Planning is moving along! On Friday I spoke with the Marriott’s wedding planner regarding Welcome Party options. As of Friday morning I was down to three options: the Marriott’s “Atrium Terrace”, their “La Vista Restaurant” and the neighboring “Moomba Beach Bar”. The wedding is Saturday and most guests will be arriving Thursday afternoon so we wanted to arrange a function for us to Welcome them as well as give them an opportunity to meet each other. We’re planning our party for 8:00 pm to give our guests plenty of time to get checked in and rested up.

We also want to share one Indian tradition with our guests – Mehndi. Mehndi is where an artist draws elaborate designs on the hands and feet of the bride with henna a day or two before the wedding. This is done for beauty and is considered good luck. Following the bridal Mehndi there is usually a party where all ladies are invited to get their own henna ‘tattoos’ (they fade in a week or two). Though I am American (my fiance is Indian), this is one Indian custom I am really looking forward to sharing with my friends and family. I’m hoping this activity will be a fun ice-breaker for the two cultures.

For our modest budget ($1200, 30-35 people) we wanted to be able to have a dedicated space (preferably an outdoor or partial outdoor space), provide some appetizers and desert, non-alcoholic beverages, have music (preferably bhangra music from our iPod) and have a space for our henna artist to work comfortably. I also wanted to have a full bar nearby for guests that would like to have a cocktail and ultimately, would love to have some Indian appetizers.

Moomba Beach Bar: Moomba has a pretty affordable catering menu and is just a short walk. It is outdoors and on the beach and we were hoping they might have live entertainment. Unfortunately the lighting is low and being totally outdoors with the wind, the space might be awkward for our artist to work. Also, even though the catering menu was less expensive, it didn’t really look very interesting, and there is no live entertainment on Thursdays. I look forward to checking out Moomba’s happy hour when we go back, however it was easy for us to rule it out for our welcome party.

Marriott’s Atrium Terrace: The “Atrium Terrace” is the patio that is just outside the lobby, between the lobby and the pool. Its a nice sized space that is often used for corporate cocktail hours. We would be able to play our own music via iPod and the lobby bar is close by for those that want to purchase cocktails. The biggest downside is set-up fees. Even though we just want to provide soda and maybe iced tea and lemonade we would have to have a bar set up. (We were hoping we could just serve themselves with soda cans on ice and pitchers of tea and lemonade, but that’s not an option.) There would also be set-up fees for the iPod speakers as well as tables for catering and the henna artist. These fees could easily take up 1/3 of our budget. Catering is expensive (the same menu you make your wedding reception selections from), however they will try to provide us with some Indian options.

La Vista Restaurant: The reason it has taken so long to get some Welcome Party answers is that the manager of the La Vista Restaurant was out of the office for three weeks in July and there wasn’t someone else that could answer our questions. To be honest, that had me a little down on La Vista as an option. Well, I think its going to turn out to be worth the wait.

From what I understand, La Vista’s manager is glad to let us use their bar and lounge space (both are very cool, contemporary spaces). The menu options and prices are the same as for the Atrium Terrace (same kitchen) so they will work on some Indian food for us. There will NOT be set-up fees so we can spend our whole budget on food and beverage. And, they will let us play our own music. (We assured them we are just looking for ‘background music’, not dancing.) While we won’t be providing a full dinner, our guests will be able to order off of La Vistas menu if they want more to eat as well as order drinks from their bar. The biggest downside is that it is not outside. They do have an outdoor patio but that must remain available to those having dinner. Still, guests wanting some fresh air can just step outside and relax near the pool or take a walk out to the beach.

Right now we’re still working on the menu. So far the spicy chicken skewers sound wonderful! I’m unsure of a few options though – the vegetarian spring roll, spinach puff and mushroom touch. She said they are Indian options, however I think maybe these are items that Indians just happen to order often because they are vegetarian. They do sound yummy, but I really want to make sure there are a couple of traditional Indian items. On the wish list is samosas. They have not yet made them for a party but are looking into it. Right now what I appreciate is their willingness to explore items beyond their menu. If you have something you really want on your menu, don’t be afraid to ask. They may surprise you! (The Westin’s catering department was also wonderful about being willing to try new things.)

The Welcome Party option we ruled out fairly early on was renting out one of their Governor’s Suites. While they are huge, the usable space for the party was small. We figured we’d rent the suite and then cater in food from the local Indian restaurant but the suite doesn’t even have a wet bar or kitchenette. The huge balcony would have been awesome but there were no deals to be made on the suite rental which would have consumed over half our budget.