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!

You do have to pay for the program but there was a sale price of 56 dollars for an entire year which makes this a budget friendly weight loss program. I haven’t weighed myself so I’m not sure how I’m doing. I do know that I’ve started working out again and stairs aren’t as daunting as they were a couple of weeks ago. Phew on that one!

In this case, I hired a gal which, since I haven’t asked permission to use her name yet, will simply call her “Gale.” Gale, like other wedding planners have a variety of wedding planning packages from the whole kit-and-caboodle planning, to what she called, “Final Coordination Package.” A Final Coordination package, as explained to me, gets you day-of help. She will set up and take down and make sure all the vendors are in order. I paid for a package slightly above that to get a little extra help.

So far, what I’ve gotten is golden information about tipping, table sizes, linen sizes for table sizes, good suggestions for local venues… and we haven’t really started. I have a meeting in June to kick start the wedding planning. I will update you all on how awesome hiring Gale is then. Oh, and I should mention, yes, it’s costing me around $2000, and yes,  is a lot of money, but a venue and mistakes can easily take you well over the $2000.  (Not to mention the stress of it all!)  Some wedding planners will do payment options should you hire them well enough in advanced to do so. Do your homework on wedding planners. Don’t just hire the cheapest. Check out Yelp and bridal sites to see what other brides have had to say about these planners. Then, email around. See what they can do for you. I’m sure you won’t be sorry.

5/23/11

PS. My wedding planner is Pink Blossom Events

A small wedding seems more and more unobtainable as I keep thinking about all the folks that are really dear to us and our families that we really shouldn’t leave out. My list grows but it’s a good and healthy growth. It makes me happy to think of all the people that have touched Mikel and his family and those that have touched the lives of my family and I.

I am pleased as punch that my Uncle Everett has agreed to be my officiant. He is my mom’s eldest sibling and a “retired” ELCA Lutheran pastor. While we don’t have “God Fathers and God Mothers, I’ve been told as a kid that should anything happen to my parents, he and his wife, my Aunt Pam, are to raise my sister, brother and I. He has lucked out of that one. But to have family marry us has been very important to me. It’s also very important to me that I be married by an ELCA Lutheran pastor because the ELCA division of the Lutheran denomination has approved gay marriage and gay clergy. They have long since approved women pastors. While some would say this is progressive thinking, I say that this is merely us paying attention to God’s word. While neither I nor Mikel are gay (obviously) we do support gay marriage. Mikel belongs to no faith but supports mine and likes that the ELCA Lutherans are a tolerant loving denomination who do not discriminate. This is most certainly true.

We have the flower girl and ring bearer picked out but what month? When I was younger, I dreamed about having it in Spring–May preferably–but anyone who has lived in the Pacific Northwest knows that May is a rainy month. So is June. And so are all the other months that aren’t July and August and the first half of September. This means, if I want to have an outdoor wedding, July, August, and September are my only safe options. August is too hot. July is to predictable. September is ideal but I will likely have school. Unless! Unless I have it on the Sunday before Labor Day! Now there’s a thought…

Okay so maybe I now have the date picked out. I feel a little better. Thanks for helping me. I do have the venue picked out. We have picked out a beautiful state park to have our wedding at, which, for safety reasons, I will not post because you now know the date of my wedding. Psych! As of now, we still plan to have our wedding at the beautiful Saint Edwards State Park.

With state parks, at least the case is true in Washington, the venue is cheap. Our venue will cost us about 1000. That’s it. My friend had hers in a building at a different state park near Issaquah for even less than that. If you’re on a small budget, state parks are the way to go! That is, of course, assuming you don’t want it in someone’s yard. That would be far cheaper.

And since we’re on the topic of staying cheap, I’ve been told by various magazines and websites that having the wedding off season would save even more money. I heed this advice but I will politely turn it down. I can’t use the venue picked out if I want it off season because that would mean rain. My guests would be unhappy. So no. No fall, winter, or early spring wedding for me. It’s okay. I think I can manage.

So far, I’ve figuratively spent 1000 dollars of my budget. 9000 left to go. How to spend?