Our "Mini Wedding"

Not really, but as I am planning our rehearsal dinner, that's what it is beginning to feel like. It's just as stressful, if not more than it was to find our ceremony & reception location. Actually, now that I think about it, finding The Valentine was much easier. I thought what we were wanting for our rehearsal dinner would be simple and definitely easy to get planned quickly. We just want a restaurant that we both love, with good food selections and where our friends will enjoy. Oh and price per person should be a decent, reasonable price. We are planning on inviting 30 of our closest family and friends to our rehearsal dinner -- turns out thats almost half of our guest list for the wedding. So it kinda is like a mini wedding.




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Our initial thought of the restaurant we wanted to have the rehearsal dinner at was one of our favorite restaurants in Richmond -- Comfort. As the name suggests, their menu features many southern classics, aka comfort food. They have the best fried green tomatoes, mac & cheese, fried catfish... actually everything on their menu is delicious! Oh and their take on banana pudding is to. die. for! If you are ever in Richmond, it is a must. Ok, enough drooling. Sadly Comfort wasnt going to work out. They dont have a room for private events and in order for us to have our dinner, we would have to rent out the restaurant. Which wouldnt be a problem, but they want your event to justify closing the restaurant. Basically, if they make 5k on a Friday night, they want your party to match that. 5k for 30 people... do the math and it comes out to over $100 per person. I love our family and friends, but not that much. Sorry!

Top picture: view of the Jefferson in its grandness

Bottom picture: the Rotunda Lobby with the grand staircase

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So after a brief mourning period, we moved on to another great restaurant in Richmond -- Lemaire located in the Jefferson Hotel. The Jefferson is an iconic hotel in Richmond and a lot of people have their weddings and/or receptions there, but thats for the fancy schmancy people. The original Lemaire was a high-end restaurant that people went to when they were celebrating special occasions. Justin and I went twice -- once to celebrate one of Justin's promotions and the other time was when we treated ourselves to a "fancy" night out; we went to Lemaire and then saw Bugs Bunny on Broadway at the Landmark Theater (another iconic landmark in Richmond). At the beginning of 2009, Lemaire "closed" for a renovation and reopened as a hipper, more wallet friendly restaurant. They also focus on using ingrediants found locally which is something we really like. We havent been back to see how the renovations turned out, but we enjoyed their food so much we are open to considering it as the location. So I sent an inquiry and have been emailing back and forth with their coordinator working out the minor details.

Top: Outside view of Juleps

Bottom: Inside view on their awesome stairs showing the top & bottom levels

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The other strong contender is Julep's located in Shockoe Slip. My sorority had their 25th Anniversary celebration, which I helped plan, at Julep's and everyone loved the restaurant and the food. They have an upstairs dining area that is perfect size for our party of 30 and Amy, the owner, is really great to work with. Plus, there is a little bit of haunted history, and I'm all for a good ghost story.

We are setting up meetings with both Lemaire and Julep's, but I already have my favorite picked out. But to be fair, I want Justin to see both of them before we make our decision.

Is your rehearsal dinner turning into a "Mini" Wedding?