Comments
M_Viv_Van_Buren t1_j5xb2d9 wrote
I’m not sure on price but I believe it has a pretty low capacity. Went to a wedding there years ago. It was amazing, but it was not a lot of people. And I thought it was something about how it wasn’t designed as an event hall so you couldn’t do as many people with tables and such. But seriously gorgeous venue and it made for a great wedding.
TimeSlipperWHOOPS t1_j5yf43v wrote
For insurance purposes you're going to be restricted to certain caterers btw, we went with Pranzi and they were.... fine. Nothing bad but nothing "good."
thosethingstodo t1_j5z3kfo wrote
We thought the list was pretty good. Going with Blackstone Catering for our upcoming wedding.
Mol3cular t1_j60nrsf wrote
Not true. You can pick any vendor you want
Also Pranzi sucks
CatH2222 t1_j5yvmvs wrote
It is $3800 to rent the venue. You must bring in your own tables and chairs for the Mediterranean room reception. Also, 110 max.
We used Blackstone catering. I highly recommend them. Everything was flawless.
It is a beautiful place and we really enjoyed it bit our budget went over by quite a lot for all the add on's.
thosethingstodo t1_j5z3qol wrote
Glad to hear you liked Blackstone. We are using them for our upcoming wedding.
CatH2222 t1_j5zjams wrote
They were phenomenal. The cocktail tables were gorgeous and dinner was delicious. They are very easy to work with and were always checking in with my daughter and groom.
thosethingstodo t1_j5yniuy wrote
We have booked there for the upcoming fall. I don't know if they can fit that many. If they can you would not be able to have a dance floor and part my be extended outside with a tent. Our max with dancefloor and everyone inside is 110.
Silentjosh37 t1_j5za1ey wrote
I think you will be pushing it with 150 guests. Last wedding I went to there had about 95-100 people and it was tight seating and they had tables just about everywhere they could.
calamari_safari_92 t1_j5zcoy2 wrote
When my best friend inquired it was about $3000 as a base for renting the venue, beware of everything else going up for 150 person wedding though! My fiancé and I were trying to keep a 170 person wedding below 15K and it’s almost doubled as we factor in everything. 😬
OrdovicianOccultist t1_j61qf9l wrote
Our wedding in 2018 at the Roger William Botanical Garden cost around $23,000. $13,000 alone was for the catering for 160 guests. The rest went towards the location, photographer, a DJ, cake from Sin Bakery, and other odds and ends that came up.
Our wedding ceremony was in the Rose Maze Garden, Cocktail Hour was in the Conservatory Room, and the Reception was in the Mediterranean Room. Someone else mentioned a 110 person max- I don't remember ever hearing that in 2018 so it could be a somewhat recent change. We started off planning for 200 and only later whittled it down to a solid 160.
The only mistake we made was in underestimating the seating. We set up activity areas around the garden (Sign in book with armchairs, an old school video game station, a photo station, etc) and anticipated people would mill about during the reception rather than sit down and not get up as the space in beautiful. This was not the case, and with only about 100 seats a handful of guests left early apparently feeling left out. I would definitely have added a few more tables in retrospect- but I'm not beating myself up about it. It was advertised as a cocktail style wedding and we were more interested in providing a fun experience over a stuffy sit down meal. We didn't feel cramped as others have mentioned and the dance floor was more than adequate.
We used the Catering Gourmet and they supplied us with all of the tables, seating and silverware as part of the service. They were very helpful and we were impressed by the tasting. We met with a few other caterers from the list we were provided by the Botanical Garden and one of the options we crossed off after two meetings when the owner tried to shoot our ideas down and direct us in how we needed to set the room up- which was a major turn off. Catering Gourmet tried to accommodate all of our specific and weird ideas and I don't have any regrets using them. We had a wood grilled pizza station and a fajita/taco bar along with hors d'ouvres.
You could definitely do it cheaper, but $25,000 is probably a good average cost for 150 people. Obviously, the more things you can do yourself within that framework the more money you can save, and you could certainly figure out ways to do it cheaper. And if you want to spend more for a proper steak dinner I'm sure you could also make the price skyrocket.
Anyway, congratulations and good luck- it's a fantastic location and will definitely make for some good memories for everyone involved!
ironicmatchingpants OP t1_j61u7if wrote
Thank you so much for the detailed response!! It's very helpful. Hadn't thought about doing a cocktail reception but sounds like it might be a better fit for us.
[deleted] t1_j68u4ee wrote
I have photographed many weddings there and the biggest expense for couples is typically catering. Blackstone & Russell Morin are the best in the RI area hands down.
Chemical-Revenue-207 t1_j612zvd wrote
I know for the casino it was like 2k to rent the place. So I’m sure not that much
Mol3cular t1_j5yejfg wrote
We got married there a few months ago. If you would like you and PM me and I can make some recommendations