But I’m trying to distract myself from the storms and we had our final planning meeting today (exciting!) so I thought I’d give an update.

We finalized out menu today and if I do say so myself, it’s going to be BITCHIN! Here it is:

Cocktail Hour:

Breads, Cheeses, and Spreads

Jalapeno Pimento Cheese atop European Cucumber

Pulled BBQ Pork with Vadalia Onion Marmalade, Dill Pickle Slice, on a Mini Biscuit

Beer, Wine, and Champagne

Specialty Cocktail- Lemon Lace Martini (Muddled sprig lemon verbena, lemon wedge, simple syrup, lemon vodka, lemon liquer, lemon juice, lemon verbena garnish)

Reception:

Sides:

Mixed Green Summer Salad with Strawberries, Mandarin Oranges and Spicy Cured Pecans with Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Crab Fondue with assorted House-made Croutons

Pasta Station:

Lobster Macaroni and Cheese with Fresh Lobster in a Cream Sauce with a Classic Twist

Fresh Italian Breads and Rosemary Olive Oil

Chef Attended Station:

Smashed Potato “Martinis” with Wild Mushroom Ragout or Beef Bourguignon

Main Course:

Chicken Saltimbocca with Sage and Prosciutto in a Marsala Wine Sauce

Dessert:

Seasonal Fruit with Honey-Lime Yogurt

Wedding Cake- Lemon Cake with Strawberry Filling covered with Buttercream

Grooms “Cake”- Chocolate Fountain with Strawberries, Pineapple, Pretzel Chips, Crispy Treats (made with pnut butter!), Marshmallows, Cherries, Biscotti, and Chocolate Graham Crackers

Yeah…. I’m so freakin excited!

Mine

The girls (One clip. Not two.)

I started this blog after having dinner with some friends where they asked some questions about the cost that goes into planning a wedding. I promised you guys some painfully honest price information and here it is.

Since we’re on the topic of food, here’s the cost of our menu items.

The cost of a buffet style dinner at Little Gardens is $29.95/person. The extra side is $1.95/person. The cheapest tier of alcohol (bud/bud light, house wine, and champagne; all served in glassware so no one will ever know ;) ) is $18.95/person. My wedding cake is $5/person plus extra for the strawberry filling and decoration. Bringing the estimated grand total for food and drink to $5,685. Now this will go up or down depending on the exact number of guests we have, and children eat and drink for less.

And since we’re talking about budget info, I’ll go ahead and let you in on some more Little Garden pricing info.

To rent Little Gardens for five hours on a non-holiday Saturday night is $2800.

The ceremony fee is $600.

The linens are $50/table. (We need 10)

The mandatory (but ours at the end of the night) flower displays for the two buffet tables are $425. (Why yes we do feel like we’re being nickeled and dimed.)

The decorations for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception come out to $1210.

All of this plus tax brings our bill to Little Gardens for rental, ceremony, food, drink, and decorations to $12,449.28

Now don’t get this twisted. This is a lot of money, but we were able to splurge on the venue, food, band ($2500), and my dress ($2300 and counting) by knowing people to help with our invitations, DIY favors, photography ($600 for two engagement sessions and the wedding!!) and flowers.

So this is a lot of personal information, but not a lot of people that personally know me follow this blog, and I did promise to be painfully honest with this stuff. So there ya go.

Weddings is expensive.

So Matt and I had our initial planning today. We made up a first draft of our wedding day timeline and menu. My mouth was watering the entire time. Here is what we came up with:

(and don’t judge my fancy wording. I’m copying directly from our menu.)

Cocktail Hour:

During the cocktail hour there will be an hors d’oeuvres table set up as well as tuxedoed butler passed hors d’oeuvres.

The table:

Breads- Whole Grain, Black Olive, French, Italian Breadsticks, Lavosh (Lavosh is a very thin cracker like bread. I know this because we made it in school and it was a bitch to do so.)

Farmstead & Artisanal Cheeses with Fresh Jams (and no, I do not know what half of the cheeses are)- Meadow Creek Appalachian Tomme, Humboldt Fog, Cowgirl, Sweet Grass Thomasville Tomme, Smiths Farmstead Smoked Gouda (because it just wouldn’t be my wedding without the opportunity for Matt to make his “famous” “this gouda cheese is very good-ah joke”), Belle Chevré, Beecher-Flagship, Point Reyes Bleu Cheese

Gourmet Spreads- Pesto Goat Cheese, Parmesan Artichoke, Roasted Garlic Hummus, Vegetable Crudités

Butler Passed:

We haven’t made a definite decision on these, but we’re thinking about sticking with the “Southern Chic” (shut up. It’s cute.) theme and choosing Jalapeno Pimento Cheese atop European Cucumber and Pulled BBQ Pork with Vidalia Onion Marmalade, Dill Pickle Slice on a Mini Biscuit. If we don’t get the BBQ we’re going to get Cheeseburger Sliders.

Reception:

Chef Attended Station- SMASHED POTATO MARTINIS with a choice of Wild Mushroom Ragout or Beef Bourguignon as a topping. (I’m so freaking excited about these. When we first chose Little Gardens, the potato martini “bar” was the only option and it was five dollars extra a person. We couldn’t justify the extra 500 bucks. But they’ve recently added a version with less toppings to the menu! I can deal with less toppings for something so neat and different.)

Pasta Dish- Gemelli Pasta with Fresh Spinach and Sundried Tomatoes in a Roasted Garlic Mushroom Wine Sauce

Chicken Dish- Chicken Saltimbocco with Sage and Prosciutto in a Marsala Wine Sauce

Side- Crab Fondue with assorted House-Made Croutons

*For an extra $1.95 a person we can get an extra side. We’re probably going to do that and choose a salad so that our guests can have SOMETHING green in with all the rich, cheesy, meaty, starchiness.

Fruit- Seasonal Fresh Fruit with Honey-Lime Yogurt

Dessert- The women in our family will be contributing to a potluck style dessert bar.

Cake- Lemon Cake with Strawberry Filling covered with Buttercream