Reception in a restaurant?

I think it depends on how may people you are having a restaurant may not be equipped to serve an extremely large party. Or maybe you could find one willing to allow you to rent the entire facility. But wouldn't that mean no DJ, dancing, etc?

Not sure yet, I haven't looked that much into it. I was thinking either a restaurant that had an upstairs they could rent out or a smaller restaurant that may be willing to rent out the restaurant for the night. My wedding is going to be between 100-150 people. Also the one restaurant I have looked at so far has a band area set up and dancing room. The venue we were going to rent was 3,000 alone plus the additional cost for tables, chairs , etc.

I was researching this yesterday, looking at the restaurants on the coast. Some of them charge more than it would be to do it on your own anyway. Some of them have a reasonable deal and beautiful views, but can't accommodate enough people. Then there are the hotels, like Marriott and such, and they will put on the whole schebang for you. It really comes down to each individual place, hooray for Google! lol I did find one VERY useful site for venues, it gives you a lot of information that otherwise you would have to wait for am email back from the company, www.herecomestheguide.com if you're interested in a venue, run it through there first for the details.

I think if you find a restaurant that would accomodate a party of your size, and allow you to bring in music, go for it. However, it has been my experience in my area, that the restaurant can be just as pricy if not even more so.

We do but they are outrageous and most of them have minimums and restrictions with time and alcohol etc

I'm doing mine at a restaurant and to be honest I think it's probably the best idea for me and my fiance'. I only have 50 people I'm inviting so this makes total sense, and also it'll be more intimate and the whole reason of choosing a restaurant for us was to save money for our honeymoon. We did a lot of research and found an amazing deal and this restaurant is already gorgeous that there won't be much decorating needed. If you're gonna have that many people I'd say your'e better off getting a big venue then you're not limited on space and entertainment, most restaurants won't let you have a dj and all that great stuff.

Our wedding took place at a hotel and since the main restaurant was big enough, kinda. The reception was there. Awkward space but it was great. My point, if it's big enough... go for it.

We are having our "reception" at a restaurant. We only have our close family attending so its only about 12 people and we are having a sunset ceremony so we figured it would be the best fit for us. And they have private side rooms for larger parties.

It depends on the restaurant and size of your group. Some will make you buy out the space for the night and that can cost serious $$$. We are doing a restaurant reception and so did my brother but we each have small groups.

We rented out the function space in a large local pub called Whitlow's on Wilson. Because the space itself was rather bright and cheerful, we just had to add about $300 in decor (vases from Dollar Tree, wrapped in scrapbook paper, with a few bright Gerbera daisies in each vase).

Since it was a more casual venue that we dressed up ourselves, we were able to keep it quite affordable - $6700 for 91 people.

Every couple's wants and needs are different. If a restaurant suits that as well as your budget than I say 'go for it!'. Just like with every other venue there will be restaurants that won't work for you and restaurants that will. When we initially started our planniing we came across restaurants that were pricey, and some that were not. We also came across some where you could bring in a DJ and still have that 'party' type feel. It's really all about doing the research and then checking out each venue and lastly, getting it all in writing.

We're doing our reception at the restaurant where we got engaged (ceremony too, on their back terrace). They are set up to do events with a space separate from the main restaurant but I've seen restaurants that let you rent the whole place. It's saving us some $. You pay once and you get everything, food, alcohol, tables, chairs, linen, place settings, and you're sure to get really good food since restaurants are used to cooking in large quantities.

The main issue you will run into with utilizing a restaurant, is that in order to have it for a private event - you need to cover their displaced income. given that most weddings are on a saturday - you are talking about a restaurant's busiest night... they would have to shut down in the afternoon to allow for set up, and most restaurants turn their tables multiple times on a saturday night. so you may have to replace say 400 covers with your one group of guests...

that said, some restaurants have private event rooms in addition to their main dining area... in which case you may only be held to f&b minimums for part of their space and not replacing their entire income for the night. )

We seriously considered it but in the end we went with a hotel package that included everything we needed at the right price and we're having the ceremony there too. The main issues with a restaurant for our party was not having a ceremony space which we required. We were looking for a rather large guest list too of 175-200.

Call around to a few possible restaurants and they will be happy to give you the info you need. Majority of the places I talked to were fairly reasonable in price but like i said above, lacked the ceremony space we needed.

Wow so I just called one of the nicer restaurants on my list of options and they are not open sat and all I would have to do in order to rent out the entire place on a Sunday is have a 4,000 minimum! That sounds awesome! My venue was 3,000 alone and catering was going to cost 2,000+ at minimum. And the best part is the restaurant takes care of the servers, bartenders, drinks, dinner, set up and clean up and of course tables and linens. I have an apt sat, so excited!