Joined: Feb 22, 2009
Posts: 510
Location: in the kitchen...where else?
Birthday: Oct 02
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:12 am
cakesdivine wrote:
Now explain to me how they are going to feed 200 people a dinner, and have a cake to fee 200 and buy flowers, DJ, Photographer, Venue rental for $2000? Even if that was just for the catering alone that is $10 a plate, so start hacking away from there and what they are spending $2 per person on a Dinner? I think not.
Ok now let's try and break it down:
Dinner ---> 200 x boxes of Kraft Dinner..........$200.00
5 x lbs of butter........................... $15.00
1 x Bag of Milk...............................$6.00
Total for Dinner............................................$221.00
Flowers ---> Dandelions.................................$0.00
See Venue below =)
DJ ---> IPOD w/Downloaded Pirated Music........$0.00 (Jail time & a
Fine if your caught)
Borrow and Ipod and plug in some external speakers &
your good to go!
Photographer ---> Camera Phones...................$0.00
Invite 200 guests and hope that at least
half of them have video and camera
capability on their phones!
Venue ---> Our Back Yard................................$0.00
Free and comes with Dandelions and various other
plant life.
Catering ---> DIY............................................$0.00
How hard can it be right?
Cake ---> $1779.00 Budget from original $2000.00 budget.
Can do a pretty nice cake for that
costumeczar Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Oct 18, 2007
Posts: 2576
Location: Henrico VA
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 5:49 am
G_Cakes, dandelions are also edible, so you could add that to suggested catering options.
That is the funniest budget I've seen for a long time!
catlharper Regular Member
Joined: Apr 21, 2008
Posts: 198
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:31 am
LOL G...too funny! And yes, I could do a heck of a cake for the "leftover" budget! LOL!
Joined: Apr 18, 2009
Posts: 159
Location: Clayton, GA
Birthday: Aug 19
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:52 am
CakeMommyTX wrote:
Question....where do these 200 people come from that everyone invites to their weddings?
Do people really know that many people well enough to have them present on their wedding day?
I don't know 200 people, even if I invited all my long lost relatives and their families it would'nt come to 200 .
I heard that people invite anyone and everyone so they can get more gifts, was I told wrong or is that how it goes?
FYI never been to a wedding other then my sis's and she had about 30 people , close friends and family (I made the grooms cakes 10 years ago, with no dowels in a 3 tier,did'nt know any better!)
Hubby and I are common law so we did'nt have the hoopla either, so basically other then there has to be a cake I know nothing about weddings, sad I know.
oh yeah, its easy to have over 200 ppl at a wedding. my dad was the youngest in his family and he was #13. i'm the 49th grandchild (the baby of course) and with my family, if you dont invite them, you will really let hell loose. we germans can be quite tempermental..jk. our family reunion usually consists of at least 300 ppl and thats only half. then you have my moms side, my fiance's family and so on. i'm looking at over 400 ppl for my wedding which is why we are not married yet nor are going to be anytime in the near future. lol but 200 ppl on a 2000 buck budget, you gotta be kidding me right?! no way...cept for the kraft mac dinner suggested earlier. lol.
step0nmi Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Oct 02, 2006
Posts: 3092
Location: WI
Birthday: Feb 02
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:53 am
catlharper wrote:
Sure, I can tell you, as an event planner, exactly how they could do the wedding on 2K:
location: public park $25 reg fee (or you can use someones REALLY large backyard for free)
Officiant: get a friend to get ordained online, FREE
Chairs: $350
Cake: $300 (one small decorative, and supplimented with sheet)
Champagne: $300
Rental Champagne Glasses: $100
Rental tables for food/drink with tablecloths: $50
Paper napkins, plates,cups and forks: $75
Misc non alcoholic drinks: $75
Favors: homemade from a kit at michaels: $80
Invitations: homemade from a kit at michaels: $50
Dress: $300
Tux: $100
Flowers: $100 package from local florist.
Gifts for Maid of Honor and Best man: $50
Disposable camera pack so everyone can take photos for you: $40
Total for wedding: 2K not including rings
So, possible, yes, but a grand affair, no...a very modest one...and the ONLY way you could have that many people. (notice that there is no "real" food, just cake and champagne, so it would have to be mid afternoon or you would have to have your family members volunteer to make and bring food to serve, and no DJ)
Sadly, I've actually worked weddings where I had this low of a budget and had to find many ways to save the pennies. One wedding I got the Bride to go to an outlet for her dress and she only paid $120 for her dress AND got it cleaned for that too. Good thing since the money she saved paid my fees.
