Feeding The Five Thousand

Or five hundred, or fifty, or whatever amount of guests you happen to be having at your wedding. Of all the costs involved in a wedding, this one is the highest. But it doesn't have to be.


When I typed in my $5,000 limit into the "wedding budget calculator", it told me I should be spending almost $2,000 of my precious funds on food and drink (even with an alcohol-free wedding). I knew there had to be a better way, and I set out to find it. 


Caterers are notoriously expensive. With most simple meals starting at $20 a plate, costs soar rapidly out of control. 
I didn't want to skimp and serve my guests finger foods - I'm planning an evening wedding and they deserve dinner
What about self-catering? While I realize this isn't an option for everyone, it may be easier than you think. 
We chose to self-cater a buffet style sit-down dinner, with traditional Albanian style foods (both my fiance and I grew up in Albania). My menu is as follows:


Cocktail Hour: Spinach Filo Purses. Stuffed Grape Leaves. Bruchetta. Mini pizza pies.


Dinner Hour: Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers, Traditional Bean Soup, Arabiata Pasta, Cream Penne, Greek Salad, Cabbage Salad, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes.


Dessert Table: 20 types of International Cookies, Blueberry Cupcakes, Mocha Cupcakes, Butter Pecan Cupcakes, Cream Puff Towner. 


Drinks: Old-Fashioned Glass Bottle Sodas (Root Beer, Ginger Ale, Cream Soda, Orange Soda, Strawberry Soda, Grape Soda, Birch Beer, Coca-Cola)


After three hours in the grocery store with a notebook calculating exact quantities needed and prices, my food and drink budget came out to - $325.00.


It's possible.

Search For The Perfect Venue

Hotel ballrooms and reception halls are my worst nightmare. Blank, bland, and boring. Some budget-conscious brides feel like they have to settle for a blah venue, but that's not always the case. With a little hunting and an open mind, there are thousands of possibilities.   


We always wanted an outdoor wedding. After visiting dozens of possible venues, I was beginning to think a scrubby Florida national park might be the only thing we could afford - but I was wrong. Gems are out there, if you know where to look.


I started scouring online wedding websites with vendor reviews, pouring through hundreds of websites and going straight for the price lists. Finally, I found something that stood out.


Maitland Art Center. It was outdoors (sort of), detailed, old-world, peaceful, and amazingly beautiful. The price was right too - $200 for the first hour and $100 an hour after that. In comparison to the hotel ballrooms and reception halls we'd been seeing, this was a steal - and it was three times as beautiful!


Better yet - we could have both our ceremony and reception at the same venue. We decided to rent the breathtaking Chapel for our ceremony...

...and the adjacent Mayan Courtyard for our reception.

And the entire rental fee combined for both? $700. So don't give up - there are hidden gems waiting for you if you just look deep enough.

The Ring

When my fiance asked me what kind of ring I wanted, I knew exactly what to say. Small, subtle, feminine. Gold, filigree, antique.

I wanted a ring with history and character, and he knew exactly where to look. A pawn shop. 

I know some of you are cringing at the thought, but for a couple on a mission to stick to a budget, this option was perfect for us. He found me a delicate, filigreed, 18k gold ring, with a little .5 diamond and just enough sparkle.

I adore it. And it cost him $120. 

For me it isn't the amount of money he spent that makes it valuable. This estate ring has probably been loved by several people before me, and that just makes it all the more special.

If you're looking for a cheap engagement ring, try a pawn shop! If antique rings aren't your style, check out www.overstock.com for some amazing deals on engagement rings and sets. Take your tie, you'll be wearing this ring for years to come. But that doesn't mean it has to break the budget!

Trimming... or SLASHING - The Guest List

From the beginning, I wanted to keep our wedding intimate and small. As we started writing out our guest list, it quickly grew from the 75 people I wanted to over 300. Our $5000 budget limit quickly maxed out and spilled over to something closer to $7000, and I was starting to panic.


That's when Kristofer and I decided to do something drastic. We cut our guest list to 25.


But we did come up with a compromise to keep our friends and family happy, and let them participate in our celebration. 
We decided to have two receptions - one tiny picture perfect one for our intimate wedding, and one huge casual celebration reception to share with all of our friends.
Our intimate wedding guest list is made up of our parents, grandparents, siblings, and wedding party. That's it.
The second, casual reception guest list is made up of everyone else - aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. 
We'll have the second reception a few days after the wedding, and play a video of the ceremony on a projector screen for everyone to enjoy.


Now, I realize not everyone can use this plan for their wedding. If you can, do it! It's working out great for us so far.


For those of you who just need to cut down their normal wedding guest list though, here are some questions to ask yourself:

- Who are the important people in our lives?
- Is it necessary to invite co-workers?
- Are we including guests simply out of guilt? (i.e. They invited you to their weddings.)
- Are we including guests that we haven’t seen within the last year?
- What if a guest does not have a significant other. Are we allowing guests to bring dates?
- Do we want to invite children?
- What about extended family? Is it necessary to invite second cousins and great aunts?

Setting a Budget

According to The Wedding Report, in 2007 couples spent an average of $28,800 (interesting side note: the average budget couples set that year was $14,250) on their weddings.  When Kristofer and I read that we wondered - is it even possible to have a beautiful, magazine worthy wedding for under $5,000?


We think so. In fact, we think it's possible for far under $5,000. We'll let you know if we're right in June 2011. 


According to every "wedding budget calculator" I've tried, I'm going to have a pathetic wedding. According to the computer brain that tallied up my budget and spit it out with a smirk, I had to find my dress at a thrift store and feed my guests crackers and cheese. And I could just forget about photography - best I could afford was a friend that owned a digital camera.


This is the story of how I proved that computer wrong. Come along for the ride as I investigate creative ways to make my budget shine.

Wedding Of My Dreams... On The Budget Of My Nightmares

Like any other girl in the world, I want a beautiful wedding. When I got engaged in October 2010, I knew it was going to be a challenge to create the wedding of my dreams on the budget of my nightmares.

Like most modern day engaged couples, we were paying for this wedding on our own. We've always been careful with money (we didn't have a choice!), so spending as little as possible was seemed like a good idea. On the other hand, I'd been dreaming of my wedding since I was six years old, and didn't plan to have more than one wedding in my life. 

We didn't lose hope and elope. I decided to find a way to create a bridal-magazine worthy wedding on a dime. This blog will take you along for the ride as I learn how to create "cheap chic and budget beauty".