Let's Do This Wedding Thing!

Here’s a revelation that will be shocking to no one: Catering is EXPENSIVE. So expensive that I’m starting to think we should just have a foodless wedding. And we’ll save double because it will make the alcohol go farther!

Ugh!

Because our venue does not provide chairs (okay, they do, but- and this might sound crazy- they are not acceptable*), linens, dishes, glassware, flatware, etc., we have to rent all those things. Also, there’s the cost of servers. Both of these things have pretty considerable mark ups when you use a full service caterer.

Let’s say the food is $18/person (which as about as cheap as I’ve found) the total cost for catering will be something like $34/person or around $4,250. And the truth is, I’ve yet to find anyone who quoted me less than $40/person which takes us right to $5,000.

Oh my goodness.

I realize you are probably saying, duh, Jessica. Catering is the most expensive part of the wedding! And I guess I knew that, but it’s such a bummer! Food is like #9 on my list of things I care about at the wedding. I hate that it’s so steep.

So, here are my options:

1. Piece something together on my own. I have a friend who has worked as a caterer quite a bit and he’s said he’d be willing to work the wedding with some friends. I would get the rentals myself and avoid the mark up. The food… Probably pick up catering from somewhere like New Seasons or Elephants Deli. This would mean a total cost of around $27/person. Still technically over budget, but it would seem that the budget was not realistic to begin with.
2. My grandmother’s friends offered to make food for the wedding…. but I feel a little funny having nice old ladies slaving away in the kitchen all day… Of course, this would still mean rental, cost of groceries and maybe still servers. Hm.
3. Jeff is really convinced that we could do this for cheaper if we go the ethnic food route. I told him to look into it.

If you have any brilliant ideas, I’d love to hear them. We’re going to need to get creative here…

*

Today’s shopping trip left me totally confounded. I don’t know what to chose. Basically, it’s down to three dresses.

1. A Maggie Sottero dress that was like… perfect. It was the only dress of all the zillion I’ve tried on that made my mom cry. It just really felt right. The problem? Twice my budget. UGH.
2. A Casablanca dress that was totally not what I thought I was looking for, but turned out to be really gorgeous. Also more than I wanted to spend, but only about 1.5x the budget.
3. A dress from David’s Bridal. I went there thinking I couldn’t possibly find anything I liked, but I actually really loved this one. Plus, it’s right about on budget.

So, do I totally go overboard and get the dress I LOVED… or do I get one of the dresses I merely really liked and be more reasonable?

If you want to see pictures of the dresses, shoot me an email and I’ll send you some. duplation at gmail.

Jeff and I took some big, important steps today:

1. We set up a joint account. This will make it easier for us to manage our wedding budget, and we’ll be needing a joint account anyway, what with getting married and all. For some reason, setting up a joint account made me feel very grown up. Fun!
2. We put down on deposit on the Laurelhurst Club! This means the date is definitely September 11th. I’m so, so excited. The Laurelhurst Club is adorable. I can really envision our wedding there. It’s gonna be cutesville, for sure.
3. We picked a setting for my ring! When Jeff proposed, he gave me a diamond in the simplest solitaire setting with the intention of having me pick a design I liked. This turned out to be really hard. It’s intense to chose a piece of jewelry that you’ll wear every day for the rest of your life! After going to SEVEN stores, we finally found the one at LaRog Jewelers. They will be getting a very nice Yelp review. They were just wonderful. It’s getting set and sized and I’ll have it back on Friday!

Phew! Big day!