We are pleased to announce that we have made an official decision on food for the wedding. The guests will be stoked that they will get to eat and we are glad to move on to the next step in planning! Food has been my first quagmire in this wedding planning process. Due to the cost of food, service, and supplies for the caterers/restaurants, it has been difficult to find a situation that is feasible for both our budget and theme and the restaurant itself. We certainly never expected any restaurant to provide food or service free of charge, we simply asked that they work with us to create a meal within a budgetary guideline. After our outstanding tasting at Fork in the Road we really wanted to try to make that work and the owners were more than accommodating of our requests which we couldn’t be more grateful for. They are very philanthropic individuals and were more than gracious about the whole process. However due to the high quality of their food, we reached a point where we felt like we may be asking for too much of a sacrifice on their part as there was only so much that could be done to work within our budget. Our priority remains the benefit to the charities which is why we felt it was most responsible for us to scale back our menu even further. Our catering will be done by Mike Martinez of the Red Rock Cafe which also happens to be Kyle’s parent’s restaurant. Of course you may be thinking, if Kyle’s parents have a restaurant why was that not the first choice to begin with? Well it was and it wasn’t. The cafe is a breakfast and lunch place which does not cater. We assumed the cost of renting everything we would need to turn a restaurant into a caterer would probably outweigh the savings we would receive on food cost. In addition, our venue offers a generous discount if you use one of their tenants and that combined with the efficiency of an actual restaurant with catering supplies, again would likely be favorable to the budget. However we have been crunching numbers, getting creative to find supplies (either by donation or super cheap) and negotiating deals with rental companies and we were able to receive a significant savings by going with the cafe. It won’t be a 5 star meal but its guaranteed to please! We feel as if a large weight has been lifted off of our shoulders and I love to check things off the list! So here’s the progress: venue:check, photographer:done, a dress:in the works, an event designer:Yep, an officiant:completed, makeup and hair:covered and food:finito! With less than 6 months to go, I think we are well on our way to a wedding!
Next stop music. We could use suggestions for local musicians or DJ’s. Or favorite wedding songs as we may just create the best wedding playlist of all time and save some dough on a professional again to maximize the benefit to charity. Let me know what you’ve got!
