Whew! Time Flies!

So. It’s less than a year till the old nuptials and I’ve got a lot done. And… I may have blown my budget slightly. Really, though, it’s slight. Let’s discuss.

My budget was based off of my sister’s 2006 wedding and wouldn’t you know it, food was a lot cheaper! Unless I wanted to feed my guests tapas (not a bad idea really), I needed to extend my budget for the food. I also needed to compromise. I can’t remember if I discussed it here because I’ve discussed it a gazillion times over the last six months, but I didn’t want to do a buffet. I hate buffets. Mostly, I hate buffets at restaurants because I like taking home my left overs for breakfast (and sometimes lunch) the next day. With buffets, I feel the food quality suffers plus you pay a lot for all-you-can-eat and I can’t eat that much. Also, buffets encourage over-eating which is unhealthy. Moving on.

I really wanted to have everything family style but the caterer, Cabbage Patch Restaurant, ever-so-kindly talked me out of what have been a big mistake. A big mistake because there’s a ton of waste and a ton of expensive staff. With a ton of waste comes big platters sitting all over tables. Then because the tables wouldn’t be big enough to hold all the big platters, I would need to rent bigger tables (whereas my venue supplies a bunch of round tables that seat 8 for free). That also means bigger linens which also ads to the cost. See where I’m going here? Family style is a bad idea for me. For you, maybe things are different.

My second choice was the plated meal. My caterer also did a good job of convincing me not to do this option. It’s too expensive because of the extra labor. Apparently, one must pay one’s waiter. And so, I announce, I’ll be serving a buffet of very delicious food at (ahem) 8 dollars per person more than my original budget. Ouch! And so that, my friends, is why I went over budget. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Aside from the caterer, I’ve also got my florist, cake baker, musician, venue, dress, and decor. They are listed in that tab that discusses the folks I’ve hired. I also need to include that if it weren’t for my wedding coordinator, BreeAnn Gale, I probably wouldn’t be this together with the wedding. I highly recommend hiring a BreeAnn!