HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

LOVE, the idea of having a continuous cocktail hour, always have. I want everyone to eat, enjoy and DANCE!

Having a problem convincing my mom it is a very workable idea...if you have had or have been to a continuous cocktail hour dinner, NOT A BUFFET, please let me know the details as to where, around how many people, the food and the feedback. Thank you ladies!

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

this is what i want to do as well.

i want to 86 all of the sit-down formal aspects and just have one big long period of music, drinks and foods... guests can do whichever they want throughout the wedding.

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

i was considering this also... until i found out that it can be more expensive... but I still love the idea... which is why i am having the least amount of stoppages possible

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

I used to work for a catering hall and Im not allowed to say which one but long story short the non-ending cocktail hours were the best. People never stopped dancing and food and drinks never stopped being served. Med Manor has an incredible deal going on for one right now.

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

I have never heard of this until now...can you ask any RH to accomodate this? I wonder how much extra you pay...??

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

Some places its cheaper you have to call around for quotes

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

fyi.....inform your guests of this. i went to a a wedding at a very upscale place in nyc and everyone didnt eat much bc they were waiting for the dinner....well about 2 1/2 -3 hours into the wedding the food was carted out and dessert was set up and so many people didnt eat much bc they thought dinner was going to be served!!

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

---

Posted by Bridezilla2009

fyi.....inform your guests of this. i went to a a wedding at a very upscale place in nyc and everyone didnt eat much bc they were waiting for the dinner....well about 2 1/2 -3 hours into the wedding the food was carted out and dessert was set up and so many people didnt eat much bc they thought dinner was going to be served!!

---

Good point.

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

When we looked at the Bourne Mansion they had something like this as an option, it was more stations for an extended period of time than full CH. May want to check them out, if I remember I think it may have been slightly cheaper, like $10...

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

My hall does this (Majestic Gardens) I remember it sounding cool when they explained it to me.
But I think there was someone on here once that posted that she went to one of these and it wasn't good because the guests barely got any food, even though they were supposed to keep coming around.

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

i WANTED to do this sooooo bad and researched my fanny off. but my problems were that either they offered it but it was MORE expensive, or the places didnt offer it as an option....
good luck that would be the BEST!
very jealous

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

We did a buffet and it was INCREDIBLE -- the food at the Milleridge is so freaking amazing, our guests are still 3 months later talking about how it's the best food they've ever had at a wedding. It was wonderful.

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

---

Posted by Bridezilla2009

fyi.....inform your guests of this. i went to a a wedding at a very upscale place in nyc and everyone didnt eat much bc they were waiting for the dinner....well about 2 1/2 -3 hours into the wedding the food was carted out and dessert was set up and so many people didnt eat much bc they thought dinner was going to be served!!

---

this happened this past spring to my brother - he went to a wedding @ Thatched Cottage like this - he said had he realized he would have eaten more. By the end of the night about 15 ppl went to a diner afterwards b/c they were starving to death...just something to think about

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

I wanted to do something like. I LOVE the idea and it was about the same price as a sit down dinner, but the family didn't really go for it because they thought people would expect a sit down meal.

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

my friend did this at the metropolitan a couple of years ago - it was amazing!!! One of the best weddings ever. It was like a 5 hour cocktail hour but with dancing. Loved it!!! There were so many stations set up that no one went hungry. The food was non-stop.

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

We did this at our wedding at the Woodlands. We had the traditional cocktail hour with passed hors d'oeuvres and a Tuscan table. Then for the reception instead of a long, sit-down dinner served by waiters, we just had stations set up around the room. There was a pasta station (with three choices of pasta, plus mac and cheese), an asian station, a fiesta station, a sushi station, an entree station (for which we chose 3 of the entree options that they give you for a regular sit-down meal), and a carving station. They opened the stations after our first dance and toasts and it stayed out for almost the entire night so everyone could get up and eat whenever and as much as they wanted to.

I really thought this was a great way to do it and our guests have had nothing but great things to say about the set-up. The Woodlands did not charge us anything additional to use this format but everyone was allowed WAY more food than if it were a sit-down dinner. And you have more choice rather than just one entree. My husband and I just hate the 'boring' part of weddings where you sit at your table for two hours while the meal is served and no one is dancing. This way everyone danced the whole time and ate when they wanted.

The only suggestion I would make is to be sure that your maitre d and your band or DJ know the deal. After the toasts our band 'opened' the buffet by calling tables which I absolutely HATED. I thought it was so tacky. I went up and asked him not to do that and also to explain that there were different stations all around the room that would be open all night. But he didn't explain it very well and it took guests a while to figure that out on their own. Plus it felt like he was calling tables forever (even after I told him to stop) and it slowed the pace down. I wanted there to be an announcement that the buffet was open and then the music to start again so there wasn't any lull. I thought this was just a given but in retrospect it wasn't so I wish I had made it explicitly clear up front.

I would highly recommend doing this format and if you haven't picked a RH yet, I highly recommend the Woodlands. The food there is out-of-control delicious. Our guests still talk about it. And my husband and I hope we get invited to a wedding there in the future so we can actually have time to eat all of it! Be aware though that not every RH will do this format for you. We knew we wanted to do this from the start and it was one of the main reasons we picked the Woodlands. They were totally accomodating and enthusiastic about it. Other places seemed like they were fine with it and would have done what we wanted but they didtn't seem to really 'get' it. So be sure to ask if they have ever done this kind of thing and ask to see a sample menu of how they would set it up.

Good luck!

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

Oh and we had 215 guests.

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

I would have loved to do this, but FH nixed this pretty quickly

No answer for you, just wanted to share and say that I hope you convince her cause I LOVE the idea!

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

I also loved this idea. However, I went to a wedding like this and it was a disaster. No one knew what was going on, the younger people were walking from table to table but the older guests just sat to wait for the formal meal. And once some realized it wasn't coming they went up to one table got a little something and then sat right back down. The tables farther away from the tables got almost no one going up to it because people didn't know it was there or that it was different from the others. It seems like a really awesome idea, but I know the bride was so disappointed because people were complaining how hungry they were and how there were so few choices mostly because they didn't know what was going on. So if you're going to do it I would make sure it is explained EXTREMELY well in advance!! GL :)

Re: HELP!! Continuous Cocktail Hour Weddings

Ha, well, my parents did this at Leonards ... in 1980. Not sure if that is still offered though!