Wedding Reception Prices?

Question

I'm getting married in a couple years and I was thinking about booking the Palmer House in the Hilton in downtown Chicago (it's where me and the groom had our prom). Before I call them to figure out pricing and stuff, I went to their site to see if they had like, an example of how much it would cost per person and it said there was a $3,500 deposit fee. Is that all I would have to pay? I'm really new to this so I don't know if that's right.

If you want to explore for yourself, the site is...

http://www.palmerhouseweddings.com/menus_information.aspx

If anyone could help that would be great. Thanks!

Answer 1

I would love to be able to telk you that you would only have to pay $3500.00 - but that is definitely not the case. The $3500 is a deposit fee due at the time of booking...that deposit fee is a lot (and non-refundable) which tells me that the reception is going to be considerably expensive.

Not only do you have to pay that deposit but there are also other things that are going to make it very expensive...for example, did you notice that parking was $18.00 per car? That is an expense that the bride and groom usually take care of for their guests. The vendors need to be preferred vendors of the hotel...which means that you have to pick from their list; and their vendors are usually not cheap.

There isn't anything on the menu that is under $135.00 per head...that's extremely expensive. Not only that, did you see the service charges/taxes? All pricing excludes, 17.50% service charge (17.75% as of Nov. 1, 2007),

5% administrative and 10.25% tax, bubble tax 3%

That's a lot!!

In order to have a wedding here you are going to need a REALLY BIG budget. Plus, these prices are only effective through December 2008 - which means they will soon be going up.

http://www.palmerhouseweddings.com/pdf/W...