I've had the pleasure of dining at Martha's Table on five different occasions over the last five or so years. When my partner and I decided that our fall 2026 wedding was to be held in the Traverse City area, it became an obvious choice to host our rehearsal dinner at Martha's Table. So I reached out to the restaurant in the spring, speaking with their manager. I told him what we were looking to do and our approximate timeline - we'd be bringing a group of somewhere around 30-40 guests for a Saturday evening dinner but we weren't sure exactly how many yet. He shared that they could offer a roughly $100 per person dinner, that they'd even let us choose the dessert, and they'd get flowers if we'd like. He mentioned that the restaurant could hold up to 40 and for a late October event, we may be able to use the patio, but that we shouldn't depend upon it. When I inquired about how we proceed with booking, he told me to reach back out to the restaurant in late August before they open their October reservations.
Shortly thereafter, we printed out our wedding invitations. For our closest friends and family, we included an insert with an invitation to a 6pm dinner at Martha's Table, the night before the ceremony.
Flash forward to the last week of August, I called and left a voicemail for the manager. When he first called back he seemed rushed and a bit short with me. I had to re-explain many of the details of what we had discussed previously, that we'd finalized the total of 29 adults and 6 children, that we'd like to include one drink for each adult in what we pay for, asking if guests could then buy additional drinks for themselves if they wanted. He was in agreement with all of this, but just seemed on edge for some reason. He told me he'd call me back the following week when they officially opened the reservations.
The next week, he reached out and we talked through some more specifics. We ended up landing on a full night restaurant buy out where guests could order whatever menu item they wanted for dinner instead of them choosing a 4 course fixed menu. Suddenly, he was very urgent to get things completed. He asked for my email so he could send the contract and followed up with a text once the contract was sent. Upon opening the contract, I was shocked to see that the total for the event was somehow $10,000 (almost $12,000 with fees and required gratuity), a lot more than the quoted roughly $100 per person. And with 29 adults and 6 children, this worked out to about $300 a person!
Upon seeing this amount, I asked for an explanation of what changed from when we spoke in the spring and he responded:
"To clarify our policy, we offer either a full buyout for $10,000 or a two-hour window for $5,000. When I previously mentioned roughly $100 per person, it was an estimate based on a group of about 40 guests, which aligns with the $5,000 total. My recollection is that we did not discuss a total package price during our phone call in the spring."
Sadly this was not accurate to what was shared in the spring. I never guaranteed a party of 40 as I never had a final number of guests, he had shared that they could host up to 40. But he was correct that a total package price was not discussed, just the $100 per person for a fixed menu.
I let the manager know that we'd like to proceed with a two-hour window for our rehearsal dinner as we budgeted $4000 to $5000 based upon what had been previously quoted to me. Even though we knew this would now end up over $6000 with gratuity, we decided to stick with Martha's Table given it is now early September and we are running out of days before the wedding.
I asked that he draw up the contract so we could get things finalized. When the new contract was shared, our arrival time was requested to be 4:45 for a 5pm dinner. All previous conversation, including the contract they had sent just days ago included a 6pm start. Given that we have guests who have planned their flights based upon a 6pm start time, I asked in an email to start at 6 or later.
He replied simply with "you can do 8 to 10pm.' With 6 children in the party, an 8pm start is too late. At this point I would have appreciated some discussion or empathy or understanding and have just felt that this whole experience went down hill as soon as I reached out to talk through specifics. It only got worse when I balked at the $10,000 price.
So we emailed and let them know that we'd be going in another direction and our disappointment. He has not responded.
This could have been a much better experience if the manager could have been up front to begin with. I clearly didn't know the right questions to ask and made assumptions, they could have offered a contract or been more precise rather than kicking the can down the road until it was too late.
We are now 40 days out from our wedding and have no location for a rehearsal dinner - no location though is better than the alternative. read more