Priest: "How many people are you expecting?"
Me: "We both have huge Catholic families -- we're inviting over 200."
Priest: "You know, the folks at the Mariner's Center really do a nice job. I've been there for a number of large receptions.... It's right in the Old Port."
Me: "Oh that's so great to hear -- we've already booked with them!"
Our reception at the Mariner's Center was fabulous. The Mariner's Center was not the first venue I looked at. I really made the rounds and comparison shopped in the beginning, but it was hands down the right choice for us.
The dinner was excellent and brought up efficiently as possible -- no one left hungry.
The space is incredibly versatile, as the photos on the Facebook page and home page will show you. (Also, have you seen how "in" teal is this year (2016)? I wasn't super excited for the teal at first, but I embraced it, and I was rewarded. We did pink flowers, silver candelabras with white tapers, navy napkins, white linens, and a few little teal/aqua/turquoise accents. It looked good, if I may be so bold as to say, but I’ve seen other color schemes in there look great, too).
The price was right -- for 176 guests, full formal plated dinner (because the groom was anti-buffet), and a drink ticket redeemable for one drink (wine, beer, well or soda) in lieu of a party favor for all guests, the bill did not exceed $9,000. That price does not include cake or decorations, but does include service and linens. There were no sneaky fees (cake cutting fees, bottle opening fees, etc.). They were very transparent about costs.
In addition, the Mariner's Center staff did a wonderful job. Sarah Campbell, the banquet manager is really sharp and gave me great advice about how to plan and what vendors to work with. Devin the assistant manager also a great job managing the day, and helping me with bustling my gown, bringing us snacks while we waited in the Billiard's Room downstairs before being announced, and making sure things moved along.
Also, not to cast shade on any of other venues in Southern Maine, but not many venues in the area have the abundance of natural light that the Mariner's Center offers (not even some pricey ones, let alone the more affordable ones). The windows at the Mariner's Centers are huge and they are on 3/4 of the walls in the space. If you add some candles on the table (they allow open flames -- we had candelabras with three 12" tapers on each table), your pictures will look gorgeous. We married in late April and so we had great light until almost 8 PM, which was quitting time for our photographers.
I could not have asked for a venue or better overall experience.