Ideas For A Small (but Fairly Upscale) Wedding Reception? (approx. 30 Guests)?
[For those of you who like to plan weddings, have fun with this one!] (:
Over the holidays, my girlfriend and I were talking casually about what kind of wedding we would like to have. I haven’t “popped the question” yet, but I most likely will sometime early next year.
We both agreed that we would want to have a very small wedding, with about 30 guests. Most of the guests would be close family, and each of us would maybe invite 2 or 3 of our closest friends (along with their spouses and kids).
While we both know what we would want for a ceremony, we’re still not sure what kind of reception we would like to have, especially if there are only about 30 guests.
So I’m curious to hear your ideas for a wedding reception. To help you out, here are a few specifics…
- You don’t need to suggest a specific location for a reception, but just as FYI, we both live in Southern California, and about 2/3 of the people who we would invite also live in SoCal. We really don’t see the need to have a destination wedding.
- So long as we keep the guest list small, we can afford to have a fairly fancy reception. Spending the equivalent of $150 to $200 per guest is within our budget.
- There would be quite a few younger people at the reception. Four boys between the ages of 12 and 18, and three girls between the ages of 3 and 8.
- It would be nice to have some music during the reception. With only 30 guests, a band would seem impractical. I’m not even sure a DJ would be practical for such a small group. With the exception of a few guests, most of the guests would only dance for one or two songs at most.
- Even though we want this to be fairly fancy, we don’t want it to be stiff and boring. Part of the reason why we want a small group of people is so that we can keep the event relaxed and enjoy the evening with the people we love the most.
With that… send your ideas. Have fun!
I had an upscale wedding for 38 people. The cost per person ended up a little over $300 dollars per person and that included a cocktail hour with raw bar and passed hors d’oeuvres and a lobster meal and 5 hours of top shelf liquor on our full hosted bar. We got married on a beach resort in Cape Cod, MA close to the Kennedy’s compound.
We had a DJ and 3 children ages 5 to12. The kids had a blast dancing! We had a harpist playing during our beach reception and the cocktail hour at the venue. We had orchids for flowers and Godiva chocolate boxes as favors.
Everyone commented that it was th best wedding that they ever attended. We wanted our few and selected guests to enjoy the party of a life time. We party for 3 days on a beautiful beach location and everyone had a lot fun.
If you have a small, you can have much better things. We were able to hire the best in town and had the best meal and the best of the best on everything. It was NOT boring at all, it was all family and very good friends and we partied from the beginning to the end.
It was a magical affair. We gave our loved ones the very best for their company and their support.
Good luck
There is this great blog I stumbled upon a while back that has videos of actual weddings. Great resource for design elements, color schemes, centerpiece ideas and themed weddings. Check it out:http://www.uniquelyyouplanning.com/
Check with the hotels in your area to see what sort of reception packages they have.
They might have a beach barbeque option!
Wait until your mother and future mother-in-law find out.
You will have a guest list of 250.
Are you going to be having wedding favors? I used a site that sells some pretty unique and can be upscale items for pretty cheap. There’s personalized fortune cookies or there’s these really nice cookies that you can put your pictures on that are totally edible. I think these are a pretty neat idea. The kids would love these (what kid doesn’t like cookies) and the adults would like the originality of them. To give you an idea of the prices the most of the fortune cookies are about .99 cents each, and some of the picture cookies are about 2.89 each. Hope that helps! Oops, almost forgot the link. http://www.fortuneweddingfavors.com
Find a nice restuarant that the two of you love, and see if they have large private dinning area, or if they would be willing to close for you for the night. Don’t do seperate tables but rather get 3 longer tables and form a U-shape in the room have the two of you in the center of it all and then flank the sides of the tables mixing friends and famly so that way they can get to know each other if they are not already familiar. I would go for more rich heavy colors in golds and ivories maybe adding a splash of color depending on the season (burgandy for winter, marigold for fall, celadon for spring, and say fuschia for summer.) Get lovely high center piece that are overloaded with flowers 2 or eachof the “branches” of the U shaped table. Do small individual cakes and then one large one for the two of you so it can be saved for your 1st anniversary. As far as music I would just create a few different playlists on your ipod and have one for apps/cocktail time, one for dinner, and one for after. And just let it play. Have the best man MC. Place a small dance floor (if needed) in the center of the U-table. I think probably a friday night, would be best or this type of event. And with the small amount of guests and large number of young kids I would deff. skip the garter toss and probably the bouquet toss as well. You could even work with the restuarant to see if they will give you 3-4 entrees and sides to choose from and allow eveyone to order off of a small private menu and have everything made to order. Good LUCK!!!
I would look into some really nice restaurants. You could do a really upscale menu (lobster, steak/filet mignon) for $150 per person. Open bar with premium liquors. Maybe you could a wine-tasting menu, where different wines are paired with several courses of food. Plus they probably have music piped in anyway, so that saves you from having to hire a band or DJ.
You could also look into something fun and quirky, like a bowling alley, a zoo or aquarium. Or try a fancy museum or art gallery, maybe with really swanky hors d’oeuvres … set it up like a cocktail reception. Offer different stations for food (carving stations, fresh-made pasta, sushi station, seafood bar, mashed potatoes in martini glasses). Have chairs and tables for all, and go around and talk to people all night. People can look at paintings or exhibits if they’d rather not dance.
Well obviously you can get good champagne and fine food for everyone. A DJ might be a good idea even if all he does is select calm music to play and maybe one or 2 dance songs. Most people will dance to slow songs though, so put a few in there. Maybe you could put together a little dance show with you and your new wife and a few other members of your family. Like learn a dance together thats crazy and fun and would make everyone laugh. Do you have a family member or friend that sings? Have them sing one song at your reception. Another thing you could do is have nice favors for everyone wrapped up in a gift box. Have special ones for the kids. Have candles and flowers everywhere so it looks more upscale.