Monday, March 5, 2012

Planning a Wedding

In January I decided that I wanted to be a wedding planner. A few days later my friend told me she was getting married and that I could plan her wedding. I'm so freaking excited and I'm getting the vision together to present to her some ideas on Wednesday. Here are the details:


Date: June 9
Venue: a local orchard
Guests: 100
Colors: Cockatoo, driftwood, starfish (aqua, dusty brown, tan)
Budget: $3,000 for everything

That budget makes me so sad! I had some great ideas and they'd be a bit easier to accomplish with a $5,000 budget. A $10,000 budget would guarantee her the cutest wedding she's ever seen. She told me that she wants a BBQ style reception and she wants to end the night with a bonfire and s'mores making session. I haven't had a meeting with her about everything she wants yet or what the rules of the orchard are (is?) but I have a few ideas already in mind. Since the budget is small, the food will serve as a major part of the decoration. Wood, wildflowers, and glass bottles will be part of the decor as well.

I've done the most thinking about how the s'mores will work because that'll be so memorable and fun and I'm pretty sure most people haven't been to a wedding with a bonfire.

The s'mores will be set up on a table with flavored marshmallows in large glass jars. A one pound bag is $13 and has around 70 marshmallows in it. They sell them at the organic market by my house so I'll go check them out this week. Vanilla, caramel, chocolate, and coconut marshmallows seem perfect for variety and fun. I'm also thinking different chocolate varieties as well. Does anybody have a good brand to recommend? The ghiardelli filled chocolates seem like they would be delicious in a hot s'more. I need to see if they sell them in bulk, because they are not budget friendly. Do you think it would be overkill to also have a variety of graham crackers? I need to figure out a good brand also. If it were my wedding I'd get my friends together and we'd bake them. Unfortunately, I've been to a cookie exchange with her friends and they are not up to my sanitation standards. Those chicks picked up cookies with their bare hands. I almost passed out, my friend had to stop her exchange and let me tell them how to handle food in a group. I wish I was lying.

Anyway, how about y'all answer the questions I have in bold AND leave some ideas of what type of food you'd expect a BBQ Wedding Bonfire. Hmmm, I also need a better name to describe this wedding. I have some food ideas that I'll post later this week, but I'm sure you guys will come up with some things I wouldn't think about.

5 comments:

K. Rock said...

Fun fun fun! $3000 is rough but that should make it more fun bc it's challenging.

But I guess catering is going to take up the bulk of your budget. If I went to a BBQ wedding, I would expect, grilled chicken, maybe corn on the cob or beans, coleslaw? Lemonade & iced tea. And something else for the vegetarians. That should be budget friendsly depending on who caters it.

The smores sounds fun but like you said I am curious about a bonfire in an orchard. Orchard SCREAMS no bonfires to me. Love the flavored marshmallow idea but think you should do regular graham crackers. I would actually go with regular chocolate too after looking at the different flavors of marshmallows. I would think you would need to get 3 bags of differnt kinds just in case folks want to make more.

I must stop now. THis comment has gone long enough.

Jameil said...

You're getting carried away with the smores. One type of graham cracker is enough. The different kinds of marshmallows sound great! You can have it set up like candy bars are at weddings! You'll have to put a don't touch sign, though. BBQ catering is actually the cheapest kind. You could absolutely do it for about $10pp (plus 20% tip). It's not my style but I definitely considered it when I saw the prices!!

I'm with K. Rock. If they allow bonfires, it's probably in a small, controlled rock pit. I would find out about that before going further in that direction. Also white people have been to a wedding with a bonfire. It's a very hipster thing to do. I almost went to one last fall.

On the other hand, please don't listen to K. Rock and not have burgers and/or hot dogs!! I would throw a fit if I went to a BBQ that didn't have AT LEAST one of those. (To Rashan and on twitter) A caterer who does BBQ can tell you your food options.

InnerDiva said...

A friend of mine had a beach wedding recently with similar colors. The smores idea sounds fabulous, but I'd keep it to the 3 kinds of marshmallows--all the variety of chocolate and graham crackers may be overkill.

I got all geeky and googled some menu options for you: http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/weddings/cakes-catering/wedding-reception-menu-ideas-10000001697482/page4.html

Nerd Girl said...

That sounds fun!

Hmmm, I don't like BBQ, but I think KRock's menu sounds about right. For the vegetarians you could just have grilled vegetables - zucchini, corn, yellow squash, etc.

I'm not prissy, but eating BBQ can be messy so hand wipes should be a part of the budget. Or go to Chick Fil A and start collecting them now...

And I like the bonfire/smores idea, but in June? That might be really uncomfortable. Just a thought.

Cynserity said...

Are you on pinterest? That's a creative way to set up different theme ideas for her to view and also a place to get awesome ideas.

If you need an invite let me know. Cityofcyn@gmail.com

 
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