Will be holding a wedding reception in FW (or FW area) next February (likely Sat 2/19) and am looking for suggestions. Probably 200-250 people and working with a budget of as close to $10k as possible (might be a pipe dream).

Hotels for Out of Town Guests
We will probably suggest Omni and Worthington on the upper end and a few cheaper options, but looking for suggestions on group discounts or rates.

Venues
Any place downtown (FW Club, City Club) is likely too expensive for our budget. Clearly an indoor/heated venue is needed given the time of year. Other ideas:

River Ranch (Stockyards)
Chateau Fort Worth
Aristide (in Mansfield, relatively new)
Joe T's?
Others?

Food
Some of the venues may require we use their own caterers, but what other options does anyone recommend? I'm sure BBQ will be the most inexpensive way to go, at $14/person or less.

Alcohol
May or not not be provided by the same company as the food. Likely only serving beer and wine as our friends would go hogwild on our dime if liquor was available and free.

Other
Photographer?
DJ? (I have suggested an iPod but that may not fly)
What else am I missing?


TIA to any responses.

$10K for reception only shouldn't be that hard

Stockyards Station (several rooms)... similar menus to River Ranch

YWCA (booked about a year out)

T&P Building (may be 200 max). They let you bring in your own caterer.

Southside Preservation Hall (ballroom for Rose Chapel). They let you bring in your own catering and booze and they are very affordable.

McDavid Studio

As for photography, I like to pimp out my friend Sharon Ellman. http://ellmanphotography.com/

Her and her husband work weddings together and she will burn your photos to CDs, saving you tons of money. She's a photo teacher at Summit HS in Mansfield.

This place is pretty and very reasonable:

http://www.belltowerfortworth.com/weddings.asp


This place may be a little small, but it's also very reasonably priced:

http://www.rosechapel.org/


This is where I'm getting married, but it's in the mid cities and not in Ft Worth:

www.northeastweddingchapel.com

Oh yeah, call these guys for catering. They were offering me $10 per person. They do lots of high end parties and receptions in addition to lunch:

www.greenhousetruck.com

Congrats!

I would be happy to help you out with rooms at the Omni.

rmcleroy@omnihotels.com

Had mine at the Stonegate Mansion. My idea for a murder mystery dinner was rejected.

Thanks to all who have responded thus far. To clarify, this will only be the RECEPTION -- the actual wedding will be several months earlier in New Mexico. Probably wasn't clear in the OP.

Putu, email sent.

Secret Ag we looked at stonegate too, but it was a little pricey. I was unaware of the history of the place until after we decided to scratch it off the list. We are having ours at the Sheraton in downtown. Might be hard to do for $10000 though (I think it is $9000 min before taxes). If you are looking to provide any sort of beer etc. it is going to be hard to be in the neighborhood of $10000. For our 200 guests it is costing us about $12000 after taxes buffett dinner only no booze.

Oh and for Photographer I recomend Jim Byrd. He is great. He has worked in Fort Worth for 20 plus years so more than likely wherever you go he has taken pictures there. His prices are pretty good.

Jimbyrdphotography.com

If you go to his november 2nd entry on his blog and look at the video that is me and my fiancee.

[This message has been edited by Ranger_Red (edited 5/21/2010 2:43p).]

Diamond Oaks Country Club in North Richland Hills. Good food very reasonable. Call James Bond (seriously that's his name)

http://www.skycreekranch.com

This is where a friend of mine held her reception.

Oddly enough I'm in the pictures on some of their wedding info pages since they use the pics from this wedding for their advertising.

It is not near downtown though, it's in Keller! Just wanted to give you another option!

[This message has been edited by BAT2007 (edited 5/21/2010 8:27p).]

Stockyards Station was where we were going to have our reception when we were thinking about a destination wedding. It was the room that held up to 800 people but it wouldn't have been bare with just 250. I've had the bbq and mexican food menus from the caterers and they are both good.

We ended up getting married at Rose Chapel and had the reception there too. 200 is the max comfortably, imho. It was pretty inexpensive though!!!

My buddy had his reception at the cowgirl hall of fame over near will rogers and all of the museums. Really nice place, but I have no idea how much he paid.
http://cowgirl.net/home/

[This message has been edited by TexAgBolter (edited 5/26/2010 12:53a).]

