Genevieve Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Hey all, I'm planning a party for after a bar mitzvah and am having trouble with venues - was hoping the knowledgeable minds here could help. We have large families so we expect a large group - we're guessing 155 will come but we have 200 to invite (we should put the venue on the invitation, but we won't know the group size till we get the responses). Having more than 180 possible seems to knock out a lot of places. I'd love to have some place a little different, with a view or some history or just an interesting looking space. But we definitely don't want it to be really fancy or lavish -- our temple is not into lavish displays and neither are we. But that knocks out a bunch of classic wedding venues. (One cousin in another town had his at a cool bowling place - I think we're too big for that?, but something offbeat like that would be welcome, particularly by the bar mitzvah boy. We don't need to spend on this what we'd spend on a wedding, and we'd like it to be fun and enjoyable and a little laid-back.) We'd love for it to have good food (or we'd get it catered if it was a historic house). But, while we do not keep kosher and don't need kosher catering, we're not going to serve pork or shellfish. We have lots of out of town guests, so we'd like to keep it reasonably central in location to where they'll be staying, which means DC or Arlington. We may end up having it at the temple (which would be fine - it's a pretty nice space) since I'm not finding much. The Artisphere looks to be a little too small. Is the Clarendon Ballroom too fancy? Is the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum too boring/conferencey? Any suggestions or thoughts welcome!! Thanks very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I'd love to have some place a little different, with a view or some history or just an interesting looking space. Nice views at Top of the Town. I think you have to work with a separate caterer, so you can make it as fancy or laid back as you want. It may be a tad small for your purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monavano Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Several years ago, I went to a wedding reception held in one of the rooms at Union Station. It was about the same size party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezy Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Can you rent out H Street Country Club? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkycom Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Here are some ideas for venues: Arena Stage Studio Theatre Atlas Theatre (might be too small if you go over 150) Eastern Market Hill Center (their website is down today) US Botanic Garden Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genevieve Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Thanks, all! Excited to look at these possibilities, and any others people post. Top of the Town has a limit of 180, so even though I don't think we'll go over that, it definitely could happen. I think "Country Club" in the name is a nonstarter since family members very much want it to be laid-back and significantly less formal than a wedding (me too, though I could perhaps get past the name if it wasn't actually that formal). I had thought Virtue Feed and Grain might be perfect (pool table and all -- something like that would be much appreciated), and was greatly annoyed to find out that there's no elevator. We went there to take a look and apparently they're ADA-compliant just by having a small dining room on the first floor -- never mind that people with disabilities can't get to their other rooms, which is where they have all the fun stuff. Grr. (sorry, that made me really cranky.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genevieve Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 and thanks for the list of possibilities, sparkycom! Arena could work (if they allow it on a weekend afternoon or evening). Eastern Market is a great idea but unfortunately for us doesn't allow private weekend events - what a great room that would be. Didn't know they rented it out, so that's very cool. Will look at Botanic Garden and at Hill Center (I'm not familiar with them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezy Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 I think "Country Club" in the name is a nonstarter since family members very much want it to be laid-back and significantly less formal than a wedding (me too, though I could perhaps get past the name if it wasn't actually that formal). H Street Country Club is actually an indoor miniature golf place that serves pub grub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genevieve Posted February 17, 2012 Author Share Posted February 17, 2012 H Street Country Club is actually an indoor miniature golf place that serves pub grub. My husband told me that last night, and I felt so dumb for what I'd posted! It sounds great if our group would fit -- I will take a look. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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