifice what I so they can have the reception. At this point, I'm getting too frustrated and don't even want one anymore!

Does anyone have any advice on planning a reception in addition to your Disney wedding?

 

[Sweet Melissa]

I have no practical advice. I can only commiserate.

We're sort of planning home receptions. Or rather, avoiding planning them. His family lives in the northeast, mine in California. We live in a flyover state in the middle. Our guest list isn't capped by DFTW as we're having a Swan wedding, but we're keeping a tight rein on it because even just inviting the extended family with whom we're really close would get out of control. The idea is that we have a party in each of our home states to celebrate some time after the wedding.

I don't want to plan extra events. I don't want to do extra traveling on top of our two-week wedding/honeymoon vacation. I'm thinking about just telling our parents that the home receptions are to be no more complicated than back yard barbecues where we just celebrate that we're married. No gifts, no special outfits, no outside vendors or special rituals. Planning our tiny, 20-person Swan wedding is enough hassle for me.

 

[MrsDuck]

Do you have a big back yard or could you hold the event at a local park? Cheap fee (if any) and lots of freedom. You could do a BBQ and have a dessert buffet for pretty inexpensive.

 

[wiigirl]

Do you have a big back yard or could you hold the event at a local park? Cheap fee (if any) and lots of freedom. You could do a BBQ and have a dessert buffet for pretty inexpensive.

Thats what we did...big party for everyone....small wedding just for us.

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

We are having an at-home reception that has frankly grown into an even bigger reception than our Disney one. Your description is basically exactly what we wanted to have, except the future in laws insisted we have a formal sit down dinner.

I don't know if you've exhausted your venue search yet, but when we were looking (we had the same criteria too: not too expensive, outside catering allowed and attractive) we found that it was the more atypical venues that tended to fit the bill. I looked through countless "banquet halls" but finding one that either did outside catering or had a specific traditional menu option (another essential laid down by the in-laws) AND was aesthetically appealing was IMPOSSIBLE. But after more and more searching we did find a couple places that could allow the outside catering. These included historical houses, the national ballet school, the science center, the museum... Some of those were obviously cost-prohibitive, but the place we finally went with we rented is in a historic building owned by the City. They have no catering team or anything, so we are in a gorgeous building with no mandatory vendor requirements. It took me basically six months of internet searching plus a few in-person meetings to pick the venue, but I'm very happy with the choice so the work was worth it.

Aside from that I would say recycle as many ideas as you can from your Disney wedding as possible. It is a huge headache to plan two different themes with different decor or, well, mostly decor.

That's about all the advice I can think of at the moment, but if I think of anything else...

 

[lurkyloo]

Yeah, I was totally uninterested in planning anything after the wedding, so we just had a casual open house at the inlaws' place. It was potluck; we picked a 6-hour block and just told people to show up whenever. We played our wedding video and passed around photo books of our wedding that we gave to the grandmas at the end of the night. Oh, and I made a lopsided replica of my parents' homemade wedding cake! I did a recap that'll give you an idea of how casual it was.

It was so relaxed that it was actually fun!

 

[Jdizzle7785]

A lot of my friends have had receptions at home after their destination weddings. One major thing is when touring venues do not tell them you are getting married. Tell them it is an anniversary party (its the truth even if it is a 1 mo anniversary) Most venues will charge you for a banquet instead of doubling the price for a wedding. Hope that helps!