Two Possible Venues- Input Welcome.

[lala2332]

I"m leaning toward the highrise for your reception. It is nice to have the whole area to yourself. And it sounds stunning.

What if you had your rehersal dinner on the boat. That way you get the best of both...great food and location for the boat and your own area and amazing views for your reception!

 

[Clairitek]

FI and I decided that we are going with the Tower but we are going to try and negotiate our price per head down a little. We added it all up (food, alcohol, parking, etc.) and it looks like it will be around $135 a person for everything. We budgeted $12K for our 100 person guest list so that''s about $1500 over. I forgot to include about $10/person to buy our own alcohol when I wrote down the price originally. Even if we don''t get them to take it down a notch we will still book it.

Doesn''t hurt to try and negotiate a little, right?

We just need to find ourselves a church. There are two within walking distance and both look really neat inside from the photos online.

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 1/27/2009 9:49:04 AM
Author: lala2332
What if you had your rehersal dinner on the boat. That way you get the best of both...great food and location for the boat and your own area and amazing views for your reception!

Now THAT is a GREAT suggestion! FI''s parents told us to choose whatever we want for the RD. For convenience sake we will definitely do it in Philly because I assume that''s where most of our guests would be staying in a hotel. I''ll have to mention that to him. That way we could have our cake and eat it too!

 

[StarbuttsKoffee]

I vote for tower, I love view, my venue is top floor of the building too.

But I have to agree with havernell about the decorating issue since it will be all windows and rooms, you have to work closely with your decor company, I''m still figuring how to make my guests not feeling being left out in separate rooms with the connecting doors, but the view is stunning!! (I''m already imagining the sunset hours during the summer time)

And me too, I am not too fond of sharing the venue with other functions.

 

[meresal]

Date: 1/27/2009 10:19:22 AM
Author: Clairitek
FI and I decided that we are going with the Tower but we are going to try and negotiate our price per head down a little. We added it all up (food, alcohol, parking, etc.) and it looks like it will be around $135 a person for everything. We budgeted $12K for our 100 person guest list so that's about $1500 over. I forgot to include about $10/person to buy our own alcohol when I wrote down the price originally. Even if we don't get them to take it down a notch we will still book it.

Doesn't hurt to try and negotiate a little, right?

We just need to find ourselves a church. There are two within walking distance and both look really neat inside from the photos online.

Not sure what other venues are like around the area, but I would call around and get other quotes that you can use as a bargaining tool. Maybe we are just getting a great deal, but ours is $10pp and they are providing all of the premuim liquor and bar service. I think that this should be negotiable. Are they assuming risk for comsumption or is that on you? If it's on you, then I think this is wayyy over priced.

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 1/27/2009 10:49:28 AM
Author: meresal

Date: 1/27/2009 10:19:22 AM

Author: Clairitek

FI and I decided that we are going with the Tower but we are going to try and negotiate our price per head down a little. We added it all up (food, alcohol, parking, etc.) and it looks like it will be around $135 a person for everything. We budgeted $12K for our 100 person guest list so that''s about $1500 over. I forgot to include about $10/person to buy our own alcohol when I wrote down the price originally. Even if we don''t get them to take it down a notch we will still book it.

Doesn''t hurt to try and negotiate a little, right?

We just need to find ourselves a church. There are two within walking distance and both look really neat inside from the photos online.

Not sure what other venues are like around the area, but I would call around and get other quotes that you can use as a bargaining tool. Maybe we are just getting a great deal, but ours is $10pp and they are providing all of the premuim liquor and bar service. I think that this should be negotiable. Are they assuming risk for comsumption or is that on you? If it''s on you, then I think this is wayyy over priced.

I''m not sure if I am following your question but I will elaborate on the alcohol situation at the Tower and hopefully it will answer it.

At the Tower the have a liquor liability license- basically a BYOB type of situation. They supply the bartenders, ice, and soft drinks. We have two choices- either we bring in our own stuff and drop it off 2 days prior to the event. The other option is for a fee of $100 they will take a list of what we want to one of the PA state stores (PA has weird liquor laws... so annoying that everything is state regulated) and buy what we want and supply us with a a receipt. Whatever is left over in either situation needs to be picked up within 62 hours of the end of the event (NO idea where the 62 comes from... again, weird state laws). FI and I would rather purchase our own stuff from adjacent states where its a lot cheaper (DE and MD are great for this) or from Trader Joes (GREAT cheap wine there! Done lots of ''research'' this winter on their cheap wines

) and drop it off. We are only considering beer, wine, and a couple of signature cocktails at the moment. If we get closer to the event and find out that we have leftover money in our budget we will supply a basic hard liquor bar (vodka, rum, gin, etc).

So in coming up with that $10/pp rate for alcohol we figured that on average a person would have 2 glasses of wine, 2 beers, and 2 cocktails. I realize there are people (his friends... heh) who will certainl consume more than that and there are those others who will have hardly anything. If a case of beers costs about $1.50 a beer, 2 glasses of wine cost about $2.50 a glass (for a $10 bottle of wine, which most of the ones I''ve liked from TJs have been around $8 a bottle), and then another $2 worth of hard alcohol to go into the signature cocktails that puts us at a conservative estimate of $10/pp for booze.

Phew, sorry that was long-winded. I hope this helps explain myself better. For reference, most of the places we looked in RI prior to switching our plans around were around $30-$35/pp for a premium open bar with "house" wine (which is not stuff I would drink personally) so the $10/pp seems like a steal to us.

 

[luvthemstrawberries]

Hey Claritek I''m glad you guys made a decision!

I''m glad the alcohol thing works out well too - that''s pretty rare to get to do your own thing, and the fact that you have such great resources close by also.

I think the suggestion about the Boat for the Rehearsal Dinner is a great one! Sounds from what you''ve said that it could definitely be a possibility!!