Torero's Mexican Restaurant in the Oak Creek Village Mall, Durham, NC

Rehearsal Dinner #1: Torero’s Mexican Restaurant, Durham, NC. Okay, this calls for a little explanation – since our wedding was on a Sunday, we wanted to have a little bit of informal evening fun with all our friends, family, and especially so we could spend more time with the out-of-towners. So the night before the wedding we had a “rehearsal dinner” to which ALL our guests were invited.

We decided to have it at an informal Mexican restaurant where we could have a buffet and where guests could come and go as they pleased. This turned out to work great. We didn’t have any complex planning in mind for the evening, but the restaurant’s owner, Ruben, was happy to work with us on whatever we came up with. (I don’t think he does a ton of work by email, the best thing to do is just to call the # on the website and set up a time to meet with him).

We blocked off one of his back rooms with “private function” signs and gave all our guests wristbands to keep track of how many showed up. Ruben gave us an extremely reasonable rate for food and drinks. Everyone ate and drank, the kids ran around, and everyone had a great time. If you’re local to the Durham area, you should know that the Durham Torero’s has just this year moved into a new facility and it’s really fun, clean, spacious, colorful and festive. Anyone planning an informal event should consider doing it at Torero’s!!!!

Click here for Torero’s catering menu and prices.
Reuben Garcia is the manager – call him at 919.641.3872

Sign welcoming us to Washingon Duke Inn in Durham NC

My daughter got married in June and I’ll be posting her reviews of the vendors she used. But first, I thought I’d pass along some pictures and booking information and prices for the Washington Duke Inn. Hannah (my daughter) booked a block of rooms here for out of town guests, and they were very happy.

Recently, I attended a luncheon at this hotel and took my camera. I also got some pricing information for you!

This is what you see when you drive up. The approach is a long driveway off the pretty treelined road from Duke University.

Driving up to the Washington Duke Inn

The hotel facade is not very pretty, but who cares, you won’t be outside for long.

Exterior of Durham's Washington Duke Inn

A bellman stands at the door at reception; he can help you.

Bellman greets us at drive-up area of Washington Duke Inn

Below, some interior shots. There are many small and large rooms for lunches, dinners, and wedding ceremonies.

A conference room at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham NC

On our way to a banquet room at the Washington Duke Inn

Below, the luncheon I attended. The food was delicious! Beth Pendergrass is the Catering Sales Manager at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club – she is nice, smart, ingenious, and helpful.

Prices seem to run around $100-$162 per person as a package (see detailed information below). Very large groups can be accommodated. $1,500-$25,000 is the “a la carte” price of reserving various rooms. An outdoor ceremony itself is $2,000. For more information contactl Ms. Pendergrass; she has a very detailed and helpful booklet available for prospective brides and their families.

A banquet room at the Washington Duke Inn

Address: 3001 Cameron Boulevard, Durham, North Carolina 27705
Phone: (919) 313-2185

My daughter’s photographer got pregnant and realized her due date was around the time of my daughter’s wedding, so she got her fellow professional photographer Elizabeth Larson to take the job. (I took the picture above.)

Elizabeth met us at Duke Gardens in Durham NC recently to do some engagement photos. She said it might take as much as two hours but we were done in 45 minutes and her images are wonderful. You can visit them at her blog: Elizabeth Larson, wedding photographer in NC. I love the choices she made when posting to her blog, here are a couple of samples:

My daughter and her fiance, Elizabeth Larson photographer

My daughter and fiance, photo by Elizabeth Larson

Tall fondant cake from Swank Cake Design, Chapel Hill NC

Swank fondant cakes: black and green, black and white, ribbon design

Wedding Cakes from Sugarland, Chapel Hill NC

I’ll be featuring these “cake shooters” (above) in the next post. And here’s detail on Sugarland’s adorable Indian bride and groom:

Cake topper, not sculpey but fondant, for an Indian wedding

When the ceremony was over we moved inside and set up in the alcove at the far end of this room. We played swing tunes during the early dinner, and after dinner a caller taught folks how to do English Country Dances, the kind you see in Masterpiece Theater Jane Austen balls.
This is what you see when you come in the front door. They set up the desserts – three cakes and some pie – and two big heated containers of soup and casserole and salad on this buffet table.

