Hey Octavia!

[QueenG]

I was at a tasting event this weekend that your caterer held at the Appleford Estate. They are just awesome! Were you there, by any chance? Anyway, I''ve been in talks with them and am so, so pleased! Thanks again for suggesting them. Now I just need a venue, he he. Hope all of your planning is running smoothly!

 

[Octavia]

Hi Lioness! I just saw this, and I'm so glad that you liked them! I wasn't at the event, I actually didn't know they were holding one...now that we've booked the venue and caterer, I haven't been paying much attention to that stuff. Did you get to meet Darby? She's such a sweetheart. Anyway, good luck with the venue hunt -- are they helping you out with that, at all? I know there's a list of venues they have worked at on their website.

Keep us updated on your planning when you have a chance, it seems like there are a bunch of Philly brides around right now

 

[QueenG]

Planning is going pretty well. We are over a year and a half out (we''re thinking of early Oct 2010!), so maybe I''m a little ahead of the game. We''re still looking around and reception sites but really loved the Artesano Iron Works Gallery you suggested. Hm, it looks like you''re planning my wedding for me, Octavia!

As far as other things are concerned, I think we might opt out of sending formal save-the-dates. FI is a graphic designer, so he''ll probably design invites etc... but for save-the-dates he might just design something and attach it in an e-mail or something. Not too many people need to travel and I find spending a couple hundred on STDs unnecessary for us. Unless the attached-file idea is tacky.

Flowers I''m not too concerned about. I might just bulk order some Sunflowers and Gerber daisies and just do it ourselves. If we find a cool location, we probably won''t really need many flowers at all, maybe just enough for bouquets and boutonierres. I''ll probably talk to a florist and see if it''s cheap enough for them to put the few pieces I would need together, or if it''s best to just do it myself.

And now I have a question... typically how does payment for catering work? Do I have to pay it all now even though the wedding won''t be for another 20 months? Generally I don''t know too much about this. I guess most rental spaces/caterers take deposits and get payments as the date draws near?

 

[Octavia]

You're definitely ahead of the game! We are getting married in early October of this year, and we didn't book our venue until August 2008 and our caterer in October.

I'm also a non-flowery person, and I think we're just going to do some variety of yellow and white mums for bouquets and boutonnieres. Our centerpieces will probably be large glass bowls filled with apples, with mums interspersed to fill the crevices between the fruit. For favors, I'm thinking of doing a white paper bag with our monogram or graphic on it, with caramel candies inside, and then people can take apples from the centerpieces for "caramel apples." Hehe, hopefully they'll take them all but if they don't, I also have a killer recipe for apple crisp so it will all work out.

I also thought about email save-the-dates, but I like getting mail that's not boring stuff like bills too much, and I project that onto others, so we'll be mailing them. I don't think it will cost a couple hundred dollars just for save-the-dates, though! A friend of mine is a graphic designer and is doing our whole stationery suite for us, and I think we'll be paying about that much for everything, plus postage. We're not doing engraving or anything, though.

As far as catering contracts, we paid a $1000 deposit when we signed the contract. We need to pay 1/3 of the estimated cost by August 31, and bring that up to half the estimated cost one month before the wedding. Our headcount is due ten days before the wedding, and they'll adjust our final cost based on that. Then we pay whatever the leftover amount is by five days prior to the wedding. I'm sure that different caterers have different deposit amounts and timelines, but this is ours and it seemed reasonable to me. The venue we're using took a $250 deposit for the site fee, with the balance due 30 days before the wedding. I hope that helps!