One function we are planning to have is a Welcome Party on the night we expect most of our guests to arrive. (Most guests will arrive around 2pm on Thursday – Wedding is Saturday.) What started as an informal, ‘Stop down to [designated space] at [time] and introduce yourself’ has turned into a real party. Our challenge is to try to do something nice enough to get the trip off to a good start, but keep our budget under control.

Our Welcome Party will have an Indian theme. I am American and my fiancé is Indian. While the wedding will be a western non-denominational wedding, we want to incorporate some Indian tradition so we will have a henna artist at the party. She will do bridal henna for me as well as henna designs for any other ladies that want to participate (even men and kids will be invited to get a henna ‘tattoo’.) We’re hoping to have some Indian music and food.

Our first approach was to try to get a good rate on their 1100+ sq ft “Governor’s Suite“. We figured we’d have to pay something for the suite, but could then cater in some Indian food from the Indian restaurant and play some Bhangra from the iPod. This suite has an awesome wrap-around balcony that would let the guests enjoy the outside and the view! Well, try as we must, the best they will offer is us 30% off the suite’s going rate even though they have 6 of them we only want to use it for a few hours. The best price we were offered was a little over $800, and our wedding travel agent’s best rate was just over $700. We were pretty disappointed at first, until I reviewed the floor plan of that suite. Turns out there pretty little ‘living space’. This suite has two full size bathrooms (weird), a bedroom and the living area, but has no kitchenette or even wet bar. So though we love the balcony, we’re glad we didn’t commit to that suite.

My next thought was going offsite to Moomba Beach Bar which is close by. I contacted them and received their catering menu. The food options look ‘ok’ but the pricing is really good. Unfortunately they do not have live entertainment on Thursday nights which would be a bonus, and they are ‘outdoor only’. So, Moomba, probably not, though I expect we may turn up there on another night for happy hour. =)

Plan C – back to the Marriott. We do plan to provide some snacks and non-alcoholic beverage. While we don’t plan to pay for alcohol, I would like it if there is a bar nearby so those that want to ‘indulge’ can do so easily. Our two best options may be the La Vista Restaurant or their ‘Atrium Terrace‘ (pictured). Unfortunately the manager of La Vista has been out of the office for a couple of weeks now and will be gone until early August, so I still have no idea what can be one at La Vista or how much it will cost.

The Atrium Terrace does sound promising though. This is an outdoor ‘patio’ off the lobby. It doesn’t have a beach view, but by 8pm the sun has long set. It does have a pool view though which I seem to remember is pretty at night. There is some seating and guests would be able to walk to the lobby bar for cocktails. We can cater some appetizers and they can set up a table for our henna artist. I was hoping that for the non-alcoholic beverages, they could set cans of soda on ice and have pitchers of iced tea and lemonade sitting out. Well they can’t do that — we have to have an actual bar set up. I’m not sure yet what those costs are. At least I think we can play music off the iPod.