Possible Venues... the "Reception"

When I first started thinking about this wedding idea, locations came it two distinct categories, the wedding and the "reception". The wedding would be the location where we were actually married. The "reception" being the party that we had after the fact to celebrate the union and invite the friends and family for some partying. I'm going to start with the easier of the two for me to put in to words, the "reception."

I know you're probably thinking, why on earth does she keep calling it a reception in quotes? Well frankly, I'm uncomfortable with calling it a wedding reception because it may (or may not) be attached to the wedding ceremony itself and will likely not be in line with the typical wedding "reception" ideas. There will likely be no father daughter dance, cake cutting, bouquet tossing or other types of "reception" activities. There will however be food and cupcakes, some live music and possibly some dancing. It will be a party, a post-nuptial soiree if you will.

So where does one look to host a post-nuptial soiree?

Option #1: A bar.

Real romantic hey? Well, all romancing aside, we couldn't think of a better venue to convey the "this is not your typical wedding reception" than a bar. Ideally, this bar would be in downtown Chicago (although we aren't city dwellers, Chicago just has such a wonderful feel and a great bar selection) and would have brick walls (again, we're going for feel here). I'd also dreamed of pool tables, although they weren't necessarily a requirement. Good old bar food (burgers, fries, wings, etc.) would be the menu. Much alcohol would be served.

I thought this was a great idea, as did Zach. Well, at least we did until I started looking at the price for such an event. Bars in Chicago are expensive! Bars in Chicago on a Friday or Saturday night are astronomical. We're talking at least a $76 - $90 per person situation, and that is for a place with less than ideal "character" (i.e. it looks liked a typical reception hall). If we had $100 people, that means $7,600 on food and drinks!

Option #2: Public Park - Lord's Park

We live in Elgin, and fairly close to our house is Lord's Park. Lord's Park has a wonderful pavilion which, as residents, we can rent on the fairly cheap. We'd have to bring in a caterer and such, which is all doable.

Major problem here? No alcohol. I could do a mid-afternoon event, but Zach is not a fan. No booze is a no go.

Option #3: Public Park - Elsewhere?

With my dreams of marrying at Lord's Park killed by their lovely "no alcohol" policy, I thought, well what about other parks? I can't say I looked into every park in the Chicago metropolitan area (that would take forever) but for those I did find, the no alcohol policy if pretty familiar, and if that isn't there it is usually a restriction on events ending at dusk. Dusk? I'm guessing our party might just be getting started...


Option #4: Ravinia

Zach and I love Ravinia. If you've never been, it is basically a big concert hall that has a big park area behind it where the concert is broadcast through speakers. Events are generally in the evening, and you can go early and picnic on the grass before the concert. People go pretty all out with the picnicking... and it is just a super fun, laid-back environment. Zach and I have been there multiple times and always had a blast.

So, I thought, we could do that. It would have great entertainment, food and booze. So I talked to the Ravinia people about the tents you can reserve there. Well, suffice to say they are expensive and then require you to move to seats in the actually concert hall, which sort of defeats the purpose for me. I like the hanging out during the concert part the best! Oh yeah, that and it is pretty expensive, especially if you want booze.

So I looked into just doing a party on the lawn, which they will also cater, for a price. In fact, you can part cater, part bring your own, if you want. Well, at $30 per person just to get in, it was already getting pricing. Buy food and booze, even if we bring out own, would be a whole lot more pricing unless we want to seriously limit the guest list.

So it was on to what might be the winner....

Option #5: Private Park - AKA Zach's Dad's Front Lawn

Zach's dad currently lives along the wonderful Fox River in Barrington, IL. His front "lawn" abuts the river. His subdivision has a private "park" which actually sits right next to his lawn and includes a little bonfire area. The private park area has been the host of many a neighborhood party, including a few shows by Zach's band back when Zach was living at the home too. There would be no restrictions on what we could do and no real time limits.

A river front soiree with no real restrictions and no rental fee? Perfect.

Of course there are going to be some potential problems along the way, since basically EVERYTHING is going to need to be rented or borrowed from someone, but I think we can make this work. I like the idea of building the entire event around what we want and not having to worry about what the venue will allow, or what is expected of us. We can have barbecue from our favorite place in the world, cupcakes and even take a spin on the Boat if we want, what more could we ask for?