And, yes, in this economic climate people are going to be haggling for anything they can get. I try to keep them grounded and explain the fees for things and what I can do for them within their severely limited budget. Not everyone walks away happy after a consultation but for some they just don't have a real option.
I agree with inviting so many people...we've been married 22 years and STILL wouldn't have 200 people to invite. We are getting remarried in two weeks and our outstanding guest list is 54. I think those families would have to invite their friends in order to fill out our guest list for 200! LOL
As planners we encourage "nearest and dearest" but there are lots of parents out there who want to invite every family memeber that they have spoken to or heard about in the past 20 years as well as every co worker and client they have ever worked with or for and yet not pitch in on paying for the cost of entertaining such a crowd. SIGH.
Anyways, there's my "other" view.
Cat
where's the food in this budget?
CakeMommyTX Forum Fanatic
Joined: Aug 07, 2007
Posts: 1157
Location: where the sidewalk ends....
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:10 am
G_Cakes wrote:
Ok now let's try and break it down:
Dinner ---> 200 x boxes of Kraft Dinner..........$200.00
5 x lbs of butter........................... $15.00
Heck Kraft Mac-n-Cheese is 3 for 1$ at HEB, and you could always skip the real butter and go for Blue Bonnet!
costumeczar Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Oct 18, 2007
Posts: 2576
Location: Henrico VA
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:39 am
step0nmi wrote:
catlharper wrote:
Sure, I can tell you, as an event planner, exactly how they could do the wedding on 2K:
location: public park $25 reg fee (or you can use someones REALLY large backyard for free)
Officiant: get a friend to get ordained online, FREE
Chairs: $350
Cake: $300 (one small decorative, and supplimented with sheet)
Champagne: $300
Rental Champagne Glasses: $100
Rental tables for food/drink with tablecloths: $50
Paper napkins, plates,cups and forks: $75
Misc non alcoholic drinks: $75
Favors: homemade from a kit at michaels: $80
Invitations: homemade from a kit at michaels: $50
Dress: $300
Tux: $100
Flowers: $100 package from local florist.
Gifts for Maid of Honor and Best man: $50
Disposable camera pack so everyone can take photos for you: $40
Total for wedding: 2K not including rings
So, possible, yes, but a grand affair, no...a very modest one...and the ONLY way you could have that many people. (notice that there is no "real" food, just cake and champagne, so it would have to be mid afternoon or you would have to have your family members volunteer to make and bring food to serve, and no DJ)
Cat
where's the food in this budget?
She did note that this was a cake/champagne reception, it's not unheard of. I did an afternoon reception when we got married, and we didn't have a sit-down dinner. We did everything for about $3000, including a VERY open bar (our friend were all musicians or grad students, so there was a lot of drinking going on!) We had to decide between a sit-down dinner or an open bar, and due to previously mentioned type of guest that we had, the bar was the way to go
step0nmi Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Oct 02, 2006
Posts: 3092
Location: WI
Birthday: Feb 02
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:41 am
oh wow! never heard of that! Thanks for clearing that up costumeczar!
costumeczar Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Oct 18, 2007
Posts: 2576
Location: Henrico VA
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:52 am
step0nmi wrote:
oh wow! never heard of that! Thanks for clearing that up costumeczar!
It's funny, because before I moved to the Northeast I'd never head of a sit-down dinner reception! Growing up in places where the cake/champagne/hors douevres (?) reception was the norm I thought the sit-down dinner was unusual. Now it seems to be the norm everywhere, but if you're on a budget it makes sense to eliminate that.
I did passed food and a dessert buffet along with the open bar, it wasn't just a bunch of alcoholics drinking... Just to be clear!
indydebi Forum Matriarch
Joined: Jul 07, 2006
Posts: 22137
Location: Indianapolis IN
Birthday: Jan 19
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:11 am
costume, I grew up on cake-n-punch receptions. Was in my 20's before I knew anyone who had food at their wedding and even that was just sandwiches and veggie trays. Our reaction to that simple one was "well la-dee-DAH! Who are THEY trying to impress!"
WykdGud Junior Member
Joined: Sep 12, 2009
Posts: 40
Location: SoCal Local
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:24 am
It's very sad to see the prevelent condescending attitudes here. I think you can have a very lovely wedding on $2-3K. You just have to decide which areas are most important to you and spend the bulk of it on those. In our family,we have several professional photogs, a cake decorator (me) and a DJ (also me) ... so weddings can be pretty cheap.
