Wedding!

My mom and I met with the caterer on Friday afternoon, and now we can REALLY get going. The issue has been that my parents are expecting each individual person to cost $40+ per plate. Um... are we having lobster? Veal? Shark maybe? No...

Brian Danchuck, of Two Shepherds Cooking gave us a quote for an amazing dinner, at $16.50 per plate.

This consists of tri-tip, chicken (with his homemade barbecue sauce), a poppyseed salad (his homemade recipe with candied walnuts and mandarin oranges), a fruit salad, baby potatoes, baby carrots (with broccoli and corn) in a honey butter sauce, coffee (decaf and regular), sweet tea, punch, water, cider for toasting, set up, break down, flatware, glasses (plastic tumblers), and cake cutting.

He has an event coming up so we will go do a food tasting. I am really excited about this.

After our meeting, a woman walked up to us and tells us she's a nursing student but she used to be a wedding coordinator, and if we didn't mind if she shared some areas where we could save money...

can you say styrofoam cake (with a costco sheet cake hidden in the kitchen?) This is not one we would use, because a cake has been generously offered to us, but apparently is pretty common for the wedding cake to be simply fondant layered over styrofoam. The couple pretends to cut it for the pictures, and then feed each other a slice from the costco cake from behind the pretend cake. And no one ever knows haha.

flowers... buy wholesale... easy enough, but still good to mention. If you can do them yourself (which we can), do it. Oh, and if you want flower petals, just let the florist know. They'll charge you maybe $5 per bag of petals from other arrangements they've been making... and that's a lot of petals.

When renting linens... why rent 2 tablecloths per table? Just rent a white tablecloth, and accent it with rented napkins which are WAY cheaper. Plus, it can make the centerpiece look bigger if you place them right :) Another centerpiece extension.... mirrors... but they're a little more expensive.

When renting anything... if you go through a business, they may tell you they have a 10% discount, but are really pocketing %20 of a %30 discount... so check the prices for yourself before you sign anything.

In your centerpieces... you can put sand in the bottom of the vase... it's free... and for me... it's ten minutes away.

This is a dangerous one... if you have a limit... and the people you want to invite exceed that limit... form an A and B list. Send out invites early to the people on the A list. As the inevitable "no" responses return, send out invites to the people on the B list. It is very possible you may get to invite everyone you want... We were told that if 200 invites were sent out, probably between 125-150 would show... which is exactly what we're aiming for.

SO enough of that...

I like this cake... a lot.

and I like this cake... and the flowers on it... but maybe not organized quite like that...

Flowers.... I've become a huge fan of Dahlias... they're very energetic and big and they come in really versatile colors...

This is pretty....

Similar idea to what I'm looking for... we have a much darker blue though (david's bridal: blue velvet)... among other things...

Thats all for now... I need to scan a few pictures that I have been madly cutting out of bridal magazines....

:)