This is one of the several tiny rooms on the first floor where tables were set up for the sit down dinner. Everybody had room to eat comfortably in these several rooms and they could all hear us even though we were alone in that front room until the dancing started!

I know our bride got a good deal on her rental because November is the off season. If you really trusted the weather – or if you had big tents – I suppose you could hold a big wedding here outside, but the place was bursting at the seams with fewer than forty.

Elodie Farms is only five minutes away from Spruce Pine Lodge in Bahama NC, the first location the bride chose, but they were so odd about returning her contract she decided to move down the road.

Spruce Pine Lodge is better if you hope a lot of people will dance, but Elodie Farms is an exceptionally lovely old-fashioned farmhouse with a gorgeous view.

The goat cheese they make at Elodie Farms is spectacular! They served some at lunch.
Elodie Farms
(919) 479-4606
9522 Hampton Road
Rougemont, NC 27572

There are several rooms available for rehearsal dinners and receptions, and in fact you could have your wedding ceremony in one of the rooms while another was being prepared for the after-party! I believe it’s also possible to marry outside on their lovely grounds.

It used to be that only members of the Country Club could book the rooms there, but the rule has recently been relaxed. In view of the troubled economy and bridal party wishes to be frugal, room rental charges are waived under certain circumstances.

There’s plenty of parking and it’s easy to get to. You can contact Mr. Sluck at 919-383-1591 extension 239 to get his very comprehensive price and options package. Or email him at jsluck@croasdailecountryclub.com.

Here’s the website: Croasdaile Country Club.

So she’s throwing a party for a hundred people at the new Torero’s location on Chapel Hill Boulevard, in Oak Creek Village shopping center on 15-501 business, across from Toyota. This is a big building that’s been empty for a long time and they’ve painted it – it looks grand now – and it’s all beautifully painted with rich, lively colors inside. There’s a back room with seating for about 80 or 100 people.

Here’s their catering menu. Ruben, the owner, is going to cordon off the back for us and serve a buffet of various Mexican foods: rice and beans, enchiladas, tacos, burritos, chips and salsa, etc. with soft drinks, tea, sangria, and beer. The buffet (not including alcohol) will be around $11 per person, and considering that we don’t have to pay extra for the room, this seems like a spectacular deal. He’s a great local vendor, well worth supporting. I eat at Toreros often and it feels like home.

My daugher’s getting married at Duke Gardens and they make new vendors jump through a lot of hoops to sign up, so we’re glad Nawwaf was willing to go through the process. Duke also has lists of approved rental people – there are no chairs or tables on site, we must rent them all – and Nawwaf is going to help us coordinate that.

We’re getting a very nice spread of Near Eastern food – pita and hummus and grape leaves and salads and lots of stuff including chicken and steak kebobs and felafel – and a range of soft drinks and teas etc. – with an appetizer course outside (to keep guests happy while pictures are being taken) and a buffet luncheon inside – for $28 per person. He will take care of hiring servers for us who will do set-up and break-down; we are going to provide the wine and beer but Nawwaf’s people will serve it. His people are going to cost $25/hour and it takes quite a few of them.

Anyway, I wanted to give this experience, so far, my heartiest recommendation. I first met Nawwaf when Mappamundi was playing at the wedding of a very picky bride. I told him at the time it was the best food I’d had at a wedding and asked, “Has the bride called you as often as she’s called me?” He smiled. He made her happy, so I’m sure he can make you happy too.

Jazmin now has two locations: 2430 Hillsborough Road in Raleigh, the food court in the Cary Towne Mall, and the one where we met him today, the newest, at 1624 Walnut Street in Cary, right at the highway exit. Go have a meal, you’ll like it!

Chantel Smith, “event coordinator,” is offering a flat-rate $5,000 package which includes:

Events in a Box, NC.