Red Lion update

The Red Lion will schedule a tasting for us, but it it's before we book we'll be charged $65 pp. We'll be credited the cost of two of those people toward our eventual wedding costs if we do book.  Also, our several-weeks-to-decide timeline is clashing a bit with their this-is-a-popular-weekend-we've-got-your-name-on outlook.  We have a "right of first refusal" at the moment -- if someone else tries to throw down on our date, then we can send in a deposit and secure it. 

White Cliffs Country Club

White Cliffs looks so pretty (and a wee bit cheesy) in photos.  It's got a tent in a garden with a gazebo and it's on a cliff overlooking the sandy beaches of very-very-south Plymouth.

They don't really mention it's in a condo-heavy golf community, behind a gate, and the view from the tent takes in these lovely 4-story apartment blocks in the background and a practice putting green in the (near) foreground.

Alex hated it immediately.  The tent is very pretty and they seem nicely put together, but ugh golf and condos.  Also, the dancing all has to be done indoors (noise) and it's not a fabulous room.  Nice enough.

We didn't even really get to costs, and I'd price it out for you but it's complicated because they price appetizers and entrees and bar all individually.

Quarry Hills Golf Club

What's a girl got to do to find a picture of this place?  The internet is not forthcoming and Alex didn't whip out the iPhone because we were just dropping in.  This album has some other OK shots.  But this one was so evocative.

We stopped by on Saturday afternoon, picked up a general events packet in the restaurant, poked around the tent outside, and sent an e-mail to the coordinator, who sent us back their pricing info.

The outside has stunning views of the Boston skyline and a cool tent.  But the cost brought us up a little short, and we've decided we don't really need the tour to decide it's not quite right.  Cheaper, we'd certainly consider it, but it's not a strong competitor to the more unique and interesting Red Lion.  Besides -- hotel carpet.  Death.

Hall rental	$3,300
Ceremony (outdoors)	??
Food ($160 average entrée)	$24,000
Beverage (for open bar all five hours, with first hour included, wine during dinner included – so do we need to keep the bar open the whole time?)	$6,300
Tax (6.25% of food/bev) (approx)	$1,895
TOTAL	$35,495
Total total (+9100 estimated other costs)	$44,595

Total if we just did like two hours of open bar: $42,345

That's not significantly higher than Red Lion, but we're not nearly as enthralled by the location once you get past the view.  I mean, it's a GOLF COURSE.  There is a putting green next to the tent.  And it's in Quincy.

Red Lion Inn, Cohasset

The Red Lion Inn in Cohasset is one of the weirdest places we've looked at -- and the one I keep coming back to.  It's shoehorned next to a gas station on the sweet main street of tiny, beachy Cohasset, and is labyrinthine inside, with a number of beautiful and unusual spaces.

This is by far the best:

The Lion's Hall -- referred to by the chatty and discursive French event coordinator as "The Barn."  It seats 100-300 with two levels, all in this stunning, simple wood that can be dressed up in a number of ways.  

The back wall behind the staircase (sorry not visible here) is the plain bedrock of the hill behind.  They have a (currently non-functional) waterfall system to run over this bedrock, but Elena the coordinator said it is so loud that you cannot talk over it during dinner, and people keep breaking it by throwing things into it.

There was also a lengthy discussion on where to seat types of guests.  Usually, she said, young people get put upstairs -- but she recently had a bride who put all her older relatives upstairs, and they were happy to talk and watch the dancing going on below.

There is an elevator between the two levels, a coatroom upstairs, and three bars, one large below and two smaller above.  The back door seen here goes across a bridge to the main Inn; the other door, upstairs and behind us, goes to the parking lot and to the garden.

The garden -- can barely seat 150, but good for outdoor ceremonies.  Apparently the ugly and elderly cat that lives with the owner wandered into the middle of a ceremony once and meowed at the participants.

"The Cave": Down an elevator on the entry level of the Inn is this little nightclub space.  The Inn has tried to make it a bar or jazz club, but Puritan liquor laws and the lack of cabs or public transit and Cohasset have complicated such efforts.  It's offered as "after party" space for the younger guests, with optional late night snacks, and the bride who was setting up when we were there had a "candy bar" of pink treats set out.  

A guest room.  Each of the 14 rooms is different, many have jacuzzi tubs and one had this great old wood beam ceiling.  Elena had strong views on which rooms should belong to which members of the wedding party -- there is a bridal suite included in the price of the wedding, plus a discounted $100 fee for two "parents' rooms."  The rest of the rooms can be reserved in a block for other guests.

One of the many weird, cute spaces.  The major drawback of the Inn is there is no obvious place to take your pictures, but there are a lot of odd little options for creative photographers.

Other location features: Cohasset has another inn nearby with slightly more rooms, there's another inn in nearby Scituate, and across Route 3 about 20-30 minutes away are a few other, cheaper lodging options.

OK, down to the brass tacks.  We would very much like to do a ceremony outdoors on a Saturday evening.  And we're assuming 150 guests.  The interesting thing about the Red Lion's fees is that for Satuday night, it has a $20,000 minimum on food and beverage (with, btw, a 20% administrative fee and 6.25% tax on that amount.  WTF administrative fee?).  Even with a pretty extravagant basic dinner and an all-open mid-shelf bar, we'd be a few thousand short of that amount.  So, we can invite more people without any impact on our spending, or we can pile on snacks and treats and alcohol options.  Or, we can do a Saturday afternoon wedding, for which the minimum is only $9,000.

Saturday night, outdoor ceremony

Hall rental	$2,000
Ceremony (outdoors) (it's $1,000 inside)	$1,500
Food and Beverage (minimum)	$20,000
Administrative fee (20% of food/bev)	$4,000
Tax (6.25% of food/bev)	$1,250
Additional bartender for upstairs	$125
Parent rooms	$200
Sibs room (assuming they can share and older sister will pay for her own...)	$210
TOTAL	$29,285

I did some terrible estimating:

Additional costs

Flowers	$2,700
Photographer	$4,000
DJ	$1,000
Wedding dress	$1,200
Tux	$200
Favors?	????
TOTAL (sans favors)	$9,100
Total Total:	$38,385

They currently have Saturday, September 22 and September 29 open.