Recently in Reception Category

With a budget established and an estimated guest count in order, we decided to see about having our ceremony at the Catholic church of the school where my fiance teaches and I began scouting reception venues. I looked at the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier areas since we didn't want to go too far from the church and from where our parents live. It would also help with transportation costs.

With a theme in mind and the idea of a semi-formal wedding, I first set out to look for a location that had both an indoor area for dinner with access to an outdoor area, like a patio or balcony overlooking green grounds or valley and mountains.

Since a close friend offered to cater the reception, we just had to find a reasonably priced location that fit 250 people for dining and dancing and allowed outside catering, I knew it wouldn't be quick and easy but boy, I didn't realize how frustrating it can be.

Not having much luck finding a big enough venue to allow us to bring our own catering, we decided to expand our search to places that have reasonable prices for their catering.

The first place we visited Luminaria's in Monterey Park. Being on top of a hill above the 710 and 10 freeways, it had a great view of the Downtown L.A. skyline and being a Mexican restaurant, it had a great feel and decorations that I was looking for.

They did allow outside catering with certain conditions but also catered for about $30 a person. We were hoping to make that a lower number per person but if I loved the venue and the view, I was willing to work it out somehow.

The outside and entrance of the restaurant was perfect. The ballrooms, were a different story. The smaller one had low ceilings and paintings in intervals along the walls, nice and cozy, but I knew would not fit our guests comfortably.

The second ballroom was larger, had high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows along the back and side walls that had an awesome view of the surroundings and the skyline but aside from that was pretty plain and not fitting with the theme I had in mind. It would need a lot more decorations to make my theme work and that would mean more money. Sadly, Luminaria's wasn't going to work.

I had my eye on a few other great places that would kind of fit our budget but either they weren't available for the date I wanted or would also need us to shell out more for rentals or decorations.

Usually a patient person, this reception venue search was really testing my limits.

I was ready to give up when my MOH (maid of honor) found a great spot that has our date, allows outside catering on a Friday evening and is in a nice proximity to the ceremony site and our parent's homes.

It had probably been about 5 years or more since I had been to Memories in Uptown Whittier. I believe I was there to see a friend's speed metal band play. What I remembered - dark, old and cold - did not make me think of wedding reception, but I gave it a chance and checked out the website.

First, I didn't know the hall had an upstairs room as well. Second, they definitely had done som remodeling since I was last there. The paint looked nicer, the lighting was nice and even though it didn't have an outdoor area, I imagined my theme would suit just nice here.

I set up a time with the owner John, to see it with my fiance and MOH. The downstairs area has a long, shoe-horse shaped bar, cushiony booths along the walls and a nice stage and dancefloor. It didn't fit 250 for dinner but I liked it.

The upstairs has really high ceilings, the walls were painted and decorated to give it a nice classic, older-building feel with a few spots showing exposed brick to give it an authentic feel. There are also booths along both sides of the wall and a nice center stage at the back. There was a large dance floor right in the middle.

Once I heard the price, we were just about sold. I jotted down all the information about venue rental pricing, non-alcoholic beverages, bar prices, etc... so I could look over later and crunch some numbers before deciding.

Though Memories does allow outside catering on Friday evenings, they also have a caterer that serves as the house caterer for all Saturday events and can also be available for events on other days, I asked the price - starting at $10 per person for buffet. Wow! I thought, that's pretty good but we already have a caterer.

Our caterer would have to provide the dinner and flatware, clean-up, cake cutting, champagne serving, and the list went on. Again that seemed like more costs to us. Their caterer would provide the dinner and flatware and clean-up for free, and the cake-cutting and champagne serving at a small fee.

But it was the deal John made us that had us sold on using their caterer - venue rental cost at half price if their caterer is hired. After I crunched the numbers, the convenience and price of using their caterer outweighed using our own, so we called up John to get a tasting of the food offered before making the final decision.

The caterer offered a Mexican buffet, which is exactly what we were looking for. We tried the chicken fajitas - juicy, tasty, and filling - the decision wasn't too hard after that.

What we loved about working with the caterer and John was their willingness to work with us on adding things and having options. It definitely put me at ease. Saving money by getting the venue at half price with the caterer there, I couldn't help but want to splurge a little. I reserved both the upstairs and downstairs rooms.

I figured we could make it a little more updated by havin a cocktail hour downstairs, then dinner upstairs followed by dancing back downstairs. That way there's a slightly different feel to each part of the reception and we would not be so crowded. And we still got both for less than just the upstairs would cost if we brought in our own caterer.

The key here was being open to different venues and willing to step away from my original idea. And having the best MOH ever is a plus!

While still working on getting details down about the ceremony site, it's also nice to know we can have it in the downstairs room, if need be. Always got to have a back-up plan.