Can You Say Champagne Tastes On A Beer Budget!
Business By cakesdivine Updated 26 Oct 2009 , 6:01pm by CarolAnn
Oh I see, the mac & cheese...LOL
considering the lead was very specific that there would be a dinner served and they were looking for a caterer all they could spend for the entire event was $2000. And it didn't sound like they were wanting to DIY the dinner with mac & cheese either.
I too had a Punch & cake reception and spent $2500 for the entire event. I bought my cake that I designed from the woman who inspired me to become a cake decorator, of course all she charged me for was ingredient costs and gave the labor as my wedding gift. We bought chicken salad from Chick-fil-a and had little egg rolls for people to put them on. No liquor was allowed at our venue except champagne for the toast, and my uncle bought that for us. But that was 25 years ago, and the $2500 included our honeymoon costs. Yes in that department we got what we paid for...LOL!
Yes it can be done if you really cut back. She can get a walmart cake for that many. Their prices start at 1.85 a serving for wedding cakes in our area so $370 is about the least amount she can figure for a cake to serve that many. The thought that they were looking to spend most of that budget on a cake is a bit obsurd of a conclusion.
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.
This is why I would love to see a special little area of the forum where we can all go and comment, let out steam, joke amongst ourselves, and not worry about someone taking offense to something. A room where, let's say you checked off a box each time you entered affirming that nothing you read from this point on will cause your knickers to twist. And if said knickers twist, you agree to quietly leave the room and let the other people enjoy themselves without passing judgement, accusing people of having bad attitudes, etc., etc.
I finished up about 500 servings of cake yesterday, answered e-mails from a few great brides, and had to send some not so happy happy kitty and fluffy bunny emails regarding various business dealings. It is so nice to able to come in here, let off steam, laugh at someone's story and know tomorrow I'll putting on the happy face and dealing with people juuuuuust like this in my cheery polite form. In here, I like to get a little uncensored and have fun.
That said, there ain't nothing wrong with joking back and forth about this subject. We're not evil aholes who hate people with small budgets. It's a fun subject and completely harmless. That was more of a rant in general than directed at you.
This is why I would love to see a special little area of the forum where we can all go and comment, let out steam, joke amongst ourselves, and not worry about someone taking offense to something. A room where, let's say you checked off a box each time you entered affirming that nothing you read from this point on will cause your knickers to twist. And if said knickers twist, you agree to quietly leave the room and let the other people enjoy themselves without passing judgement, accusing people of having bad attitudes, etc., etc.
I finished up about 500 servings of cake yesterday, answered e-mails from a few great brides, and had to send some not so happy happy kitty and fluffy bunny emails regarding various business dealings. It is so nice to able to come in here, let off steam, laugh at someone's story and know tomorrow I'll putting on the happy face and dealing with people juuuuuust like this in my cheery polite form. In here, I like to get a little uncensored and have fun.
That said, there ain't nothing wrong with joking back and forth about this subject. We're not evil aholes who hate people with small budgets. It's a fun subject and completely harmless. That was more of a rant in general than directed at you.
*applause* Well said!! 
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.
This is why I would love to see a special little area of the forum where we can all go and comment, let out steam, joke amongst ourselves, and not worry about someone taking offense to something. A room where, let's say you checked off a box each time you entered affirming that nothing you read from this point on will cause your knickers to twist. And if said knickers twist, you agree to quietly leave the room and let the other people enjoy themselves without passing judgement, accusing people of having bad attitudes, etc., etc.
I finished up about 500 servings of cake yesterday, answered e-mails from a few great brides, and had to send some not so happy happy kitty and fluffy bunny emails regarding various business dealings. It is so nice to able to come in here, let off steam, laugh at someone's story and know tomorrow I'll putting on the happy face and dealing with people juuuuuust like this in my cheery polite form. In here, I like to get a little uncensored and have fun.
That said, there ain't nothing wrong with joking back and forth about this subject. We're not evil aholes who hate people with small budgets. It's a fun subject and completely harmless. That was more of a rant in general than directed at you.
Where do I sign up ??????? 
COUNT me in !!
[We're not evil aholes who hate people with small budgets. .
Hey! Speak for yourself! 
HERE you go LURVELY..... you can start the FUN & FROLIC/NO DRAMA CLUB with this.....
WARNING...... if you are easily OFFENDED - read no further!!!
