Tips for Planning a Menu

1. Get Creative, But Not Too Creative
Even though you and yours may be willing to try all different types of food, that does not mean your guests will. When working with your caterer ask for things that the two of you enjoy and have them fill in the blanks with classics that everyone loves! This way all your gusts are happy and get to share another side of the two of you. You can also dedicate a whole course to yourselves, make dessert something that you love but maybe not everyone else will and give the rest of the meal to the guests with traditional items.

2. Save Money on Dry Cleaning
Don’t pick an appetizer or meat that has a sticky, messy sauce on it that has the potential to drip all over your guests clothing!

3. Dress It Up
If you’re going with a buffet, choose food that looks just as good at the end of the evening as it does in the beginning. When planning the menu for a lunch or a dinner, think of the plate as an empty canvas and have your food be the artwork. It is a great touch to “wow” your guests.

4. Plan for Picky Eaters
Guests can have a host of food restrictions, preferences, and allergies. When interviewing caterers, ask for an example of a time they've had to accommodate an unusual circumstance on the fly. Also, be sure the caterer or banquet manager has briefed the wait staff on the menu's ingredients. It is also always nice to ask guests on their reply card to list food allergies or vegetarian requests. .

5. Tasting are a MUST
Always, always … ALWAYS do a tasting! No matter how much you love crab cakes you never know what they put in theirs! You may no enjoy it at all and you would hate to find that out, right along with your guests on wedding day. Go taste everything you like in the proposal and maybe even some stuff you didn't. It is worth every minute of being there.

6 Easy (and some obvious) Ways to Cut Costs

The idea of cutting costs on a wedding is not ideal for a bride – but almost always needed, unless the bride & groom want to pony up some extra cash ... here are some easy ways to keep your costs low!

1. Reduce the size of your guest list. Extra guests mean extra invitations, extra catering costs, extra centerpieces, extra favors and extra transportation worries. Why take on more than you need. Do you really want to have a huge wedding full of people you do not really know all too well? Easy ways to cut the size of your guest list is to not invite co-workers, unless you are particularly good friends with them, ask that guests not bring children, have guests come solo if they are not in a serious relationship and not to invite distant family relatives.

2. Shop for wedding dresses during sales season. December and May are particularly popular months for wedding dress sales. You may also be able to buy sample dresses, your chances being increased if you wear a common dress size. A number of charities also hold sales for donated wedding dresses where you can often snap up a bargain. Do not rule out shopping online for your dress either, just bear in mind that if you buy online you will probably need to find a local seamstress to make any alterations.

3. Make your wedding invitations as light and small as possible. This will save you money on the cost of postage. If your wedding guest list is quite sizable all those stamps will add up pretty quickly. There are even options these days to do save-the-dates as emails and you can set up a wedding web page for guests to look up information usually sent in an invitation.

4. Hold your ceremony on a weekday instead of a Saturday. Saturday is the most popular day for a wedding so you will be competing for vendors and wedding locations. As your vendors and your venue will not be short of customers for that day this can allow them to hike up the prices and you may well find that they do just that. Holding your wedding on a different day, when your venue and vendors are struggling for customers can give you great leverage to negotiate a lower price. A college roommate of mine did this - as a guests it was wonderful. I still had my whole weekend to look forward to!!

5. Get crafty. Do it yourself cannot only save you a lot of money, but can be great socially as well. You and your bridesmaids can get together regularly to get crafty. Common DIY wedding projects are invitations, favors, programs and save the dates. It also gives your wedding your personal touch - and this may be a GREAT way to get the groom involved. He has ideas and this may be a great and easy way to make his ideas stand out.

6. Cut the cost of your food by offering fewer choices of meals on the menu and fewer courses. A buffet reception may also be less expensive than a seated meal as it requires less staffing.

Picking Your Reception Site

First things first, trying to decide when and where your wedding reception and ceremony is going to take place. Keep in mind your budget when even looking for places. In any event planning ask right off the bat what the space costs. If you know your budget you should know right away if you have to cross the space off you list before wasting time going to see it. When you do go and check it out, below are some important questions to ask – and these aren’t all the questions just a good start!

 How much will it cost to use this site? Is there a payment plan?

 Is there a reception package? What's included and how much does it cost?

 Does the site have liability insurance? (If someone gets injured during the party, you don't want to be held responsible -- if the site doesn't have insurance, you'll need to get your own.)

 How long will you have the site? Is there an overtime fee if you stay longer? Must you rent the site for a minimum amount of time?

