Food!

We're still waiting on RSVPs.....but hopefully people will get to us soon so we can invite more if we're able!!! Although that will also mean making more invitations which doesn't sound like fun :/

Anyway, I'm also waiting on emails from like five people right now about wedding-related things. Hair and makeup, photography, etc. So much just waiting for answers when planning a wedding! But we're getting there! We got the vests and ties for the guys. We got some burlap table runners from a friend of Kevin's who used them at their wedding! We are getting blue mason jars from a family member to use as centerpieces. I got the table cloths a while back. I need to order napkins still. We are going to do little plants for the favors (still need to order little flower pots). I think I found some shoes. We are working on rehearsal dinner plans. We booked manicures and pedicures (yay Sharing Spree and sites like that for good deals!). We have an amazing couple who has volunteered to help get the food ready on the day of and tons of amazing family members who are making delicious goodies for us to serve. Which brings us to the current issue.

I have been going back and forth for the past few weeks on whether to do the meat ourselves or buying the pulled pork from the food cart guy across the street from my work. He makes amazing smoked meats and offered to give me suuuuch a good deal (Go visit him! He's on SW 4th between Clay and Columbia downtown Portland. Get the pulled pork tray with Asian sauce over rice. YUM.). Any catering places I checked charge between $11 and $15 per pound for pulled pork. Well we are serving 200 people (about 1/2 pound per person is the normal serving amount), which would equal about 125 pounds of pork (figuring in some extra)! That's between $1300 and $1800 just for the meat! He was going to charge me a fraction of that, but still about $600-700 more than it would cost to do the meat ourselves....So. We're back to the plan of making it. Really, storage space is the biggest issue. All we have to do is stick it in a crock pot and let it cook. So it will take time and space more than anything, not much actual preparation work. And we can do it in batches, so I think it will be fine.

But then we come to other foods. We want to have pasta salad, potato salad, green salad and cole slaw along with the main dish. I know about 1/2 pound per person of meat is what we should prepare, and that is easy enough to figure out. But how much salad?! 1/2 cup per person is the normal serving size for salad. And one gallon has 16 cups, so one gallon of salad is about 32 servings. Again allowing for extra, we'd want about 8 gallons of salad. But we don't want 8 gallons of EACH salad. I've been trying to figure out how much of each salad we should have. And would 8 gallons really be enough total? We don't want to run out of food! 2 gallons of each salad doesn't quite seem right. What if one salad is way more popular than another? So what I'm thinking is that we will shoot for 3 gallons of each salad. Which would be 96 full-sized servings, but people take less when there are more salads to choose from. So. That's what we're shooting for. I'll post afterward how that worked out since apparently no one on the whole internet has information like that!

So now to arrange all the food-makers and helpers. And get serving platters and figure out how and where to store all the food. Wish me luck! And any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Some websites that have been helpful in giving ideas for quantities:
Ellen's Kitchen
Great Party Recipes

Get 'er done!

Every time I get something wedding-related accomplished, I feel so fantastic! And then realize I have barely scratched the surface. But that's okay, I'll celebrate each little thing anyway!

We had a pretty successful weekend! We found an amazing suit for Ben and vests for the guys (dark brown for Ben and tan for the guys) at Macy's (AND they were on sale!!!). And we even found a tie (well, two, now we have to choose between them!) for him. So that was huge! The suit looks amazing on him and will be so good with all our colors. So yay! Kayla and I still need to go shopping for a dress for her, and then we need to find ties for the boys. And we need to find a fourth groomsman for Ben since Jace can't make it :( BUT! So many good things!

Then today I got an email from Debbie letting me know that one of her coworkers has an Etsy shop where she makes little flower accessories. So I'm talking to her about making me a sash to go with my dress! I was going to make it myself, but there are some things I need to just have someone else take care of for me! Also today I ordered lace for the invitations! It was a good price from Amazon, the cheapest I could find, and seems like it will be perfect. Of course, that's the scary thing about ordering online...I don't really know what it will look like. But I think it should do the job!

 Source: amazon.com via Amy on Pinterest

So next up on the list is getting the rest of the invitation materials and putting those together and sending them out. I am going to send them out a little earlier than traditional since it is a holiday weekend. Maybe like 9 or 10 weeks before the Big Day. Anyway, we're working on all that next!

I also need to figure out the food situation. I would love if I could find someone to cater for us, but I don't think anyone will cater for 200 people for $5 per person.....cuz that's about all we can afford. But if you know anyone willing to do that, please let me know! Otherwise we just need to finalize the menu and figure out who is going to do what!

I also need to figure out hair and makeup. I was planning on also just doing that myself, but might find someone to help out with that since I am pretty hopeless in both of those areas.

Anyway, things are getting done! AND SO IS SCHOOL! I only have FOUR weeks left! I may get my first C in my last term of school because of my stupid Science professor's lack of instructions on ANYTHING, but I don't even care because I will be DONE. And then have to find a job. And a new place to live.

Oh dear...