I know - I've been pretty terrible lately with posting updates! Sorry!!
I think last I wrote I was getting ready to go to our first tasting for catering. Well, it was pretty much what we expected. We haven't been to many weddings or at least typical weddings (I've been to many Chinese ones - but the food for those ones are no way the average wedding fair!); but the food we tried I would definetly describe as "wedding food". I always heard that term watching the TV shows, and now I have a better understanding of what that means. The food was average, definitely not great but not bad; certain items were better than others; it was a stereotypical menu with the food done how you'd expect it. Shaved beef, grilled chicken, vegetarian lasagna, potatoes, ect. I mean there's nothing wrong with the traditional menu, even the menu I'm now looking at still offers these types of items; but I found the taste of the food reminded me of food on a ferry or a plane - smells decent, looks decent, tastes decent - the only thing I was missing was it being served out of plastic.
Aaron and I didn't want to spend too much on the food for our wedding. Our mind set is, that most people will be drinking and won't really care what they'll be eating; and most people don't have high expectations for our food anyways. So our goal was to find a caterer that could give us enough options to facilitate all our guests, but be cheap on our budget. We left the tasting both a little disappointed in the food; we knew what we should have expected, but at the same time we were wishfully thinking that we'd be pleasantly surprised with the quality. Even though disappointed, we still felt as if we should book it. We didn't think we'd be able to find anyone else that could do it even close to the same price, and, all-in-all, they still offered a large variety of food and were very flexible with our extra needs (serving appetizers and extras we bring on our own).
However, Carmen (who was also with us on the tasting) wasn't ready to settle for this food. She went to her computer and began searching. Mind set: There must be SOMETHING better out there that's still affordable! And the continued effort paid off. We've now found another caterer we think will be far better. If we go with the basic packages they offer, we would actually come out UNDER the first places' cost, and the food sounds a lot better! However, of course I'm not satisfied with just the basic, so with a couple additives I'm hoping I'll end up just the same, or just a little bit above. We're hoping to be able to go to a tasting early January so we can see him in action at a function and therefore get a better idea of the quality of the food that would be served on the actual day. We're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping the food tastes just as good as the pictures and descriptions.
I've almost finished buying all the supplies for the invitations - just have a couple more pieces left to get! I've scheduled a date to get all my favourite girlies together to help me put them together! SSsssssoooo thankful for the help! It'll save me loads of time!
I've purchased my earrings for the wedding! So excited! Got them 40% off due to a reopening sale! YAY!
I got to attend the "First Annual Bradford/Hilbert Christmas Baking" session! It was a good 5 hour marathon of baking!!! Chantal, Carmen, Ali and I each brought a recipe and then one by one we went through each of them baking a couple dozen of each for ourselves to bring home. It ended being a really fun event with us all leaving feeling really sick from eating too much dough and sugar. Chantal and I each brought cookie recipes, Carmen brought a coconut/walnut bar recipe, and Allison had peanut brittle. There were a few bumps that will need to be smoothed out next year (apparently I don't read instructions very well! It was quite obvious I skimmed the email - I had no clue what was going on!), and making peanut brittle isn't as fool proof as one would think! But we each went home with enough goodies and snacks to last us until the new year (probably longer if it weren't for me bringing some to work for everyone)!
My months to-do list:
- Send save-the-dates
- register somewhere
- solidify decorator
- tasting and hopefully booking with caterer
- Invitation making
- continue looking for DJ
- continue looking for makeup/hair artist (I can't believe how much this costs by the way!!! My jaw drops everytime I get a quote back for $250+!! I mean, come on!!!!!!!! It's hair and make up!!! I would expect to pay no more than $60-80 for makeup and $100 for hair!!! Big rip off! I'm almost considering doing the make up myself! Screw the overpriced make up artists! I mean I realize, that some of the pricing includes a consultation ... SOME... but still it should not cost me $100 for them to sweep some foundation and eye shadow on my face, as well my hair will be mostly down! So I'm not hoping for a lavish up-do. To curl and pin my hair to the side shouldn't cost $180 (I've seen this price for this!). You can tell this is a section that erks me a bit. Food, fine I'll pay $4000 to feed everyone... decorating.. ok.. I want the room to look nice, I'll pay for that ... Photographer/videographer - MUSTS... but I just don't feel right paying $250 or more for makeup and hair - and there's still no TIP / HST(if applicable) included in that price!!! It's crazy, I got a quote from somebody saying that for my make up and hair it would cost me $200 plus $50 for a consultation; however they'll do my bridesmaids for $75. That's a big difference! What are they doing to me that's costing $125 more! Sure a little more time and care spent, but I wouldn't expect it to cost more than double. Uggh - I'm not settling when it comes to this section - I will find someone who does it at a price I think is right - otherwise I'm at least doing the make up by myself!
This has definitely felt a little like a battle trying to keep everything within budget. Apparently budget weddings aren't exactly easy to organize! It'd be much easier if I just had a $100,000 budget and could spend it on whatever the f*** I wanted! HAHA - in my dreams!
No comments:
Post a Comment