Why we got married at a restaurant

Our experience getting married at DC's most romantic restaurant, Iron Gate

As avid restaurant diners, when we began wedding planning, we knew that (outside of celebrating our love, of course) food needed to be the centerpiece of our event. I inquired everywhere: a hotel in Eze that I loved when studying in France, a venue on the edge of a cliff in Big Sur, a NYC restaurant I saw a friend on Instagram get married at back in 2017.

Eventually, we decided that as much as we love to travel, what we really love is our home in DC. This is where we reside 90% of the year and where we go out to bars and restaurants 6+ times a week.

I inquired at every.single.restaurant in DC that we loved. All the while, in the back of my mind, I was hoping that Iron Gate Restaurant would work out. When my husband and I first started dating, we worked together and it had to stay a big secret. Many times we had talked about someday going out to the most romantic restaurant in DC and enjoying martinis and a delightful meal under the twinkling lights of the patio.

Suffice to say, getting married at Iron Gate was a complete dream come true. It allowed us to have a formal yet intimate event from the ceremony to the after party, and I wouldn’t have changed a single thing about the day. Here are all of the reasons why we chose to get married at a restaurant.

1: Food (duh) and drinks

It goes without saying that this is the #1 reason why we chose a restaurant. Each Bride has different priorities when it comes to what is most important to them: the party, the first dance, the outfits. For us, it was the food. Our goal was to provide our guests with one of, if not the, best meal they’d ever have.

Our menu consisted of lobster ravioli, steak tartare, tuna crudo, deviled eggs with roe. The list goes on and on and on. The meal was served family style and had nine different courses, not including the five hors d’oeuvres served during cocktail hour. I opened my phone the next day to see that several guests texted me during dinner about the slow-roasted salmon being the best fish they’d ever had.

We greeted guests with a glass of champagne with their name and table number, had batch cocktails of Bees Knees and Old Fashioneds ready immediately after the ceremony, and chose to do all top-shelf liquor. My absolute most favorite part of our wedding was seeing the receipt afterwards: 150 batch cocktails, 85 bottles of wine, 63 beers, 37 tequila shots, 28 bourbons. And that’s not even the whole of it. For a 75 person wedding.

2: Service

As wonderful as traditional wedding venues are, they are less likely to have seasoned professionals who have chosen to make a living in the restaurant industry. The people we worked with at IG were absolutely incredible. I truly cannot say enough complimentary things about their staff, and I’m certain that most restaurants would provide a similar level of white glove service.

I had never been to a wedding where they treat the event like a true dinner service: taking drink orders, refilling wine glasses. They treated our guests like family and truly made the entire day the best experience for everyone.

3: Decor

It may sound like I had an unlimited budget as you read this, but we truly had a strict budget to adhere to, and because we decided to ball out on the venue, food, and drink, we had to cut back elsewhere.

This is one of the greatest blessings of being married at a restaurant: the place is already decorated! I chose to lean into the cozy, sexy and romantic vibes that Iron Gate already had and decided to forgo any florals and did all candles (that’s another thing- most traditional venues won’t allow open flames). I did 300 candles in total: 200 antique brass candlesticks for the inside dining room and 100 glass hurricanes for outside (we had to split our guests during dinner). I was able to resell the candlesticks for as much as I bought them for, so I ended up spending no money on decor. Win!

4: Ability to Return

Of course this isn’t exclusive to restaurants, but I especially love the fact that we can go back whenever we want. I’m sure we’ll return for future anniversaries, but we even went for dinner a few weeks ago and it was so special.

As soon as we arrived, my husband said ‘wow, it even smells like our wedding.’ We were reminiscing the whole time. My stomach dropped when we walked into the lobby as I remembered the nerves I felt right before walking down the aisle. I can’t wait to go back year after year and have the memories come flooding in.

5: Staying at home

This is both unique to our situation and not unique to being married at a restaurant, but one of the best decisions we made for our wedding day was to incorporate our home. My husband and his friends got ready at our house and were meant to walk down to the restaurant before the ceremony (until he ruptured his Achilles and was on crutches at our wedding; a story for another day).

Given the injury, we also decided to cancel our hotel for our wedding night. We were planning on staying in an indulgent suite at a 5 star hotel, but canceled last minute and I just absolutely love that we got to sleep at home and wake up in our own bed. It made the night feel so special because it felt just like any other night out for us, but with the addition of 75 of our friends.

Overall, getting married at a restaurant, and Iron Gate in particular, was by far the best decision we made in the wedding planning process. Our night exceeded every and all expectations, and I am so grateful to the staff for their hand in all of it.

Cheers!