A buddy of mine had his rehearsal dinner at Joe T's in one of their "villas" across the street from the actual restaurant. Food was good and I'll never complain about free drinks

Joe T's was a decent option, except there is no way to do an open beer/wine bar for a set price per person. They do it based on consumption only, and $4.25/beer and $6.50/glass of wine for this group will skyrocket this line item too high for our budget. And we don't want to limit guests with a ticket system.

quote:

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Likely only serving beer and wine as our friends would go hogwild on our dime if liquor was available and free.

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this offends me...

We have narrowed it down to a few places that will allow us to bring in outside caterers.

The plan is to buy our own alcohol and hire a few bartenders to serve.

We are leaning towards hors d'oeuvres and heavy appetizers rather than a full sit-down dinner. Any suggestions on caterers (other than Greenhouse, who I have already contacted)?

[This message has been edited by moorehead01 (edited 6/29/2010 11:14a).]

If you are still considering a DJ I'd love to talk to you about it.

travis @ texas-entertainment.com or 972-785-1999

There's 3 of us, all Aggies

Thanks, and good luck with your planning.

This may seem obvious, but if you're not doing a full meal you need to have your reception from about 2-6 or 8-11. Otherwise, people just assume there will be a meal. They'll drink and eat a lot more at night, too. We struggled with this decision and decided that we would feel bad not providing a meal to our out of state guests so we compromised with lunch instead of dinner and no liquor.

I actually ended up going woth Rohmer's restaurant for my catering - around $8 per person for lunch including tea and salad and bread. It's not fancy food, but it's really tasty and I think my guests will like it.

AggieHMF, good points -- we are struggling with that decision as well. Not sure which direction we will go yet.

DJ, I think we have the music part figured out. Will let you know if that changes.

I also meant to suggest that you contact some local restaurants who don't specialize in weddings. I got good pricing from Olive Garden, and I hear Black Eyed Pea is cheap, and also got a good price from a small Italian place but decided to go a different route (no red sauce). Pasta is cheap and goes a long way so you may be able to provide a buffet for cheaper than you think.

If you're allowed to bring in your own food or drink, you could order the main course from a restaurant and then supplement with bread and salad that your family prepares for much less. We are only serving beer and wine, but have been hitting up sales and have purchased all of our alcohol for under $300.

We got our cakes for only $230 from Texas Star Bakery in Hurst, but the design is pretty simple. If you want fondant and fancy piping, it would be more.

Our cheap cake design,(2 tier) plus 3 half sheets:

Mine was at the Petroluem Club downtown. Food was excellent and you can't beat the floor to ceiling windows on the 37th floor. If it's in your budget, you should consider it!

For photography I highly recommend Stacy Reeves. She's an Aggie and does amazing work. Kind of pricey, but well worth it. She books up very far in advance, but you may still be able to get her in Feb.

http://www.stacyreeves.com/

Still narrowing down reception options. We want something within a few miles of downtown and that will allow outside caterers (without a big upcharge to do so).

Ruled out for whatever reason:
River Ranch
Stockyards Station
YWCA
Fort Worth Club / Petroleum Club / City Club
Chateau Fort Worth
Cowgirl Hall of Fame
McDavid Studio
Joe T's
Anything not close to downtown

These are the remaining candidates:
Rose Marine Theater -- cheapest to rent of all options
Southside Preservation Hall -- may not be large enough for our group
T&P Building -- my personal favorite but of course the most expensive of those remaining

Are there any other suggestions or places we're missing? TIA.

Went to a reception at the Ridglea Country Club a few years ago that was very nice. Not sure what the price tag was, but it was a wedding that the bride/groom paid for themselves (bride's father passed away years ago, neither set of parents was exactly well off). So I don't gather that it was crazy expensive. However, I think you may need a to know a member that would be willing to sponsor you, but there may be wiggleroom to get around that - I don't imagine too many places are turning $$$ away these days.

[This message has been edited by Danny Duberstein (edited 7/30/2010 10:28a).]

http://www.marquisonmagnolia.com/index.html

This might be worth looking into.

I had mine a little over a month ago at the Marquis on Magnolia (http://www.marquisonmagnolia.com/. We had about 240 guests that fit pretty comfortably. We really loved the place. Originally we were looking at Ashton Depot and T&P Station, but both were booked. The Marquis is an old vintage building with hardwood floors where the ballroom is upstairs and a spiral staircase in the middle. Olivia is the coordinator and was so great to work with. Let me know if you have any questions.