I am finally getting to the report of our at-home reception. It definitely won’t be as detailed as anything with the wedding, but still wanted to share some of it with all of you. We held our reception 3 months after the wedding on June 1. We did this for a couple of different reasons- 1) DH was moving to back to Michigan from Ohio, 2) we were going on our Hawaiian honeymoon in April/May, 3) we wanted to have our pictures and video back to share at the reception, 4) we wanted to ensure that we had nice weather and in Michigan you usually have to wait until June for that to happen! It was originally booked at a hall by Kris’ dad before he passed away about 3 months before our wedding. In the end after a few mishaps, we ended up moving the location, but thankfully it all worked out in the end. We just rented a basic hall and then decorated it to fit our theme.
We wanted to do something different and finally settled on a red carpet movie theme. DH had proposed on stage at the theater (completely private in the middle of the day, he had it opened just for us and sent me on a scavenger hunt including a stop at the spa to end up at Whiting Auditorium in Flint, MI) where we had our first date (we went to see the Opera, Barber of Seville). Here is a shot of the proposal and a link to my original PJ with the proposal story in it
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=18697747&postcount=1
The second reason we wanted to do a red carpet theme is that we wanted to “premiere” our wedding video at the party, so we thought this would be a great play on that idea. It took a while to find the invitations, but I finally came across these cute invites. They ended up coming in while we were in Hawaii, so my parents were kind enough to mail them out for us.
We ordered them from a company called Handy Kane that does custom themed items for weddings
http://www.handykaneweddings.com/ They have everything from Cinderella to Western to Irish to Bikers to Victorian to Tropical and much more. It really is fun looking at all the unique themes they offer.
These are shots from the email draft, so they aren’t as great as a regular picture.
Inside of invitation:
I know it’s a little against etiquette, but we did not do formal RSVP cards instead we had people RSVP by email or phone. We still had the inserts, but saved money by not having anything mailed back to us. I was worried people would be offended, but no one complained. In fact, a few months later when my younger cousin eloped out of state and then had a reception at home in Michigan she did the same thing.
We used an image of us from our photoshoot at MGM (Hollywood Studios) in front of the Great Movie Ride to create custom labels for sealing the envelopes and for the address labels. It was so perfect that it was modeled off of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in LA.
One of the major things that we based a lot of the decorations off of was the idea of making our own movie posters and then using them for table names, etc. Here is the main one that we used. I found a site called Big Huge Photo Labs where you can design your own movie posters
http://bighugelabs.com/poster.php For a fee you can have unlimited downloads and creations within a week, so that’s what I did. We then ordered the final prints from Sam’s Club photo lab which saved us a ton of money. This particular poster is hanging in our stairwell and I love seeing it every morning as I walk downstairs.
Most of our decorations were DYI and I was pleasantly surprised with the final products. First, I want to give a breakdown of our budget to help anyone else in their planning process.
Miscellaneous Expenses
Photography $475 which included all copyright and a few engagement shots
Hall rental $300
Invitations $185
Postage $48
Total: $1,008
Food
Catering $10 per person (no alcohol), final count 150
Total catering including gratuity was around $1,750
Beverages (2 liters of pop, ice, lemonade) $50
Cups $20
Cupcakes from Sam’s Club $50
Small layer cake for cutting $25
Total: $1,895
Snacks/Favors
Popcorn and oil $10
Chocolate candy for buffet (marked down after Valentine’s Day) $15
Mickey molds $12
Chocolate for molds and wrappings $20
Other miscellaneous candy $10
Glass Jars for candy buffet/concessions $40 Big Lots
Favor bags $15
Total: $122
Decorations
Mickey Statues $9
Playing cards, dice for guests $8
Miscellaneous printing (wish cards, table names, etc.) $10
Poster Printing $28 Sam’s Club
Poster frame $16
Decorations $19.98 Stumps, $59.76 Windy City Novelties, $40 Dollar Tree, Oriental Trading $35.55
Table Cloths $20 Great Party
Big Huge Photo Labs $10
Spray Paint $5
Christmas lights $15
Stars $5
Gossamer ribbon $10
Tissue Paper $5
Rose Centerpieces $19.88 Target
Mickey napkins $35 Invitations by Dawn
Total: $351.17
Grand Total: $3,376.17 for 150 guests
I thought the cost breakdown would be helpful for anyone who is trying to decide if they can afford to have an at-home reception. Some cost saving tips we followed - we held the event on a Sunday, so the rental and photographer were cheaper, we did the music ourselves and didn't hire a DJ, and we didn't have alcohol (although our families are not drinkers anyway). To me it was more important to hire a photographer, but you could easily have a DJ instead depending on your priorities.
More to come, so stay tuned....