What home stereo can fill a larger room of 140 people during dinner?

Cambridge Soundworks makes very nice home theater packages and this is one I have had my eye on.
http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/store/category.cgi?category=ht_sys_receiver&item=k1pk737e#

Perhaps something that could be hooked up to multiple speakers?

Sounds like you’re trying to fill a large hall. Consider that most home theatre systems are designed to produce a certain loudness for a certain sized room, and that the acoustics in a controlled theatre (living) room contrast that of a large banquet hall.

While not a fan of such acoustics (halls), I can tell you as an audio professional that it takes a considerable system to power an entire room. If ambient background music is what you’re trying to accomplish, then the power of most home theatre audio systems should suffice.

If a large crowd will be dancing to the same system later (let’s say 50 or more people), then you may run into power problems (not enough power for the loudness level most people like to hear for dancing). But if the band will be taking care of that, then I guess the point is moot.

And the last bit of advice (take it from personal experience), don’t try to DJ your own wedding. I had my friend miscue a CD I burned of wedding music, for my “first dance” with my wife. I had to stop dancing, walk over to the CD deck, and cue up my own first dance…how embarrassing! Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you have any technical (follow-up) questions.

Thanks everyone for your advice. No way in hell am i DJing my reception. The music my friend is providing is just for making a nice atmosphere, but we will not be dancing to it – thanks for the reminder though! I am sorry to hear about that first dance. I am sure it was nice once the right song played though.

I’d look into renting or a sound service.

I’m no sound professional, either, but it seems to me like you’re trying to accomplish two separate goals here:
1. Provide ambient music for a large room
and
2. Provide high-quality, not-necessarily-loud music for a household or living room

While it would be nice to use the same stereo for the wedding and for the home, it seems like the two goals require different equipment: namely, a real power amp, maybe a mixing board (for the band), etc. Perhaps you could ask the band if you can jack into their speakers or monitors before and after they play for a bit more money? If their mixing board has tape-in, all you’d need is a stereo-to-RCA cable.

I would use the bands PA. You can easily patch in a computer, MP3 player or CD player into their PA and the sound should be heard through tje whole room. To get a home system to do this would be very expensive and not practical.