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Beginner April 2018

Bar Hopping verses a wedding reception

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Bride To Be Mrs.Vafias, on March 23, 2018 at 1:47 AM

Hi. My fiancee and I are getting married on April 13, 2018. It's on a Friday afternoon. We have decided to spend 80% of our budget on a beach house, for our wedding party, family & friends. It's not a large wedding & it sleeps up to 20 people (2-story..7 br, 4 ba, 2 sets of washer & dryers on each floor, 2 kitchens, 3 balconies, & it's 70 ft from the beach. Therefore, no one can be late bc all they have to O is walk outside where the ceremony will be already set up & ready. My fiancee & I rented a condo 4mins (walking distance on beach from each other). We have a cake being made down there, & will do toasting and cake cutting.

So, instead of having a formal reception & spending that money it was brought to my attention that many couples bar hop for their reception instead bc it's all so close 2gether. I have been to weddings where they preformed the money dance & was a lot of fun.

So, my question is, if we visit several bars along the beach (I want to wear my wedding dress longer than the short ceremony, so will go as is), has anyone heard of that. Not to be greedy for money bc we have stuck to a budget & have reserved for other activities, bc we have these 2 properties from Thursday thru Sunday. I'm sure we are going to have to do sum research exactly which ones bc there are so many, & just talk 2 the manager/DJ or who ever would approve it. We're not planning on dancing our legs off for hours, but to spend a little time here & there. Would live to have some feedback, other ideas, or maybe even a heck yeah... let me know how it goes.. lol. Looking forward to hearing from anyone's thoughts. Thanks in advance! 🤗

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53 Comments

Master July 2018
BoudreauToBe · on March 23, 2018 at 10:59 AM
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"Oh heavens, no we won't be paying"? or "Oh heavens, no we woudn't think of charging our guests to eat our our wedding"?
Those are two very different statements.
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Devoted January 2016
COWS · on March 23, 2018 at 11:04 AM
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Ok so, I really think you should rethink your strategy on your wedding celebration. I think the ceremony on the beach sounds lovely, but you need to feed your guests and pick up the tab. It's wonderful you paid for their vacation rental on the beach, but you still need to host them properly. You don't need to buy the food for the WHOLE weekend, but you need to at least host the wedding celebration. You have some options, you can hire a catering company ( $$$ ), you can hire catering to drop off food and set it up for proper serving ( $$ ) or you can look into hiring a chef and a couple sous chefs (or servers) to cook food that you buy and store in the homes massive refrigerators ( $-$$ ). You can also buy Beer and Wine to store at the beach house for the wedding night (label with "do not open until Saturday wedding!! yay!" or something like that) which will save you literally hundreds of dollars.
Then when you're done with dinner and cake you can bar-hop as an "after party" with those that want to join you. If the bar hopping is an "after party" activity there's less responsibility on you to pick up the tab at each bar, but if you bar-hop as part of the celebration you MUST pick up the bar tab at each spot ( $$$$ ) since that includes both drinks and most likely food that people will order because they haven't had dinner yet.
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Master September 2018
FutureMrs.L · on March 23, 2018 at 11:09 AM
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Another thing to think about, have you cleared all this with the beach house owners/management property? How can a 7 bedroom house hold 20?? The math just isn’t there unless you’re making people sleep on the floor, in hallways... I couldn’t imagine having 20 people in a 7 bedroom house, at most it shouldn’t hold 14-16 (16 if there’s a sleeper sofa).

Theres a reason theres a max occupancy for places. This just sounds extremely uncomfortable, crowded and just disorganized.

Another thought, you don’t have to do as the wedding planner says. I don’t know where in Florida you’re getting married, but most planners in my general area would never suggest bar hopping or making guests pay for themselves.
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Expert April 2018
MrsBanks · on March 23, 2018 at 11:14 AM
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Depends on your guests. Do you think they'd be down for something like this? My cousin bar hopped for her reception but it was the right crowd of people for it. It did turn out really great. I think its a cute idea
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Champion August 2017
Mrsbdg · on March 23, 2018 at 11:19 AM
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Oh, heavens no, if you host a party you pay for the food and drink for the guests. It's literally the most basic part of hosting.

Why not reach out to a bunch fun restaurants with good bars to see if they have a back room you can reserve? This way the food and drink can be paid for by you and your FS and it'll be all in one place so no need to pick up multiple tabs.
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Expert July 2018
Melissa · on March 23, 2018 at 11:22 AM
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I totally get it and definitely wasn't trying to be negative about your choice. I was just thinking if everyone coming was staying at the beach house and there is plenty of space to prepare a meal then there shouldn't be such a huge issue with them starving afterwards. Even if you just cater some finger foods and sandwiches for them before the wedding starts so they should fed and ready to go after the wedding!
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Expert June 2018
lindseybee89 · on March 23, 2018 at 7:57 PM
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You said you hired a dj? where is this dj going to preform?
I have so many questions, like how 20 people are staying in 7 bedroom house and why you decided to conveniently not stay with the rest of the guests since everyone is so close.
Honestly, find a restaurant with a function hall, bring the dj,cater some food and cake, pay the guests tabs. let guests have dinner and do that dinner dance that you said you are "culturally obliged" to do, have guests go home and change and invite guests out on the town if they choose to.
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Beginner April 2018
Bride To Be Mrs.Vafias · on March 26, 2018 at 2:08 PM
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The max according to the owners is 19. And, as we know even tho 25 we're invited, I've had 5 decline, and 7 undecided. Therefore, I'm expecting to probably actually have 10-12 show, espically due to the travel.
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VIP November 2018
ISaidHallYes · on March 26, 2018 at 2:15 PM
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That is not necessarily true about the size of the house. You can have more than one bed in a room which in turn would sleep more people.

I do have to agree with most of the other posters and make sure you properly feed them. I think it sounds like a great idea and could be a ton of fun. Can you have something catered to your house you rented and have everyone share a more casual meal there and then go bar hopping.
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Beginner April 2018
Bride To Be Mrs.Vafias · on March 26, 2018 at 2:24 PM
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That was my thoughts exactly. I would never crowd my guests, but it sleeps 19 "comfortably" but are sleeper sofa's etc. So, thank you for your understanding.

I think I will either do dishes/finger food myself, & get food delivered by a cator, just not then serving. And, wine. TY kindly for your POSITIVE feedback. 🤗
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March 2019
Dallas · on March 20, 2019 at 4:34 PM
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What did you end up doing ?
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