Wedding at the Courthouse: Summary

Hello all! Well this is getting a bit ridiculous- over a year later, and I can't manage to finish a few recaps of my wedding day. It's not that I'm lazy, it's just that married life is a bit busy, and I also have a very hard time with uploading large pictures to blogger. Here is a link to my Flickr if anyone is interested in courthouse wedding photos.

So, according to my google analytics, I have around 250 visitors per week! I know most of you must be here for courthouse tips, judging by the number of e-mails I get (but no comments:( ), so I'd like to give a quick description of our reception.

I walked in at around 6:00 when people were just arriving, and I was blown over. This place is the most beautiful reception hall I have ever seen when it is set up. The tables were set up correctly into 5 long banquet style, and 12 rounds of 10. The centerpieces of ostrich feathers and gold birch branches and place cards for the long tables were in the correct spots. The bar was set up with my high top cocktail tables and long black linens with the wedding crosswords on top. The make shift photobooth was all ready with the props. The DJ was there. The cakes were on the cake table looking delicious. It is SO HARD to completely envision everything you have planned, and the reality was better than anything I ever hoped for!


After ooing and awwing over everything, I went over to the photobooth with some of the bridesmaids and took some silly pictures. We had the photobooth in the nook off the to the right where the elevator doors are. The bar was behind the columns in the hallway area, almost in front of the door to the nook on the right. Then I got one of my signature drinks (mojito), and proceeded to chill at my cocktail hour and talk to everyone who came out for me. This experience was almost surreal -people I have known from every stage of my life were all there for me and having drinks with me. I got to talk to many people that I wouldn't get to later in the night. DON'T MISS YOUR COCKTAIL HOUR!

My husband and I are living in Buffalo, NY, so we had Anchor Bar chicken wings at our cocktail hour, which they will ship. My caterer was amazing, and charged us a small fee to set these up and heat them. The cocktail food table was set up in the hallway behind the columns on the right in the middle. Guests went crazy over these chicken wings, it was one of the best decisions we made. Guests also loved the wedding crossword I made and had printed, and many of them were filling them out. It was such a great ice breaker and conversation starter, I urge people to do something like this.

Almost before I knew it, it was time to get introduced. The DJ was set up on the left hand side of the room, dead center. We came out for the introductions from the grand staircase on the other side. About acoustics, I couldn't hear anything the DJ said on the mic from back in the staircase area. There are certain places where the acoustics suck, and that cannot be denied. However, people in the main hall could hear mostly fine.

The whole bridal party were introduced, and then my husband and I. We walked straight to our cake table, and cut the cake to "Sexyback." After a little cake smooshing (by me only), it was time for dinner.

I know many people have questions about catering. We had a buffet, and it was perfect. Stations are also a popular option, which I also looked into, but we didn't go for. Ultimately, stations are usually way more expensive, and also have a bit of a more casual vibe. I decided that I would rather have everyone eat at once and get it over with, and then we can move onto the dancing! Stations work best for weddings with constant mingling and no sitting, and if you want everyone to sit and pay attention, there is not much point to having them. I am also against sit down meals for almost any wedding, and especially the courthouse, and I will explain why. The courthouse has no kitchen, so your caterer will either make the food ahead of time, or will bring a make-shift kitchen. Sit-down wedding meals at even a catering hall with a kitchen are usually not that good. They are rushing the food to get so many out at once, and some people may want less or more, and it ultimately leads to wasted food. Also there is the general confusion over who ordered what.

Our buffet was hot, replenished often, and delicious! Everyone took as much or as little as they wanted. We had a carving station, which is the right way to do beef at a wedding, and I got many compliments on the food. In the very back of the courthouse, the columns were draped off by our caterer, with the kitchen behind. The buffet table was set up directly in front, and tables were called up.

After eating very quickly, my husband and I made table rounds for about 45 minutes. This brought us to about 9:00 and time for the first dance. Being on the dance floor by ourselves with a slow song playing, the music was echoing. It wasn't awful, but the echo was there. Not all songs will do it. Our first dance was "I'll Look After You" by The Fray, and it is a song that lends itself well to echoing. The dance with my father to Frank Sinatra had much less acoustic issues. The fast dance songs when there were many bodies on the floor to absorb the sound had even less issues. And we had tons of people on the floor- after the parent dances, everyone got down! We had dance circles, line dances, slow dances- a little something for everyone, and it was amazing! Our DJ was pretty good, there were a few instances where I didn't like the song he was playing, but it mostly worked out. At around 10:30 most of our guests disappeared for 15 minutes to watch the fireworks on Lake Erie (it was 4th of July)!

We had a completely stocked bar with 10 varieties of beer, 6 kinds of wines, champagne, and any kind of liquor and mixers you could ask for. If you need to be cheap, DON'T DO IT ON THE BOOZE! People will talk about that for years. On the flip side, we still get compliments on our bar. There were alot of people at the bar at any given moment. I might change the bar's placement more towards the center to put people where the dancing was and encourage more people to mingle. You will have to judge what is best based on how many guests you have and what kinds of tables. The photobooth was popular as well, and the props we had such as wigs, leis, and Hawaiian skirts made it out onto the dance floor!

My mom had a candy bar with all green candy set up as a surprise to me during this time! It was on the cocktail table in the right hallway. We also had the favors set up in the entrance to the courthouse, to the left of the security desk. We had packs of sparklers with our monogram on them, and boxes of our cake. I also later mailed prints of the photobooth pictures in our thank you cards.

All too soon, the night was over. We had an after party set up at a bar downtown, so alot of us went over there. The security guards were great to us all night. Here is a little tip- they will know what time is in your contract to shut down, and start herding people out. The beginning time is much more flexible. Your caterer will have access to the hall all day, so what is the big deal in starting a bit earlier? My contract said 6:30, but my invitation said 6:15, and some people came at 6:00. They will not turn people away..I think you can stretch this at least a half hour. At $525/ hour, every little bit helps.

Another tip- my biggest gripe of the night is that the lights were not dimmed enough for dancing. The electrician is in your contract, and should be on call for you. The ball got dropped on this, and the place remained in full light most of the night. Now it is gorgeous in there, so not a big deal, but I spent about $250 on led candles, and they did not really get seen. Make sure someone takes charge on this.

The bathrooms- not great, but not too horrible. Stick a bathroom basket in there and call it a day.

The courthouse is amazing, so take advantage! You do not need many decorations because people will be too busy staring. You can also get away with being a bit goofy (wedding crosswords, photobooth, Hawaiian skirt props) because of the elegance of the courthouse.

I'm still willing to answer questions (daas325@gmail.com), and I have a budget post in editing, because I know a huge questions is: "how much!" Well, I am going to answer that for you soon!