Wedding Wednesdays: Venues & Food

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image via we heart it


The first tip we have to offer up comes from one of our readers, Carrie. She suggests that you can bake your own wedding cake. Here’s what they did, “We baked two cakes, using box mixes and freezing the layers ahead of time. We got a great butter cream icing recipe and the morning of the wedding we had all of our house guests downstairs icing layers of cake. A friend took the layers in his SUV and we assembled it at the church. We had ordered a bunch of lose daisies to decorate the cake, but we ended up running out, so some friends ran out and purchased two potted mums (white, like a daisy) for us to cut the heads off of and finish the cake. MUCH cheaper and it worked great! Again, in hindsight, I think money towards buying a cake would have been well spent (and would have saved on stress), but it certainly saved us a bundle of money. We also made each layer a different flavor (chocolate, white, lemon, strawberry, and confetti) using store box mixes, and everyone loved it!”


When it comes to food, it is SO crucial to compare prices of companies in your city as well as the cities surrounding the city you are getting married in. All the companies I checked with in Birmingham seemed to be sky high, but after listening to the recommendations of a few friends, I decided to look for caterers in Alabaster, Jasper, etc. These towns are just a few miles outside of Birmingham, but the prices dropped astronomically. Also, don’t forget to calculate in tips, taxes, etc. that add up quickly! I’m not going to lie to you, I had to give a little extra guidance to these companies in exactly what I wanted so that it wasn’t an ’80s looking style table decor, but after much explanation and specific instructions, everything turned out beautifully and really tasty!
image via We Heart It

One thing that both Jessica and I did was make sure our venues allowed us to bring in alcohol on our own, versus having their servers or their alcohol used. This saved hundreds of dollars. It’s ridiculous what a rip off it can be. Both of our venues let us bring in our alcohol that we got from Costco, or Trader Joe’s. It is DEFINITELY worth asking about this if you plan on having alcohol, trust us!
image via Plus Bob Photography

As far as venues go, just make sure to price compare until you want to scream and try to think outside of the box. I actually used Jessica’s church as my reception spot upon her suggestion, which happens to be an event rental space with beautiful old brick and murals on the walls still from years ago. You can see some of the beauty of the old building behind us.


To see more Wedding Wednesday posts go here. Please continue to send us any wedding ideas you may have and leave us a comment letting us know what you think!

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