Never EVER settle

Before I begin, I just wanted to say that it was really great to read a little bit about each every one of you brides-to-be!

Alright, now onto the meat of this entry...

Never, EVER, settle! What I am referring to, is the catering contract. OK, some of you may already have this squared away since your nuptials are just around the corner, but for those of you that are still in planning mode and have not signed on that dotted line - listen up...

My fiance and I fell in LOVE with our venue, a gem really, nestled in Menlo Park, CA (picture I took of the gorgeous garden roses above). We both envisioned a warm summer wedding, sharing our vows with friends and family from under an oak tree, in a lush garden followed by a fun, relaxed and intimate reception - all held in the same location. This venue WAS this DREAM. So, before I fell too head over heels, we talked to the caterer - THE ONLY CATERER for the venue. Unfortunately, we found ourselves in this unique position. We're pretty positive people and basically thought, "eh, this will just make our hunt for a fantastic caterer a whole lot easier." Really? It wasn't easy, not even close...

When we first met with the caterer, we found him really accomodating, maybe overly accomodating, but easy going, friendly, creative and just a teeny bit "slick." He knew what he was doing. We didn't. But we knew our budget and this was key. We were very upfront with him and told him our bottom line, and surprisingly he was accomodating at that meeting! We were stoked. So we went ahead and signed the contract for our venue.

Fast forward 2months - The first catering proposal came in! As we flipped through the pages, we saw a menu that was fulll of amazing mouth-watering hour d'ourves, savory salad dishes and to-die-for entrees (my fiance is a total food snob and he was blown away). To top it off, he added in a signature cocktail and many MANY desserts that would eccentuate the wedding cake of our choice. He really believed in empowering guests (I guess your guests may like to feel empowered at some point) by providing a menu with dessert "choices." The catering contract is ALL-inclusive (something you may want to consider), so there absolutely NO HIDDEN COSTS... even the gratuity was already added. So, we're flipping through the proposal ooohing and aahhhhing and finally we get to the last page - to find that the total cost is DOUBLE our MAXIMUM price that we agreed upon! WHAT!?!

Fast forward to now - We got him down to settle at our initital price. How you may ask? We played hard ball and made serious changes to the menu (do we really need chicken tenders and peanuts at the bar?). We did our homework on the venue, and realized that the budget was actually obscene compared to the information listed on the venue website. In total, we had about 4 different proposals made by him. Each time we always expressed the importance of our budget and when he just said, "hey, I'm a business man, " we continued to stand firm. When he realized that we were really not going to budge, he finally settled! And even though I was screaming on the inside and completely frustrated, we were professional and always grateful at each step of the way. So, it's really a win-win! We got our dream wedding venue, packed with an amazing array of fabulous eats all within our buget!