We had both our marriage ceremony and meal there, in the same space. We were a party of 20, including me and my bride. It was great. 5/5.
COMMUNICATION & STAFF
My bride was not local, so I coordinated most of it. I mostly communicated with Samantha at Leone's. Samantha was clear and, to my recollection, we did not suffer any miscommunication despite all the back-and-forth. I felt she was invested in working towards a good wedding with us. She made clear the limitations of the space while positing ideas to work within them. e.g. we could not control the music, but depending on their other clientele present, we could play some music at certain instances. Since there were no other customers as we started early saturday afternoon, Samantha played the wedding march. I hadn't even thought about that little detail; it was completely her idea.
FOOD
The food was great. I personally think it's difficult to find bad italian/italian-american food in New Jersey, and Leone's was no exception. The bread was heaven! Everyone enjoyed a solid 3-course meal. We didn't bring our own alcohol, but Leone's was clear that we could if we wanted to. Additionally, we enjoyed this food at a fair price. We definitely received our money's worth.
SPACE
The space was "semi-private". There's a larger area for any incoming clientele on the first level. Overlooking them is a second level as a loft or long balcony; this is where we did our ceremony and meal.
Once again, thanks to Samantha's creativity and flexibility, we were able to do a "walk down the aisle" from the entrance of the restaurant leading to the upper level loft where we had our ceremony. The space allowed for all of our guests to sit at one long table (multiple tables put together) while we did our ceremony in front of them.
We decorated it ourselves, though it was helpful that the restaurant already had a fresh flower on every table. We put our arch against the wall at the end; there our pastor spoke and married us. Where our arch was set, we had ample space to do a first dance as well as take photos with our guests. The loft only had space for us two to dance (I guess if you rent out the whole space you'd be able to have group dancing? Certainly not if you go semi-private.) My family hid my small speaker that we used to play our song for the first dance under a separate table. The restaurant just lowered their music when it was time to play ours.
All in all 5/5 stars. We're very grateful to Samantha, Humberto, and the rest of Leone's Trattoria's staff for making our special day so special! read more