Are you looking to have the night of your life at the Lesner Inn without breaking the bank? Fortunately, our sales and event mangers here at the Lesner Inn are skilled with helping our clients to have the night of their dreams without the high cost. While the view is truly worth a million dollars, we only charge less than 1% of that to rent out one of our spaces. From there it’s all about how you choose your menu items to keep your cost at the minimum.

Before going over the best ways to keep your cost low, there a few things about our venue that you need to know:

• Wedding Reception Room rental: For both of our spaces, the room rental varies. For $1,075 you can rent out the entire venue, which allows for you to have a more private event. Our largest space, the Lesner Hall and Sunset Deck, has a room rental fee of $875 and can hold up to 200 guests. This space also includes the use of our bridal suite. Our smallest space, the Waterside Deck, has a room rental fee of $675 and can hold up to 110 people. You have the option to rent out the bridal suite for $60 with this space, as long as there is not another event taking place in the Lesner Hall. Each of these room rentals include use of the space for 3 hours, the use of and set up and break down of chairs, tables, silverware, glassware, china, and house linens.
• Ceremony fee: If you decide to have your ceremony with us, there is a flat fee of $600, which includes the set up and break down of all of the chairs, use of our complimentary white arch, and use of the space for an additional hour. With the room rental including use of the space for 3 hours, your event will be a total of 4 hours with the option to extend for an additional $1.50 per person per hour.
• Food and Beverage minimum: For each of our spaces, we require that you meet a food and beverage minimum, which is based on the month, day of the week, time of day, and event space. This minimum is simply a dollar amount that must be met through your guest meals, beverage menu, and any additional food and beverage items before taxes.

Now that you know about the basic expenses of our venue, let’s talk about how you can keep your cost as close to the bare minimum as possible.

• Time of day/Day of the week/Month: When you decide to hold your event has a huge impact on the food and beverage minimum for your event. Some basic rules of thumb: having your event earlier in the day, on a week day, Friday, or Sunday, and in our off peak months (January, February, March, or November) helps to keep you expenses lower than if you were to have your ceremony and reception on a Saturday evening in May.
• Event Space: If you’re looking at about 100 to 110 guests, you have room to decide which space to book. You could go large with the Lesner Hall and Sunset Deck, or small with the Waterside Deck. However, choosing the Waterside Deck can significantly lower your overall cost if you’re willing to have your event in a smaller space.
• Meal Packages: The type of meal package you choose can either keep you at our food and beverage minimum, or bring you over it. An easy way to keep your cost low is to choose from our Afternoon Package, which you are able to choose from even if you are booking a space in the evening. The menu options in this package are essentially the same as our Evening Package, but with a bit less food overall and of course less cost.
• Beverage Options: What you choose to do with your bar can also greatly affect your overall cost. The best and most frequently practiced way to stay within our food and beverage minimum for your event is to choose your meal package first, then find the difference between that and the food and beverage minimum, and put that amount towards a consumption bar. On the night of your event, you can choose to either keep your bar tab going and pay the difference at the end of the night, or to switch it to a cash bar.

Overall, if you’re looking to have an amazing night on a budget, these are the tips and tricks we share with all of our potential brides and grooms. If you would like more information, or to take a tour of our beautiful building, please give us a call and speak with one of our sales and event managers at (757) 481-1122 or email us
at info@lesnerinn.com.