Church banquets · Orlando
A Church Banquet Hall in Orlando, and Sunday Evening Costs Less
Start with Sunday
Most churches plan the banquet for a Saturday because that is what banquets do. Then the price comes back at weekend rates with a $3,000 minimum total spend attached, and the committee starts cutting things.
Move it to Sunday evening instead. Any event starting after 4 PM on a Sunday is billed at our weekday rate, with no minimum spend. Venue Only drops from $1,800 to $1,500. Your congregation is already dressed, already together, already downtown. Service ends, people go home for two hours, and they come back to a room that is set and waiting.
Monday through Thursday carries the same weekday rate and the same absence of a minimum, which suits a mid-week revival dinner or a men’s fellowship night.
The occasions this room is for
Church anniversaries, where three generations of members need to sit down together. Pastor and first lady appreciation, which needs a stage, a microphone and a room that can hold a proper presentation. Women’s day and men’s day banquets. Youth banquets and graduation recognition. Ushers’ and choir anniversaries. Revival meals. Installation services. The fellowship dinner after a homegoing, when nobody has the energy to set up a hall.
They have one thing in common: a lot of people, a program, and food that needs to be hot at the same moment for everybody.
What Venue Only actually includes
This is the package we point most churches toward, because churches usually arrive with their own people, their own program and often their own food. It is six hours and it includes more than the name suggests.
- Tables and chairs for 100, never charged per chair
- An event host on site for your entire rental
- Setup before you arrive and cleaning after you leave, both outside your six hours, so your volunteers are not stacking chairs at 10 PM
- The wall of pleated gray drape as a backdrop for the head table
- House sound with Bluetooth and aux, and two TV screens
- Free on-site parking and WiFi
- Step-free access and accessible restrooms
There is a low convertible stage for the pastor, the podium, the praise team or the presentation. White coffered ceiling, statement chandelier, white walls, and a bar that stays closed if you want it closed.
The food question, answered honestly
The room shares a building and a full commercial kitchen with the restaurant. It is the reason food here comes out hot instead of arriving lukewarm in foil trays from across town, and it is why there is no delivery fee on anything we cook.
You have three sensible options.
Your kitchen ministry cooks. Venue Only has no food attached and outside vendors are welcome at no fee. Take the room, bring the meal.
Drop-off buffet. $32 a guest, set in the room, ready when your guests come through the door. This is the one that fits most church budgets, and it removes the argument about who is cooking this year.
Full catering, staffed. Packages run $50 to $75 a person with a 50-guest minimum. The 18% service fee covers staff for up to three hours, full setup and complete breakdown. For a 150-member anniversary dinner, having nobody from the church working the line is worth the difference.
The menu is Caribbean and it serves a crowd properly: jerk chicken, chicken curry, oxtail, griot, pepper steak, chicken cordon bleu, pan-seared salmon, diri ak pwa, diri djon djon, mac gratinée, legim, sweet plantains, yuca, and akra, mini paté and wings while people are arriving. Sorrel and fruit punch on the tables. Pen patat, douce makòs and blan manje for dessert, or $9 a person for a full dessert table.
Come and taste it before the committee votes. Very few venues in Orlando can put the actual meal in front of you, because very few have a kitchen at all.
Running a banquet program that finishes on time
Six hours is the minimum, and a church banquet fills it. Ninety minutes for your setup and decorating team. Half an hour of greeting. An hour and a half for the meal. Then the program, which is the part that always runs long. Give the occasion, the presentation and the remarks hard time limits in writing and hand them to whoever is presiding. Serve dessert during the program rather than after, and the room stays seated.
Events end at midnight, extendable to 1 AM for $150 an hour if arranged in advance. Extra hours during the day are $250.
Holding the date
A $500 non-refundable retainer holds it and comes off the balance. Half the remainder is due 60 days out, the rest 21 days before, plus a $300 refundable damage deposit returned within 7 business days. You can book 18 months ahead, which comfortably covers next year’s anniversary.
House rules are short: no glitter, no confetti or powder-filled balloons, nothing taped to the floors, nothing affixed to the walls, no open flame.
Bring two or three people from the committee for a tour on a weekday evening. We will walk the room, talk through the program, and feed you.
Questions
About church banquets here.
Is Sunday really billed at the weekday rate?
Yes, as long as the event starts after 4 PM. Venue Only on a Sunday evening is $1,500 rather than the weekend $1,800, and there is no minimum total spend attached. For a church that finishes service in the early afternoon, it is the best value on our calendar.
Can we hold a completely dry event?
Of course. The bar simply stays closed. No package obliges you to serve alcohol, and we will have sorrel, fruit punch, juice, coffee and soft drinks out instead. Guests may not bring their own alcohol in either.
Can our kitchen ministry bring the food?
Yes. The Venue Only package contains no food at all, so you are free to bring your own or use an outside caterer at no extra fee. Many churches still use our kitchen for the mains and bring their own sides and desserts. Either way there is no cutting fee on a cake and no delivery fee on food we cook.
Will 100 or more people fit comfortably?
We seat 100 at tables and hold 130 standing. Tables and chairs for 100 are included in every package and we never charge per chair. If your list is running well past 130, tell us early and we will say honestly whether we are the right room.
Is the hall accessible for our older members?
Free parking directly outside the door, step-free access throughout and accessible restrooms. No stairs, no long walk from a garage, no curb to negotiate with a walker.
Come and stand in the room.
Tours are by appointment and we answer within four business hours.