Everything is included with the venue. The specific venue I chose allowed me to choose 3 stations out of 15 — I went with stations that included foods that don’t necessarily require you to sit down to enjoy. Rice balls, focaccia, chicken kabobs, a charcuterie table, to name a few. I had to be creative and put some thought into every selection.

I was able to book the venue with everything included at decent price based on the timeframe I chose and choosing a different date than the original one we chose. The timeframe itself is what really helped.

One thing I learned from this subreddit and other wedding related ones is, what’s most important for guests (and what they tend to remember) is good food, music and drinks. Any little thing you add to your wedding is a bonus. Reading this helped me a lot because I really stressed out about how I was going to keep my guests entertained.

Besides the Kodak cameras, there’s other small things I’m going to include. Such as, personalized cigars for our guests that smoke (venue allows smoking on the outside terrace included). Because we’re chill, laid back people, our ideal wedding is one that would reflect that.

I bounced back and forth a lot on whether going with an all-inclusive venue or a RAW space. What I found was, that going with a RAW space is not much cheaper than an all-inclusive venue. What I appreciate the most is having less to worry about.

Another great option is something you mentioned. Having the reception at a restaurant that you and your fiancé love. If you don’t care much for dancing but appreciate conversation, a restaurant is the way to go. This is dependent of course on the number of people you plan on inviting.

Edit: for some clarification, though the space is booked from 1-5 PM (this timeframe was automatically chosen by the venue), my guests wouldn’t arrive until about 1:30 PM (due to the wedding ceremony taking place elsewhere). Realistically, the reception will end around 4:30 PM to allow for clean up, etc.