Prairie Star Restaurant

The servers and bartenders were VERY nice, they really went above and beyond for you. The menu is a bit pricey on top of the room reservation, but you can't beat the view. So it's totally worth it--at least that's what my husband and I thought! There is a minimum food expenditure if you have a saturday wedding, so if you have a smaller wedding you may end up buying a bunch of appetizers like we did. But again, the view makes it all worth while. The dance floor is pretty small, that was really the only negative about the place. Everything else was great. The food is delicious--and i'm pretty picky about food.

Beautiful outdoor venue with the mountains in the background; only once did a golf cart zoom by during the ceremony--and it was not much of a distraction (only 1 person mentioned it to us) We (and the guests) loved that the reception was able to be held immediately after the ceremony just inside. Rebecca Chaney is very responsive to email, and will answer every question quickly--by email only, phone is more difficult; we were under the impression that she "only did event site coordinating," which she told us when we first met, however she was at the rehearsal and paid attention so that she was able to send people down the aisle, open the doors, etc. during the ceremony, which was an unexpected bonus! Your rehearsal is scheduled for you--3 hours prior to the wedding the night before yours (if there is one the day before yours, which is probable if it is a weekend...we were married on a Sunday and had a rehearsal at 2:30 the Saturday before, which was moved up a half hour the week of the wedding because the other wedding moved without telling Rebecca). The bar is your choice; you can choose to only host the cocktail hour, the whole thing, for certain people, etc. ORDER MORE APPETIZERS THAN YOU THINK YOU'LL NEED, and make sure you have someone grab some for the wedding party....our attendants didn't get any, only a few guests did not--we had 108 people total and ordered 3 appetizer set-ups (which were beautifully displayed). You may ask them to serve the cake--they set it out at the end of the buffet, and not everyone knew it was there (or have your DJ announce that it is there). Tell them you expect the servers to KNOW what they are serving--we had an ALL apple cider toast, and one of the servers asked if the people wanted champaign...and a few guests didn't take any until the mother of the bride said "this is all supposed to be apple cider...what are you serving???" then it was corrected--when people heard the server's response..."oh, then it must be cider", the other guests took some. The New Mexican buffet was wonderfully prepared, and perfect because we had quite a few out of town people who enjoyed the local flavors. Prairie Star was the best value as compared to any of the places we searched for in Albuquerque or surrounding areas, and nobody seemed mind the drive.