 Will there be another party just before or just after yours? If so, will there be enough time to clean up and redecorate before the next wedding begins, or is an awkward overlap possible?

 Are tables, chairs, plates, and glasses available, or will you have to provide (rent) them yourself or get them through your caterer? This can send your costs a lot higher then you may anticipate

 Is there an in-house caterer (or a list of "preferred" caterers), or must you provide your own? Can you choose to use an outside caterer instead?

 Are there kitchen facilities? Caterers charge extra if they have to haul in refrigerators and stoves and that is usually not something that works with a budget.

 Must you leave everything as is, or can you move things around and decorate to suit your purposes? Are there decoration guidelines?

 If there's parking, is it free? If not, what are the rates and gratuities for valets? (You can and should pay this up front so your guests don't have to tip.)

 Will there be, or can you set up, a coatroom? Are there sufficient restroom facilities?

 If there's no bar, can one be set up? Does the place even have a liquor license or does the caterer (outside) have to provide one?

 Is there a dress code?

 Does the site have restrictions on what kind of music you can play, or a time at which music must be turned off?

 Will someone who works at the location supervise your wedding? This should be the person you plan with, not someone you won't meet until the wedding.

 How about security? Must you hire your own security guards, or does the site hire them or have them on staff? As much as we all love the movie wedding crashers, you should feel comfortable with the security level so there isn’t one.

 What’s the cancellation policy? Some places will refund most of your deposit if you cancel far enough in advance (often 60 days), since there's still a chance they can rent the space.

Good Luck!

Guests “Gifts”

Welcome to the wonderful world of wedding gift giving, in my opinion one of the most anti-climatic gift giving experience.

Don’t get me wrong, it is wonderful to buy a blender for the newlyweds– maybe even a stainless steel one! It is a comfortable gift buying incident, you know they want it, they know they will most likely get it; it’s a win-win situation.

However, maybe the Bride, Groom and the checkbook are not thinking about other things they really want in respect to their wedding… maybe they have been living together for years and have a stainless steel blender and they just don’t need another one. Maybe they would rather have really fun favors for all their wedding guests.

If you, as a guest, the Bride & Groom, and the wallet think outside the box a little maybe you can all walk away with a true sense of gift giving (and receiving) bliss and a great memory of really pitching in to send the newlyweds into married life with some style!

The chances the Bride & Groom will ask for these things are pretty slim, speak up and offer and if they insist “no” then it’s back to the ‘ol registry …

- Wedding Cake
- Invitations, Menu Cards, Place Cards etc.
- Special Linens, Glassware etc.
- Wedding Favors
- Centerpieces
- Bridal Party Bouquets & Boutonnières

Keeping Your Wallet Full

Congrats Dad! Now that your daughter or son has made the biggest decision of their lives all that has to be done is finding the money to fullfill their dreams - and don't you know you're the one who always told them to dream big!

There are plenty of ways to save money without compromising those dreams! Below is a simple suggestion (more to come) for you to keep in mind (some that won't be offered to you by those wonderful vendors!) when you're wheeling and dealing with vendors who have been in the industry for years!

- Beverage Costs: The bride and groom are most likely going to want to offer their guests an open bar during their reception and this can work out very cost effectively.

Most hotels or restaurants will ask you to buy a bar package per person (per hour!!) which can add up very quickly! When the hotel or restaurant asks you to pick from a list of bar packages you will see they are around $35 per person (most, not all, are PER HOUR! Be sure to read the small print).

- Ask them if they have different levels of liquor brands that you can choose from and ask if you could see that list. These different options are going to be separated into tiers which will effect the cost.

- Once you decide which level of liquor you would like to offer (guests will be just fine with Beefeater instead of Bombay!) ask the hotel/restaurant if you can base your bill on consumption instead of doing a bar package per person. This is where you can potentially save money! This way you are paying for what is actually being drank instead of assuming everyone is going to drink $35 an hour!

- Also, when you choose the cocktail and dinner wines, go for a less expensive bottle. The based on consumption payment method gets you to buy the bottle, not the glass. (Liquor too) - this way you are paying $20 for the bottle and not $6-7 per glass. (There are about 5 glasses in a bottle so you are saving $10-15 per bottle of wine!)

There is of course nothing wrong with buying the bar package if you just don't have a group who drinks a lot - just make sure you read the fine print and ask as many questions as you can until you understand exactly what you're paying for!!

Cheers!