The Caterers

jfer: Thursday, April 25 12:27 PM

We've received a quote from Word of Mouth. While it's scary expensive, it's also seems fairly reasonable. The price includes food, beverages (soda, water, coffee, ice, etc. - we'll provide the alcohol), staff (bartenders & waiters, food attendants, and a supervisor), and rentals & supplies (tables, linens, plates, silverware, etc.). Since Word of Mouth is part of the company that manages the Allan House, the manager fee at the Allan House would be waived. The quote also included packaged to-go meals for the bride and groom, cake cutting (regardless of where we get the cake), no corkage fee, liability insurance, and facility clean-up.

As of right now, the only other caterer I've contacted for a quote is An Affair to Remember. If anybody has any recommendations, please send them on. I'm hoping to commit to a caterer by early next week.

We've got the Allan House

stepan: Thursday, April 18 2:16 PM

The deposit has been paid and the Allan House is locked in for our wedding. Meredith H. also went over their catering options and she's going to fax us an estimate next week. All the food looked incredibly yummy - we were starving by the time we got out of her office to go to lunch. We're going to get estimates from other catering companies, but Word of Mouth Catering sure does look nice.

Is this how it's going to be?

stepan: Tuesday, April 16 9:05 AM

This Bizarro comic was in yesterday's paper and yes, I found it amusing. While I doubt this is how the wedding is going to be, I rather like the groom's tux - especially the ruffles.

A Place to Wed

stepan: Sunday, April 14 10:19 PM

We have decided to go with the Allan House. We're meeting with Meredith Hill (yes, the third Meredith involved in the wedding) to sign the contract and pay the deposit on Wednesday.

Meredith actually works for Word of Mouth Catering so we'll probably get to hear about catering as well - although we do not have to go through them. WOMC has won quite a few "Best of Austin" Caterer awards in the Austin Chronicle polls over the years, so that and the convenience of having location and food organized by the same people might sway us to go with them.

Of course, we do intend to visit all the good bakeries to taste cakes before deciding on this most crucial part of the wedding.

A FANtastic Idea

jfer: Friday, April 12 1:24 PM

We could use hand fans as decorations and party favors at the reception. This could be useful and pretty. A hand fan is always well-utilized when I'm dancing and if the weather is warmer than we would like, they would help cool the guests at our mostly outdoor reception.

I'm feeling especially brilliant today :-)

Reception Venue Update

jfer: Thursday, April 11 10:43 AM

So we didn't get the Zilker Clubhouse. Instead we got Commons Ford Ranch which is a very nice facility, but it's a bit of a drive from Holy Cross (45 minutes according to Mapquest). So this afternoon, Step and I are checking out Allan House (a mere 7 minutes from the church) and The Parklands on Little Walnut Creek (15 minutes).

This place is so cool. Unfortunately it isn't any closer than Commons Ford Ranch so it would be completely impractical to even consider it:-(