Fear the Crab

Toured the Hyatt facilities yesterday afternoon. The catering manager met with us to give a brief rundown of the area, where things would be set up, where people will go and where they’ll stand. Also got a rough idea of the floor plan, plus the alternate ceremony site in case of rain.

Actually, the alternate site looks a lot better. The primary site is on a terrace overlooking the beach, with a white lattice gazebo, white chairs, and white carpet runner. We were lucky because there was going to be a wedding that night, so everything was already set up. The bridal party would enter from behind the hotel’s large waterfall, cross a pedestrian bridge (the terrace is on the third floor, and the hotel has a large open area in the middle), and proceed down the aisle.

The problem is that the location is right next to the pool and pool bar. The jacuzzi has front-row seating, though I was informed that it would be closed and covered at the time of the ceremony. On the other side is a restaurant with outdoor patio, and right below us is the busy street of buses, taxis, loud radios, and the occasional ambulance (I should have known about the street, though). So I can get married next to fat men in speedos!

In comparison, the alternate site is indoors, situated right next to the banquet hall so it is very close. It is actually a part of the banquet hall that’s closed off with those standard banquet hall dividers. The room is air-conditioned and is bigger than the outdoor site in terms of the number of people it can seat. It’s true that we won’t get the “scenic” ambiance and outdoor lighting, but in addition to the cons listed above, there was one thing that really convinced me to pursue the indoor location.

Big-ass pigeon sitting on top of the lattice gazebo (“There’s a reason why gazebos are white!”).

Still have to inform the hotel about the change in location, but it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle because the alternate site is already reserved for us.

I also discovered more information about the reception buffet, in particular the details surrounding alcohol service. The hotel contract and printed material was rather vague on things, and left me with the perception of only two choices: everyone pays for their own drinks, or I pay an hourly rate determined by head count.

Thankfully the catering manager clarified these things. I do have the option of a hosted bar, meaning that basically I pick up the tab. I can also set a cap on how much alcohol will be served. Let’s say that I decide to limit service to $2,000. Once that amount is reached, I can decide then if I want to extend the limit, change policy to have guests buy their own, or stop alcohol service all-together. I can even select the alcohol to serve, such as only having domestic beer and house wine, or going for the imported beers and premium liquors. The $2k would also include any sodas I decide to have, but juice would be covered by the punch station so I don’t have to worry about that. I figure $2k is a decent-enough amount, given that the reception is on a Sunday.

With the reductions in reception costs (Maile also knocked the guest list down to 160), it comes out to approximately $11k after taxes and service charges (20%!), but before any discounts are applied. That amount qualifies us for “Level Two” gifts from the hotel, which include a free room in the penthouse suite, ten parking passes, and a three-tier wedding cake. Sunday weddings give us a “Level Upgrade” as a bonus, bumping us to Level Three for an additional night in the penthouse, plus ten more parking passes.

Those twenty parking passes will come in handy, since it costs $5 to self-park and $8 for valet service. I’d like to pay for everyone’s parking, so the more “free” parking I can get, the better. I can’t begin to guess how many people would drive, but if I base it off the number of invitations (which comes to 64), I might see parking costs upwards of $500 or more. 20 passes would knock that down to $370, which is a lot more reasonable.

Hopefully the total cost won’t go over $20,000. We don’t have any quotes regarding flowers, dresses, hair and makeup, or stationary, and estimated costs as of now is $18.9k. I know the dress will probably be expensive, perhaps $2,000. If we do our own stationary, we would save significantly there, and the hair and makeup fees would be discounted because we would have family do it. The flowers become key, because I have no idea what an average cost for flowers would be. The price varies widely because of selection, arrangement, and quantity.

Thankfully we have family that is willing to chip in on portions of the budget. I think Maile’s mom is going to buy the dress, and my folks have expressed a desire to help pay for the reception. While those are savings on my end, I still want to keep the wedding around the $20k mark, using that figure as a total, not what I personally end up paying.