How do you know the cake budget isn't $1,500 of that?!? If someone has up to $3,000 to spend, I'd want to find out how much of that they planned to spend on cake before I dismissed them entirely... unless I were foolish - which I'm not.
catlharper Regular Member
Joined: Apr 21, 2008
Posts: 198
Posted:
Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:10 pm
Wykd...you are right, that was what I was showing in my break down. There is a way to have a wedding and reception but just not the grand sit down type with crystal and china. In my notes I added that there could be food if you could get your family to volunteer and bring homemade dishes...this is what we did for our wedding and it worked very well. Our original wedding 22 years ago was on a 5K budget and included renting a hall, tables chairs, dishes and having a photographer. We did not have a DJ, my brothers band played. We didn't not buy a cake, a friend who did cakes for fun made us an amazing 4 tier cake that was gorgeous. But I had a gorgeous dress, ordered invites, real flowers and we did serve champagne, etc. It was small, it was modest, it was what we could afford without anyone going into debt. For many a champagne and cake reception is all the budget will allow.
This time around (for our renewal) we are also on a budget, not wanting to put anything on a credit card, so we did pick and choose what was important. We ended up with about 8k including our honeymoon. We are having a photographer, DJ, catered passed hordeourves, a cake made by a local bakery that graciously is using my design, in a museum in Monterey. As an event planner I have been able to DIY a lot of the trimmings in order to get more bang for my buck. We are having under 60 people, champagne and other drinks as well as boxed lunches for the kids, real flowers that I will hand tie (I've learned how to do a lot in the event business! LOL So the wedding we'll end up with will probably save us about 8K with all the stuff I've done myself but it's exactly what we could afford and exactly what we wanted. I think the real problem with the 2K estimated budget here is their expectations of what they can get for the money. Keep your expectations in line with your budget and you should be just fine but too many people, and from what I can see from the sketch the "lead" given implies, these people, are far from keeping their expectations in line with their budget.
In my event world there are a lot of planners who will not even take on a budget that is less than 5k and several who won't consider a budget under 15k. Too much work to get the brides expectations in line with the budget and give her the fairytale wedding she is dreaming on with that limited of a budget. I'm not one of those...I'll work with whatever is given and do my best to do the most with whatever the budget is but am careful to advise on the reality of what they can get. The three things I advise a bride to never go cheap on is her dress, her cake and her photographer...the rest can be worked out!<G>
Cat
cakesdivine Forum Fanatic
Joined: Nov 11, 2008
Posts: 1133
Location: Canyon Lake, TX
Birthday: Mar 14
Posted:
Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:15 pm
G_Cakes wrote:
cakesdivine wrote:
Now explain to me how they are going to feed 200 people a dinner, and have a cake to fee 200 and buy flowers, DJ, Photographer, Venue rental for $2000? Even if that was just for the catering alone that is $10 a plate, so start hacking away from there and what they are spending $2 per person on a Dinner? I think not.
Ok now let's try and break it down:
Dinner ---> 200 x boxes of Kraft Dinner..........$200.00
5 x lbs of butter........................... $15.00
1 x Bag of Milk...............................$6.00
Total for Dinner............................................$221.00
Flowers ---> Dandelions.................................$0.00
See Venue below =)
DJ ---> IPOD w/Downloaded Pirated Music........$0.00 (Jail time & a
Fine if your caught)
Borrow and Ipod and plug in some external speakers &
your good to go!
Photographer ---> Camera Phones...................$0.00
Invite 200 guests and hope that at least
half of them have video and camera
capability on their phones!
Venue ---> Our Back Yard................................$0.00
Free and comes with Dandelions and various other
plant life.
Catering ---> DIY............................................$0.00
How hard can it be right?
Cake ---> $1779.00 Budget from original $2000.00 budget.
Can do a pretty nice cake for that
That's funny but catering won't be for free cuz they still have to buy the food...LOL
KatieKake Regular Member
Joined: Nov 07, 2004
Posts: 156
Posted:
Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:43 pm
I know of a wedding where, they did not want to spend a lot on a wedding cake, I actually do not know what they did for a "wedding cake", but they did ask family and friends to bring a cake for the guest tables they would be sitting at. I was asked to make two of the cakes, for two different people who were invited to bring. I understand it worked fine. The two guests that were asked to bring cakes were happy to do so. I think I was the only one that thought it strange.
As for a wedding with 200 guests, not hard to do in a small town, where both the bride and groom have grown up, and the parents have worked in local businesses for many years. I made the wedding cakes for 3 sisters in one family, and all of them were for a minium of 400 servings.
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