Engagement Party Venue near Babylon/Islip

Hi everyone! I am on the hunt for a venue to host our engagement party this November. I am hoping to find somewhere that allows you to bring your own food and alcohol in the Babylon/Islip area.

I found a few similar posts on here but most of them were outdated. Thanks in advance for your help!

We had our Engagement Party at the Hibernian Hall in Babylon. It was reasonable and you bring your own food in. Alcohol no, but they have a bar there, and we paid like $9pp for Beer and Wine on top of the Rental fee. I suggest checking them out. There's also a Hibernian in East Islip, but I hear they are a lot more money.

Hope that Helps!

http://m.no1partypeopleofli.com
this place has a bunch of places! some even do low cost weddings!

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I’m still working on collecting some more info and comparing venues but I wanted to share what I found out so far:

Hibernian Hall in Babylon - $400 including bartender, maitre’d and clean up plus $9 for soda/beer/wine, $11 for open bar. The downsides are that the alcohol will add up and only the on-site caterer can use the kitchen.

Knights of Columbus in Bay Shore - Must use on-site caterer and house alcohol. Prices seem reasonable though if that is what someone is looking for.

Amityville Club - This is a small, local club/bar my Dad is a member of. Thanks to his membership we could rent the room for $300 including a bartender, but we would have to use the house alcohol ($48 per case of beer and $20 per bottle of wine).

Amity Harbor Civic Association – I never even knew this place existed until yesterday and it is a great find! It is $500 to rent the space (a little steep compared to the others, but it is right on the water, has a nice back deck and was recently renovated post Hurricane Sandy). They have a nice kitchen that my caterer can use with a huge fridge.

As I said I am still doing my research by I think it’s obvious who my current front runner is! Thank you all again. I’ll let you know what else I find out!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to give an update on my engagement party & venue.

I ended up choosing the hall in Amityville that is owned by the Amity Harbor Civic Association. It is in a residential area on the water near Tanner Park. The kitchen was perfect for our caterer and the enclosed outdoor area in the back was great for the kids. Besides the seating outside, the place was very clean. Overall our party went well, but I have a few gripes.

The biggest stressor was that we felt like we were in a time crunch. We only had an hour to set up and I really wish we would have begged for more time (or had the party somewhere else). It would have made a huge difference in my sanity. It was obvious that there wasn’t anything else going on at the hall earlier in the day so there is no reason why we couldn’t have been there earlier. I spent the hour running around like a crazy person. The representative from AHCA that we dealt with was there for the full length of the party (which we knew in advance). He was nice and seemed to be pretty helpful, but I don’t think it necessary for him to be there the whole time. He did help us unload and take out the garbage, but he also turned down the music and kept adjusting the thermostat to his liking, even though some guests were cold. At 10:00 on the dot he turned off the music, raised the lights and started folding up chairs. We were told that we would have an hour after the party to pack up so there was no reason for us to feel rushed once again. Instead of continuing to say goodbye to my guests I was in the kitchen with the caterer.

My fiancé and I have never rented a hall or thrown a big party so this was definitely a learning experience. While we are grateful that our parents covered some of the costs and helped with decorations, we did all of the planning ourselves. Some of our family and friends were available to help us set up, but I regret not coordinating things better. It would have made a difference if we had given them specific jobs ahead of time rather than trying to figure out what everyone can do while we’ll panicking about the time.

To end on a good note: We didn’t run out of alcohol, we got our security deposit back and it seemed like everyone had a good time. I’m also very proud of my outfit and the decorations so I’m going to share some photos soon!

This experience inspired me to look into getting a wedding coordinator for the big day, which I think I will really be thanking myself for!