Rehearsal Dinners - Where are you having yours?

We are having ours at a local place, Donovan's in Bayside. It will be 2 nights before the wedding so we are not expecting too many, if any, out-of-towners (I hope not! Our checkbook is getting tired). If you do it at a restaurant, it's nice to have a private room if you want to make a little speech and give out gifts.

I would appreciate it if you could tell me what your experience has been with the pricing of flowers for your wedding/reception. I am getting married in September at the Westbury Manor and WM only allows three specific florists to be used...Pedestals, Speaks & Peck (sp???) and somewhere else. Anyway, I went to Pedestals and I thought that I wasn't going overboard, but after it was all said and done, the final price (after talking her down a bit) was $3,500. Does this seems like a lot to you? Now, I haven't gone to other two florist that the WM allows, but I have heard that the other two are even more pricey.

I'd like for ours to be at the 56th Fighter Group in Farmingdale. We haven't really looked into it yet, but that's a favorite place of ours to go. I guess we still have time. Our wedding is late in September on a Sunday. Our rehearsal is the Friday before. We're just planning on immediate family and those in the wedding party.

Years ago, when my brother got married, they used the Bonwitt in Commack.

We are going to have an informal dinner. My fiance has a house on an acre of land in Coram, so we are going to rent a big tent and have a huge BBQ. Thought it might be more comfortable for everyone and cheaper.

I would suggest that you pick a place close to where the ceremony will be taking place. It just make its more convenient for everyone.

If you stay flexible with the date and time of day, you should be able to find many places in your budget.

We are having ours at a northern italian restaurant(Mario's Hauppauge) that my parents have always gone to and my mother still frequents
They have a separate room downstairs so it ends up being perfect for our group of about 45