The real mac & cheese

Guys, let's pretend the path from the engagement to the wedding is like a river (cue Pocahontas' just around the river bend).  Sometimes the river is smooth and we're crusin' like when we got the cute to boot Save the Dates.  Then the river turns and our canoe is stuck in a damn mud bank and there is a smelly swamp in front of us...yeah that's the part where we look into caterers.

So at our reception venue we have a list of preferred caterers to choose from.  We looked at all the websites and picked the two that sounded the best.  They had awesome sauce reviews and wedding awards and whatnot.  So we requested quotes.   The first one came back like a bombshell practically flipping our little rinky dink canoe with a $10,000+ price tag.  Gulp.  The second place has yet to get us a proposal.  When I told her we needed the cost to be less than $100 a head she started treating me like that scene from Pretty Woman.  She said she couldn't get me a proposal within 2 weeks because she was so busy. Umm, ok great, message received.

Last weekend we looked at the list again and picked three more places to get quotes from.  I sent the requests on Sunday night and by Monday morning I had one back already.  This lady actually called me and then sent an email with all sorts of questions. I replied and later that afternoon she had a quote of around $7,000 (I didn't tell her anything more than we needed it to be less than $100 a head).  Yay, that was a relief.  She threw us an oar and we were back in the river.   

One place has yet to reply to the quote request at all and the last one gave us a proposal close-ish to budget ($8,000) BUT she said we could only afford deviled eggs and meatballs on a miso spoon for our cocktail hour. 

I realize the food and drinks are the most expensive part of the wedding but that really bugs me because they are the things that don't last.  Like you eat and drink $10,000 in less than an hour! I'm all about tasty food and I don't consider myself a total cheap-wad but for that price our tastebuds don't even match the menu choices!

For example, we both really want mac&cheese at the wedding because everyone loves mac&cheese and it is kinda Dan's love language.  In fact he might be happy if we just served the blue box at the reception.  Surprisingly a lot of the caterers have mac&cheese on their menu but most are all souped-up and gourmet.  Can we please just leave the classics alone?  Mac&cheese doesn't need to be served in a martini glass with a variety of toppings, like lobster, with the price tag of $9 per person.  Do you realize how many bites are in a martini glass? I want seconds!

So there is my gripe.  We picked an affordable caterer who is responsive and the food sounds great and fits our budget and style and it'll be great and you'll all eat it an love it.  Hungry now?

I'll leave you with a picture of the real mac & cheese even more beautiful without the martini glass.