Brooklyn Bride reader Cara is having a total crisis with her reception…anyone have any ideas?
I’m sort of in crisis mode and wondering if you and/or the Brooklyn Bride community can help. I’m getting married on October 10 in Park Slope. The ceremony is at St. Saviour Catholic church (8th Ave/6th Street) and the reception was going to be at a local restaurant. The restaurant said they didn’t need a deposit until we had finalized the menu – but we had worked out several other details and drafted a contract. So after our recent tasting I emailed the owner with our finalized menu choices and asked when we should drop off the deposit. He responded with a short email that said they had changed their events policy and will no longer close the restaurant for events and that if we’d like to use a portion of the restaurant for an event no larger than 65 people he could work with us. Our guest list 130 (according the previous arrangement we made) – we’ve already sent Save-the-Dates, our families have booked hotel rooms in Park Slope, we’re in the process of printing invitations with the name of the restaurant on them, and we’re less than 4 months away. Needless to say we’re sort of freaking out. As a back-up we might be able to hold the reception in the parish hall at the church, but we’ll need to very quickly figure out decorations and catering. I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions on where to turn for venues in Brooklyn that might still have availability on short notice and can handle 130 guests or caterers that won’t break the bank and are easy to work with (as I’ll probably be more frazzled than anticipated) … since I hadn’t intended on using a caterer, I didn’t do any research about local options. Help!!