How
To Choose a Wedding Reception Location
- by KissMeGoodnight.com
With a wedding size, budget, and date determined,
and with a vision of the type of wedding ceremony and reception
pretty much formulated in your mind, you're ready to begin
shopping for all the related goods and services. We recommend
tackling the reception next, because securing the site for
the date you want is so important, especially if your ceremony
is to be performed there.
Depending on what is available in your area, your
reception possibilities are: a hotel or catering establishment, a club
or restaurant, a community center or meeting hall attached
to a church or synagogue, a private home, or an unusual setting,
such as a park, boat, or historic site. Each type of location
offers a particular ambience and distinct advantages and disadvantages,
as you will discover when you visit each of them.
Most
couples find shopping for their reception fun because
they often are treated to dinner, or at least invited to sample
the menu items. They can also arrange to visit clubs to hear
musicians play or receive video tapes of reception locations
and parties that were held there. Along the way, you're sure
to learn a lot about the hospitality industry, and to refine
your tastes and define your style. Maybe, with a bit of luck,
you'll even meet a banquet manager with whom you have an instant
rapport and in whom you can place your total confidence.
On-site
locations: Reception sites fall into two basic categories:
on-site and off-site. On-site means that the place can provide
most, or all, of the reception services you'll need: food,
beverage, staff, tables, linens, china, maybe even the flowers,
the music, and the cake. On-site locations include hotels,
restaurants, clubs, and catering halls; some church and community
centers, historic settings, and more unusual places may have
on-site capabilities as well, or will at least have caterers
and suppliers to recommend based on a history of successful
performance.
Obviously,
the convenience of one-stop shopping is what makes on-site
locations so popular with wedding couples, particularly
those planning very large affairs.
Catering
directors or program coordinators at these places are experienced
party professionals.
They will not only work
with you to coordinate all the major elements of your reception,
many will even coordinate related details with all other
outside suppliers, like musicians, florists, photographers,
and limousine
drivers. Because they orchestrate special events all the time, they
know how to keep things running smoothly and efficiently, and
how to remember everything you might be likely to forget, especially
on your wedding day. The flip side to the convenience of one-stop
shopping is that, by booking an on-site location, you are also
booking the services offered there. You may not be allowed
to bring in your own wedding cake or florist. You may be forced
to choose from several preset wedding packages, and your wedding
might not be the only affair in progress at the time. In the
end, only you can decide whether the services and conveniences
offered meet your needs.
Off-site
locations: Off-site locations are
those that offer no services on the premises. You have the
space (a private
home) or you pay a rental fee for it (a loft or historic site),
and you have to bring in everything yourself. Although some
independent caterers may be able to provide much of what you
need in addition to the food and beverage, others cannot. You'll
find that the term "caterer" can mean anything from
someone who prepares only specialty food items to a full-service
company that comes complete with tents and air conditioners. The good news about an off-site location is that you can have
it all your way. You will choose and coordinate all the details,
and you will be virtually guaranteed of a wedding that is quite
unlike anyone else's. In situations like this, having a wedding
consultant to guide you would be a big help. Click
here for the ultimate wedding planning guide.
It answers over 250 of your top questions, 150 cost saving tips and
everything you could possible stress over is resolved. Simple
website, but very popular. It's my KissMeGoodnight recommendation.
Are
you planning a wedding on a very tight budget? I've got a
solution for you. Click here. It's also a KissMeGoodnight
recommendation.
# # # # #
by KissMeGoodnight.com
: 2007
>
Home > Wedding Tips: Main Page
|
