BYO caterer on Long Island

Hi! I am trying to find a BYO caterer venue on Long Island. I'm looking for something with a more natural feel (trees not beach) for 130 guests. Like most brides I'm trying to keep costs to a minimum so would like the site fee to be less than $4000. I am considering the Bates House in Setauket but would really like to see other venues. And I want somewhere that I don't need to bring in porta potties. Thanks!

BYO caterer on Long Island

As someone who just got married at the Bates House (which was amazing!) thought I'd throw in a few suggestions:

- Make sure you've got an amazing team of people to help out. I had about 30 aunts/uncles/cousins helping me do set-up and we needed every last one of them.

- We had 137 guests (16 of whom were children) and I have to say my one regret is that we didn't get port-a-potties, as the lines for the two restrooms at the Bates House were immense. You can rent really nice port-a-potties (that flush and have sinks and lights) which we got for the rehearsal dinner at my parents house, I wish we had done it for the Bates House too.

- The Bates House is an amazing venue though. Checked out the Brush Barn in Smithtown and the Setauket Neighbourhood House, but the Bates House was unquestionably the best.

BYO caterer on Long Island

Hi! Thanks for the info! We booked the Bates house and the Porta pottie tip is great! Did you have a dance floor as well as seating for 137? One of the caterers we met with told us there was no way we would fit 120 people and a dance floor so I would love to know your opinion. Thanks!

BYO caterer on Long Island

Indeed, your caterer is right, the dance floor and all the tables won't fit in at the same time. The way we did it is that we had all 14 tables that the Bates House provides out for the dinner, which filled the room. Then, we had a short break after dinner where we encouraged everyone to go grab a drink and enjoy the sunset (our photographer also loved this, as it allowed him to get some good group shots during the 'golden hour' before sunset), while indoors our caterer broke down four of the tables in the middle of the room to create a dance floor. It only took about 10 minutes, they just cleared everything away and rolled the spare tables over into a corner, and then we got people back inside for dancing by doing our first dance then and having the dancing with all the crowd start from there. Overall it worked well, and with all the people getting up to go get drinks and socialize, there was no problem with the fact that four tables were now gone. There were still tables and seats around the edge for people to sit who wanted to, but most other folks were now up on the dance floor! Also, thank goodness we warned our DJ about the lack of dance floor at the start, as he said he otherwise would have showed up and been in a panic about how we had a DJ but no dance floor. But it really worked out well, you just need a little transition to get those tables cleared out of the way for the dancing to start.