Roeland Park, KS, USA < change city >

Response from the couple:
Hi Sofya!
Congrats on getting married! :)

We really enjoyed having our reception at the Mission Theatre. It's unique and felt rather intimate, while still allowing us to have about 135 people at the reception.

I found the place to be very good with price - and beer/wine, dj, linens were all included. I liked not having to worry about working with different vendors, or guestimating liquor and having to return it, working with a DJ, etc. The only other vendor I had to work with was our catering/cake.

With that said, there were some nuances about Ryan that are probably good to know ahead of time. :) He didn't seem really organized to me, but somehow managed to get the job done rather well. We spent a lot of time discussing table layout and flow of the night. He never rushed me even though he had a lot to do whenever I would stop by. Since he was the DJ, he also acted as the MC, so as the owner and overseeing the catering, we felt pretty good the night would run smoothly (and it did!). At the beginning of the night we had our doubts! But in the end, everything worked out just fine.

Regarding the music, we were rather particular on what style of music we wanted to hear (lots of swing music, no country, etc) so we provided a lot of the music for the night. I thought he did a good job early in the night, but I heard after we left, he started playing not-so-gentle-on-the-grandparents type of music. But what did we care, we were gone by then... :)If I remember correctly, I think you can hire an outside DJ. Our biggest thing with a DJ is that we didn't want excessive talking and wanted someone who knew how to play music to keep the night going - which he and his staff did well.

I would also consider the number of people that will be there. At 135ish, it was comfortably full for a buffet meal. I don't think I would have wanted too many more people in there.

He didn't dress for the occasion though, and had on jeans, a shirt and looked like he hadn't showered in days. In his defense I think he had three events stacked right before ours, plus a wife with three kids and a new baby. But before the event he did tell us that he doesn't wear a tux because he doesn't want to 'look better than the guests' but we thought at least he might wear some slacks and a nice dress shirt. You might just ask him to wear something nice -- we did get a lot of questions about 'who was that guy who looked like he stuck his finger in a light socket?' lol.

I do think Ryan is a good guy and in the end seems to pull it off, but there were a few times I was second-guessing our decision to have it there. It wasn't a whole lot of stress though, so I think as long as you feel he is clear about what you are wanting then I think you'll have a great time. I actually think he has a great place there (and by the way it looks MUCH better at night with all the lights, and the soft-lighting inside -- it looks a tad dumpy by day) and he undersells his place and does a LOT of the setting up, breaking down and running the night all by himself.. so I think he's really committed to your night. He just has a lot going on all the time.

I hope this is helpful! It's probably more info than you need to know. :) Feel free to ask anything else, or if you decide to have your reception there and have questions about how we did the flow for the night, or where the tables were or where we sat, the cake, etc... (we did something different that what he was normally used to, but it worked out very well) feel free to ask away!

Sabrina

Response:
Hi Sabrina! Thank you so much for the reply, I really appreciate all the detail and when planning one of these things, there is NEVER too much information from what I've found :) I'm trying to plan a wedding from Japan right now but I'll be meeting with Ryan at the beg. of Nov so I may have more questions then. Would you happen to have any pictures on-line of your event, set up, etc? What church did you guys use?

Thanks again!

-Sofya :)

Response from the couple:
Sofya!
Oh my gosh, I didn't see this come through... are you married yet? I'm so sorry, I hope you got what you needed. If you are still looking for pics let me know, I'd be happy to send. We got married at our church, St. Paul's Catholic Church which is in Olathe, and not super close to The Mission Theater. Hope all is well!
Sabrina