An Australian was having coffee & croissants with butter & jam in a cafe' when an Americian tourist, chewing gum sat down next to him.The Australian politely ignored the Americian, who, nevertheless started up a conversation. The Americian snapped his gum & said "You Australian folk eat the whole bread?"
The Australian frowned,annoyed with being bothered during his breakfast replied, "Of course."
The Americian blew a big bubble. "We don't in the states we only eat what's on the inside, the crusts we collect in a container, recycle them, transform them into croissants & sell them to Australia. The Americian had a smirk on his face. The Australian listened in silence. The Americian persisted, "Do you eat jam with the bread?" Sighing the Australian replied, "Of course." Cracking the gum between his teeth the Americian said, "We don't, in the states we eat fresh fruit for breakfast, then we put all the peels ,seeds & leftovers into containers, recycle them, transform them into jam & send it to Australia. The Australian then asked "Do you have sex in the states?" The American smiled & said "Why, of course we do." The Australian leaned closer to him & asked, "And what do you do with the condoms?"
"We throw them away ,of course."the Americian replied.
"We don't, in Australia we put them in a container, recycle them, melt them into chewing gum & send them to the U.S.A.
Why do you think it's called Wrigley's?"
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.
I personally had a guest list of 250 for my wedding and it was almost all family. We have a big family and are close contact with all of our cousins. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and Birthdays are always at least 50-60 people. It is very easy to get that big of wedding.
That said. My wedding did cost a bit of money, and we (my parents) wouldn't have dreamed of trying to negotiate down all the things I wanted from the vendors. If it was too expensive then we got something less expensive, easy peasy.
Some people kill me with what they EXPECT, and have the NERVE to ask for.
Applegum- That's disgusting and hilarious.. I was chewing gum (not blowing bubbles, I swear ) and I went to check the brand just in case. LOL I don't think I'll ever chew Wrigley's again. Hahahahaha I also agree that sometimes people seem to just get upset easily.
BTW: I'm not a pro (just starting out) and I think that 2k is crazy. I was with friends this afternoon and wE were talking about that today. People, instead of cheapening your wedding a) just invite less people, b) do it simpler but nicer, OR c) just don't have a reception.
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 .
You have a nice, small family don't you? There can be major drama if you don't extend invitations to the whole family even if you don't really know them.
Some of us don't, my great grandma has at least 200 direct descendants. I don't have an exact count, I know that her 33 grandchildren produced almost 100 children between them and that most of those kids are of childbearing age. Last I knew there were over 100 great-great grandchildren.
About 11 years ago the youngest of the 33 grandchildren got married and to afford the wedding they couldn't even invite his first cousins, they live in an area where it's pretty unheard of to only invite adults and the vast majority of the cousins still had at least a few kids left at home. You should have heard the fit my great aunt, not his mother, had over that. She tried to get all her kids (
to show up with their families to the catered meal anyway.
A few years ago when my brother got married she threw the same fit because they wanted a small wedding and decided not to invite even great aunts and uncles. They invited their aunts, uncles, first cousins, grandparents, siblings and a few close friends and all the children of said people. My SIL has a small family but on our side that's well over 60 people if everyone had shown up.
When I got married I got smart and had my wedding where we were living. My husband's family is in the area but he doesn't really know anyone beyond a couple of his father's first cousins and they don't all expect to be invited. 
I knew that more distant family wouldn't show up and I was away from any fits that would get thrown when they weren't invited.
I got to wondering how many of these brides have read an article telling them to tell the vendor they only have so much to spend? Since there are so many of the "How To" articles, how many actually are taken for real. Then goofy A** bride says OMG that's how i get it for cheaper.
Mike
It is a bit cheeky of them to put themselves out there at that price. But it is do-able! Plus I can't help but wonder about their circumstances, you just never know what story could be behind that ad. I'd be intrigued enough to find out personally.
Our wedding, 5 years ago cost us just over £1,000 in total.
I made my dress, materials cost me £30.
My shoes were a pair of new white trainers I bought a couple of months before with ribbons added.
DH wore a suit he purchased a year previously for a Christening (he was godfather).
My Bridesmaid wore a dress we picked up in a sale for £15!
Rings £170
Flowers were all done by the local florist for £120 (my bouquet, a small one for my sister and 10 button holes).
We got married in the local registry office for £52
Reception dinner for immediate family plus 2 witnesses (12 people including ourselves) cost us about £120, my in laws picked up the drinks tab.
Then our reception party (which was 2 weeks later ) ... we made all of the food for 200 people ourselves for £150!
