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Location: As of 2022….back to SoCal. OC this time!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TashaPosh
Thank you but since right now we are thinking open house style...........a dinner would be harder. We'd almost have to go to a regular party time IMO for that ..AND..we'd probably have to cut down the invite list even more than we already have. We haven't decided totally against it yet tho.
I found out over the weekend I was wrong about this.......we can offer dinner with an open house style buffet with like a 2 or 3 hr window. It's not that much more expensive tho....so much of the cost is in the staff & set up & # of guests.
"I found out over the weekend I was wrong about this.......we can offer dinner with an open house style buffet with like a 2 or 3 hr window. It's not that much more expensive tho....so much of the cost is in the staff & set up & # of guests."
Location: As of 2022….back to SoCal. OC this time!
9,297 posts, read 4,571,902 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lillie767
"I found out over the weekend I was wrong about this.......we can offer dinner with an open house style buffet with like a 2 or 3 hr window. It's not that much more expensive tho....so much of the cost is in the staff & set up & # of guests."
Ofc
Hi Lillie! We have put the wedding reception on hold........we just have no idea when it will be safe to have it the way we want....without worrying about friends & family getting sick. Maybe by spring we'll know. We already changed it once.....I don't want to have to change it a 2nd time.
BUT we are still going to have the civil ceremony on Dec.31st....from our original plans. We don't want to wait to get married.
Well, you know I changed my plans a bunch of times and finally ended up doing a smallish thing at a vacation rental house in the mountains. I only had 10 people there, but I went kinda all out with the food. A core group of us and another couple stayed at the house for 4 days after the actual wedding, and we just kept eating the food, and took some home after that even.
But it's very different, the kind of thing we did, compared to hiring a caterer. In my original (pre Covid) plan, I was looking at maybe a pasta bar, with different pastas and sauces, or possibly meat carving stations...I wanted a mix of substantial food, with snacky food, to include fruits, veggies, cheese/meat/cracker stuff, and so on. It was going to be very, very expensive.
With what I ended up doing, it actually cost more per person than what my other plan would have, but since there were vastly fewer people, it was affordable for me. I have a friend who is a hardcore foodie and a pretty impressive chef, who agreed to take point on food making and two other friends who were agreeable to assist. I wanted most of it to be kind of "fire and forget" so I used a combination of crock pots and warmers and cold spread, and it was buffet style, but I had hand sanitizer pump things there, and folks were asked to wear masks when near the food, then to take their food away from the serving areas, before unmasking to eat. And again...ten people. No one got sick, so I feel like it was a win.
We had pork loin cooked with pears and apple butter, chicken & noodle stew, and little smokies in BBQ sauce in the various crock pots. Marinated and grilled vegetable kabobs, and bison steaks (the bison steaks, after grilling, were sliced into small strips so that people could all get some, served in a red wine glaze, and it was really the star of the show.) I had challah, baguette, croissants, and a variety of crackers, whipped butter and various other spreads and lots of different cheeses, and a bottle of fancy olive oil with basil and herbs (SO good) for the bread. Various cold lunchmeats in little rolls like ya do, and berries and fruits. Later, cake and gelato.
But these choices were based on MY food preferences. Which means, relatively uncomplicated, high quality but sort of elemental concepts, rather than complex recipes featuring a lot of ingredients. The main thing I think one must consider, I personally think it's wise to avoid foods that can be hardcore allergy triggers for those who are sensitive to them. Like some people are sensitive to gluten or dairy, but they are not as likely to fall over DEAD because they ate something that touched a bit of cheese or bread. Peanuts, though, and shellfish, are those kinds of killer allergenic foods, and I would not serve them at a buffet style gathering. Further, there should be something that anyone could eat no matter how restrictive their diet. So if they cannot eat gluten, there are foods on the table that don't have that, same same with meat, with dairy, etc. No matter one's diet, they'll find something that they can consume.
And then there is the seasonal factor. Some foods are season and region appropriate. When I was making my original plan, I was scheming how to get the hotel catering people to do a special request for me, I wanted flavored lemon ices, with different fruit syrups and berries made to order. Because it was going to be a summer event, and I loved that for a summer event! And I wanted even those who didn't like alcohol, to have a way to get fancy drinks. I don't drink alcohol, though! So again, my own taste was pushing my thinking. But that's just it, like you're the bride...so as my husband likes to say, "get what you want!"
It’s totally different than what I thought I wanted ..or what I said back when we started to plan it in 2019 or when I started this thread. I feel like the pandemic changed me for the better tho.....because I totally see how it was never about my dress or food or the venue...or what I wanted as the bride. edit: The only sad part is family & friends not sharing it with us...but we can do that at a later time. Something simple!
Last edited by TashaPosh; 04-01-2021 at 10:02 AM..
It’s totally different than what I thought I wanted ..or what I said back when we started to plan it in 2019 or when I started this thread. I feel like the pandemic changed me for the better tho.....because I totally see how it was never about my dress or food or the venue...or what I wanted as the bride. edit: The only sad part is family & friends not sharing it with us...but we can do that at a later time. Something simple!
Wow. After reading your posts about this for more than a year, I’m so happy you came to this conclusion. I am sure you will have a wonderful time too.
Location: As of 2022….back to SoCal. OC this time!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RamenAddict
Wow. After reading your posts about this for more than a year, I’m so happy you came to this conclusion. I am sure you will have a wonderful time too.
Thank you! I would totally do it the same way all over again…it was amazing & super romantic! Covid caused our plans to change twice as you can see from the thread. We went from large city venue to thinking about a home wedding reception to just us in an isolated island setting! I never expected to have it change so much…AND the date to be delayed….when we first started planning it in 2019 BUT it was the happiest day of my life.<3 Now we are thinking about a small post wedding party to celebrate with close friends & family. We haven’t decided if we would still have it in our home…like this thread^^…especially because we might be moving too. It would be super fun to just host the party in our new home tho.
What part are you considering the same….just the 2 of you or a home wedding reception?
Thank you! I would totally do it the same way all over again…it was amazing & super romantic! Covid caused our plans to change twice as you can see from the thread. We went from large city venue to thinking about a home wedding reception to just us in an isolated island setting! I never expected to have it change so much…AND the date to be delayed….when we first started planning it in 2019 BUT it was the happiest day of my life.<3 Now we are thinking about a small post wedding party to celebrate with close friends & family. We haven’t decided if we would still have it in our home…like this thread^^…especially because we might be moving too. It would be super fun to just host the party in our new home tho.
What part are you considering the same….just the 2 of you or a home wedding reception?
Glad to hear it was amazing! A small post wedding party seems like a good idea.
We are going back and forth like you all did. It has been about one week since we got engaged and I’m already tired of wedding planning…lol. We’ve gone from house wedding to destination, back to house wedding, then to big suburb venue…and now just looking at all 3.
We met in the Caribbean and would like to marry where we met. But there are many other aspects to that…
Justice of the peace is sounding better and better.
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Ita. Tho after over a year of trying to plan what I want...& so many changes because of covid, I have realized just how super important our health is. AND...all the stuff we take for granted. I’m so excited to finally be marrying my fiancé THIS MONTH...just the 2 of us & the registrar in a super romantic & isolated setting. 
