Rehearsal dinner rant.

[eks6426]

My fiance and I are getting married next week on July 3. Our rehearsal dinner will be Saturday night July 2. In May, we met with one of the managers from the restaurant where we wanted to hold our rehearsal dinner. The restaurant was one of our favorite places to go in the city where we will be married so it was somewhat sentimental. When we met with the manager in May everything seemed easy. He was very accomodating and based on our discussion we expected our dinner to come in around $500 (this is small town midwest after all!). Well, we started calling in June to finalize the menu and the manager we spoke to in May didn''t return our calls. So, we started calling the restaurant to get a DIFFERENT manager to talk to us. We finally got that and had to start over with our plans. They had no idea we spoke with the guy in May. So, I re-explained what we wanted and the assistant manager on the phone basically shouted to the owner when we started asking for "family style" pricing rather than individual plate pricing. This went back and forth for every item on our list. I kept asking to speak with the owner directly because having someone relay the information was just stupid. I was told the owner was busy with a supplier but he would call me back. So, the owner calls me back from his car. He had no notes on our dinner--just a vague idea of the pricing he had shouted to the assistant manager. We went over pricing again and it was different. This was making me nervous so I suggested we start communicating via email to get the prices & menu finalized. I worked up the quote based on our menu choices & prices he had given us. When I got everything totaled it was nearly double our original quote in May FOR THE SAME FOOD! I called the owner and he said I might not need as much food so maybe I should cut some things out. Okay, so, I revised & cut things back & emailed the owner with the revised menu. He emailed me back today--here''s a quote from his email:

"On a Saturday night at 6:30p, we are not able to reserve the amount of
space your group would require in light of your budget restraints...If you are able to change the time to 5p and be finished by 7p, we could
accommodate you."

Well, my wedding rehearsal is at 5pm and many won''t be in town until 5:30pm so starting early is not an option. So, basically he has canceled our group reservation because I downscaled the menu based on HIS recommendation. We live 4 hours away from the town where we are getting married in less than 2 weeks so it''s not like we can just bop around town looking for a new place. We are only having 30 for the dinner so it''s not a huge party. I am just so annoyed with this guy. I am glad that he decided to be this annoying before we did our dinner and things weren''t what we agreed to. But now we have to find someplace new when we are no where close to the city.

 

[Layne]

I''m dying to know what place this is!
Maybe I can give you some recommendations if you tell me your wants?

 

[eks6426]

Layne,

It was the Bread Company on Goodwin. We wanted to keep it kind of fun and casual. We liked the chocolate fondue which we thought would be a fun & different dessert--the rest of the menu was going to be basically salad & some of their funky pizzas. I was so irritated because of all the different answers. If they would have been upfront from the beginning I would have started looking for some place else way before this. We''ve looked at places like Biaggi''s & Great Impasta but they are both $20-$25 per person which is out of the budget. We need to be around $15 per person. Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated. One of my fiance''s friends has offered to let us use his house. It would be a totally different sort of dinner--there wouldn''t be a formal sit-down type dinner. We''d bring in catered food but it would be more grazing buffet. Not sure if this is good or not.

 

[jellybean]

You''re getting married in Champaign, right? I can''t remember what restaurants are around that general area, but are you set on having a formal sit down dinner? The reason I ask is because we had ours at an Italian restaurant but we ordered pizza and appetizers and beer. It was so low key and casual and since we were having a formal dinner the next night we thought it would be nice to have something where people weren''t forced to sit and only talk to the people on either side of them. We got a ton of compliments b/c everyone was so relaxed. Plus, doing something like pizza kept the cost way down. At first my MIL was like "OMG - pizza and beer?" but she admitted afterwards that it was a great time.

It just depends on how formal you want to be. I see nothing wrong with having it at your fiance''s friend''s house. Sounds nice and casual to me.

 

[eks6426]

The place where were going to go was going to be very casual. Our menu was garlic bread, salad, funky pizzas & chocolate fondue. We were originally going to add some pasta but cut that in our cost saving efforst. Unfortunately, when it was down to just the pizzas & no pasta the owner didn''t think we were profitable enough to do. Silly thing is that even with our pared down menu it was still going to be about $17 per person which is probably more than the average per person ticket at the restaurant anyway. Oh well.

 

[Layne]

I''m so sorry they screwed you like that! I think you should write to the BBB.

I think a casual rehersal dinner is perfect for you. You could do it at your friends house and get Biaggi''s. They have some great prices on "family style" pans of about 15 or 20 of their dishes. We used them for a few church events when I lived in CU. If you got that, threw it in some nicer looking containers (it comes in those metal pans) added some breads, drinks, and a couple nice desserts?

I do love the great Impasta but it is pricey.

I''m sure everything will work out!