DJ was £80
Decorations £30
Cake £200
Photography... one of the witnesses took all of our important photos, and we let the guest do the rest!
= £1117
It was a beautiful intimate day, all arranged within 2 weeks (we weren't going to tell a soul until the night before, but nightmares about my mum and MIL going mental about what to wear changed my mind 
)... I even made my dress in 4 days! The reception was 2 weeks later because we weren't initially going to have one, but then changed our minds. As it turned out we made enough food for 200 people and only about 50 turned up. The majority of which were family. It was just too short notice I think, as we only gave invites out for the party 5 days before it
Sorry, didn't read all the posts yet, I have a fussy baby. But I had a bride come to me about 2 months ago with a $250 budget for 150+ people. 4 tier, fondant, sugar autumn leaves and extra personalized gumpaste stuff as a topper. Showed me a pic of a Ron Ben Isreal cake as an "example". HA!
Sorry, didn't read all the posts yet, I have a fussy baby. But I had a bride come to me about 2 months ago with a $250 budget for 150+ people. 4 tier, fondant, sugar autumn leaves and extra personalized gumpaste stuff as a topper. Showed me a pic of a Ron Ben Isreal cake as an "example". HA!
I can beat it. Had a bride and I was FINALLY able to get it out of her that she was inviting 250 people and daddy had given her (gasp!)five HUNDRED dollars! It was obvious this bride thought that was a lot of money and she'd never had that much money in her hands at one time. Anyway, I told her, "Darin' that's only two-fifty each!" She said, "No, he's giving me the whole five hundred!" (big sigh!)
I said, "No, if you break it down, it's only $2.50 a person. Darlin' you can't get Happy Meals for that."
btw, she wanted a buffet, wedding cake, wanted the head table served, and wanted me to provide linens ..... for $2.50 each.
Sorry, didn't read all the posts yet, I have a fussy baby. But I had a bride come to me about 2 months ago with a $250 budget for 150+ people. 4 tier, fondant, sugar autumn leaves and extra personalized gumpaste stuff as a topper. Showed me a pic of a Ron Ben Isreal cake as an "example". HA!
See, this is where the problem comes in, IMO. It's fine to have a small budget for your wedding (I did, as mentioned before) but when you have a small budget you can't expect vendors to provide big-budget items. It's called "being realistic."
I don't think that us making note of this counts as having a superior and condescending attitude, as mentioned by another poster.
I find that most people have a very realistic view of what things are going to cost, but every now and then someone comes along who expects you to provide a cake masterpiece on their Walmart budget. Uh, NO.
LOL...IndyDebi...Happy Meals...LOVE IT. Yup, may need to change your expectations if you have a budget like that.
Unfortunately, it's not just brides. I had a BUSINESS organization who was looking for bids for a lunch. A friend asked if I was going to quote them. Said, "Hell no!" They wanted to keep it at $6/person for a hot lunch, drink, dessert. I told my friend, "Wendy's meal #6 is $6.42. You don't get dessert. you don't get a plate and fork. And they wont' deliver it to you. If they want to keep it under $6, they can tell everyone to go thru the McDonald's drive thru on the way to the meeting ... and even then, I'm sure everyone will spend close to six bucks!"
I just received an Eventective lead for a Quincenera for 200 guests with a cake budget of $50 - $100. Yeah, thanks but NO thanks. People have no clue whatsoever. Debi, how much are Twinkies at the day-old bread store again?
That said, I've gotten lots of good leads from Eventective. I can decide which ones to buy, and sometimes I get free ones. It's well worth it.
I was lucky....had a small wedding in South Dakota 13 years ago where it wasn't rude just to have cake, punch, nuts, and mints...paid a friend to make the cake....rented a pretty little scenic chapel.....had the rehearsal dinner at my parents house as a backyard BBQ and then took everyone to Mt Rushmore....the biggest thing I spent on was the photographs, for about $600. The dress was $300 and then the rings, and everything else was nominal.
Ahhh the good old days. haha.
Oh, I wasn't aware that this considered rude anyplace? Sounds like you had a lovely wedding experience. After my dd and I made up her wedding guest list we went over it to decide who we wouldn't miss if they did not attend. Then they were off the list. Afterward we couldn't think of one important(living) person that wasn't there. That's the way to do it as far as I'm concerned. Aside from the rings their wedding cost me well under $2000, and my there wasn't one thing she wanted that she had to do without. It certainly can be done reasonably if one tries.
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