When I began thinking about how I would approach planning this thing, I wanted to get the reception and ceremony sites out of the way first. This is especially because I have a smaller-than-average budget, so my options for sites will be very limited to begin with and will become continually more so as time goes on.
In order to book those places, you have to know approx. how many people you have to accommodate. Matt and I roughed out a guest list, and we think we can be fairly brutal and keep the invitation list down to 200.
Here are my requirements for a reception site:
- Must accommodate up to 200 people.
- Must be cheap.
- Must be in NJ, somewhere north of Cherry Hill and South of Bergen County.
- Prefer a place where we can bring in our own food and booze.
- Really really prefer that it not be a hotel, country club, or anything overly fancy (which really is precluded by the most of the above).
- Prefer someplace outdoorsy but that also will work in the case of rain (do not want to rent a tent).
- WE NEED TO DANCE.
So I spent a week Googling sites in NJ for church picnics, company picnics, family reunions, and it was QUITE discouraging. Most of these types of places have restrictions on the size of the party, requirements that we be out by sundown, no booze allowed, etc.
THEN I happened upon a solution right in my own backyard! The Rutgers Gardens is a popular venue for ceremonies and receptions. Within the gardens is a log cabin and alumni pavilion. They are non-profit, so the fees are reasonable, and they fulfill ALL of the above requirements (except maybe that we have to end the party by 9 pm and be out by 10pm).
As soon as I found out about it, I contacted the people there who told me that Saturdays fill up quick (there were only about 9 left for 2010!). So Matt and I went down to check it out that day.
We fell in love and booked it right up! See the pictures below. It’s perfect, aren’t we lucky? It is the perfect setting for our rustic, outdoorsy, messy, fun, cheap, wedding celebration! Plus, because we’re alum, we even get a break on the price! Plus it’s cute because we met there!
If it doesn’t rain, we’ll expand the decoration to have twinkle lights on the trees, garlands between the trees and hanging Japanese lanterns. Plus lawn games in the recreation area! It will be so beautiful! Remember my Pollyanna bazaar inspiration??? I could hang prisms everywhere!
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View from the recreation area. We can play lawn games here!
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You can see the pavillion here from the recreation lawn.
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Patio and pavillion. We can put extra tables here if it doesn’t rain!
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Pavillion where most of the seating and the dance floor shall be. This is the main event. This will have lanterns and garlands EVERYWHERE.
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View from the patio on the recreation lawn. We will play games here and decorate the trees.
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Entrance to log cabin. The bathroom and kitchen are here.
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This is the rainbow we saw on the way back to JC. It was a sign!