Unspoken Conversations are the topics that are often swept under the carpet, whispered amongst the closest of friends and bitched about by many. I want to create awareness about difficult things that people face in life; grief, mental health, money, illnesses, family troubles, relationship difficulties and putting yourself first. I want to tell the truth about things that really matter.

Sunday 23 June 2013

Don't Tell the Guests; THE FOOD!

My partner and I are massive food lovers.

He loves cooking it, I love eating it, we spend many a date nights discussing our big dreams and plans over food, we love entertaining guests over a Webber, and we love all different types of cuisines, so we always knew that one of our biggest priorities and cost spenders at the wedding would be the food.

To be honest, I was secretly happy with anything but a backyard sausage sizzle that my partner had always joked about happening! Don't get me wrong, I love a good snag, but I just didn't think a sausage would cut the mustard for our big day.

At the start we thought we'd serve freshly shucked and baked kilpatrick oysters, prawns and chicken for entree, put a pig and lamb on the spit, have a self serving salad bar and cake for dessert out underneath a marquee on the farm. We soon changed our mind when we realised that we'd have to hire tables, chairs, knives, forks, spoons, bowls, plates, cups, eskies, ice, and massive spits anddddd we'd be up to our eyeballs the week prior in salads, we'd have to employ a caterer, waitresses and waitors, and a dishwasher just to make it all come together.

Fortunately for us, a quick facebook status update pointed us in the direction of a locally reknowned masterchef who happens to be one of the most laid back people that we've ever met! He has been an absoloute god send and has helped us to design a menu that not only suits our taste buds, but also came in under budget (bonus!!!)

I have to laugh as I write this, because I remember when we first met, Damien asked us how we'd like to serve the food. Us being so laid back and carefree thought straight away 'on a plate!!!' Little did we know that there were so many options for weddings from cocktail to buffets to alternate drops, menu choices and so much more!!!

Cocktail themed weddings are becoming more and more popular, where mini hamburgers, hotdogs, sushi, pies, pasties, sausage rolls and all sorts of canapes are served, but Mick and I always knew that we wanted a sit down menu (basically because we're lazy and wanted to sit on our butts haha!!) Having been in many weddings, I know how big the day is, so I knew that I wanted to be able to sit down at the reception and enjoy a hearty meal (plus it gives the guests more time to fill their belly with self absorbing alcohol content so that they don't end up going hard and then going home too early in the night!)

We decided that we'd go with an alternate plate drop option, with two choices for entree and two for main (plus the cake being served for dessert!)

When we first met the caterer we knew that we wanted oysters (Mick's favourite entree) and prawns (my favourite entree) to be served first, as well as a none seafood choice for those land eating only people!

We also knew that we wanted the meals to be hearty, and well that's about it!!!

Luckily for us, our caterer took charge, and has come up with a mouth wateringly amazing menu for us! I think I'll save the exact menu as a surprise for the guests, but will post about it after the wedding!!!

In total, we scored the entree and main course meal for $35 per head!!! Score!!! Let me tell you that we're super excited to have local seafood and meat produced around our home town showcased at our wedding!!!

Next came deciding on an alcohol package that wouldn't burn a hole in our pockets. Of course, we didn't want our guests to have to dip into their wallets for drinks, but we also didn't want to pay an arm and a leg.

Again, luckily Damien's expertise and experience in catering for weddings helped to give us a great idea of how much we could expect to pay over the bar, and what kind of quantities we'd need to keep our guests well watered.

In the end we decided on placing $3,000 across the bar for beer, soft drink and corkage, served only as schooners and not pints or jugs, to help our guests pace themselves throughout the night (as Damien said, he likes to fill up the guests bellies with hearty meals to soak in the alcohol and once you have a full belly but an empty schooner glass, it's must harder to move up to the bar!!!). Ohhh the tricks of the trade to prolong the celebrations at receptions without the guests getting too drunk too early!!!

Our caterer suggested purchasing our own wine, as you can buy it at discounted prices in bulk. We're going with some reds, moscato, a strawberry champaign and my all time favourite Grant Burge!!! Damien suggested roughly 90 bottles (which is almost 3/4 of a bottle per person!) just to be sure!!!

In total the alcohol bill is coming to roughly $3960.

This makes the total cost for our reception, catering for 140 people, $8860 for food and alcohol!!! Score, especially considering we'd budgeted $100 per head so $14,000 in total and it ended up being $62 per head!!! Gotta love country prices!!!

We truly are super excited to be able to celebrate with our closest family and friends over amazingly tasty food, and probably copious amounts of alcohol, at our reception!!!

We certainly don't know what we would've done without such a laid back, but truly talented chef who whips up the most delicious food!!!

A huge thanks to Damien Mrjden for being our master chef and bringing our personalised menu with our favourite foods to life for a very affordable price!!!

To contact Damien to cater for your next upcoming special event, just email dmrdjen@big pond.net.au

What food and budget did you have for your reception?

Look after yourself and those around you,

Kirsty xxx

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