 A glimpse of Stephanie and Pat's menu tasting at the Four Seasons Philadelphia. A heavenly Nutella shooter, gloriously creamy mushroom risotto, a candied walnut salad bursting with flavor—our menu tasting at the Four Seasons last week easily ascended the ranks to my favorite wedding appointment so far!
I wish I could do a tasting every day! The concept is just so awesome. The happiness a delicious meal can bring me is somewhat ridiculous, but man, do I love to eat.
After being warned the appointment would take at least three hours, Pat and I decided to both take the day off. The three-day weekend, thus, had us in a very good mood, as well as the opportunity to spend another day together (as we’re still pushing through the long-distance and working in separate cities until the wedding).
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Here's how much to spend, and on what, according to an expert.
 iStockphoto We asked planner Susan Norcross of South Jersey’s Two Rings One Circus to show us how you can have a fabulous wedding on any budget.
BUDGET: $20,000
- Venue/Catering >> $10,000: Get creative and pick a place where you can control the catering, like a park or Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens. Make it a cocktail party with hors d’oeuvres, mini desserts and a limited open bar.
- Photography >> $2,000: Limit the number of hours your photog is there, or look into using an assistant or photography student. (Just be sure you get to see work examples first.)
- Flowers & Decor >> $2,000: Carry a bouquet of simple baby’s breath or one single stem, like a lily. Order flowers from an online wholesaler and DIY your centerpieces—or forgo flowers altogether and use candles instead.
- Invites >> $400 to $1,000: Compare and contrast online vendors; great deals are easily had.
- Favors & Extras >> $400 to $1,000: Make a donation to a foundation that means something to you both in honor of your guests, or go for something simple and inexpensive, like custom-labeled matchbooks or CDs of your favorite music.
BUDGET: $50,000
- Venue/Catering >> $25,000: Look at hotel ballrooms and manors and estates; try a dual entrée offering everyone both salmon and chicken.
- Photography >> $5,000: Opt for a second shooter, to make sure every perspective of your Big Day is captured.
- Flowers & Decor >> $5,000: Work with your florist to use in-season flowers to get the most bang for your buck, and for help steering clear of budget-eating blooms like peonies.
- Invites >> $1,000 to $2,500: Look for customizable ready-made templates, and stick to digital printing or thermography, which will save you money over more expensive methods like letterpress or engraving.
- Favors & Extras >> $1,000 to $2,500: Go for an edible favor or one that doubles as an escort card. Or do something fun for your guests, like a photo booth; they can keep their pictures as favors.
BUDGET: $80,000
- Venue/Catering >> $40,000: Choose a raws pace,then have an event designer and lighting expert totally customize it for you. With food, add in extras where you can—a dessert and cordial lounge, a candy bar, a visit from a late-night cupcake or food truck.
- Photography >> $8,000: Go for a full package that includes an engagement shoot and even a post-wedding session, which many couples do in full wedding-day regalia without the stress and time constraints of the actual day.
- Flowers & Decor >> $8,000: Add pearls or crystals to your arrangements, use a real-flower aisle runner, and go all-out with something like floral centerpieces suspended from the ceilings.
- Invites >> $1,600 to $4,000: Work with a custom stationer to design invitations from scratch, and ask about options like printing on Lucite, wood or laser-cut metal, or about presenting the invites in something like a silk box instead of an envelope.
- Favors & Extras >> $1,600 to $4,000: Send each guest home with a miniature replica of your wedding cake.
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 Below, find ideas for a gorgeous garden party wedding in the Philadelphia area. Not that we think you should put your wedding in a box, of course. But chances are you at least have a feeling when it comes to your Big Day: Will it be a swanky formal affair in a candlelit room with a marble rotunda? An airy soiree where your guests sip cool drinks from mason jars with fields of wildflower-dotted wheat in the background and cotton-candy clouds overhead? Whatever your vision for your wedding day, we’re here to help you plan it. In the following pages, you’ll find ideas for five different types of weddings—not just for gorgeous venues in the Philadelphia area, but for your flowers, gown, cake and bridesmaids’ dresses, all from local vendors and shops. Just find the one that feels like you, and you’re on your way.
{This article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2013 issue of Philadelphia Wedding.}
Click here for PART ONE: City Ballroom.
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Here's what we think.
 Thinkstock Images I saw an article this week in which a bride was inquiring about the idea of seating her guests at smaller tables—as in, tables of four or six—at her wedding reception, and, if I’m being honest, was pretty surprised by the responding wedding planner’s thoughts on the matter. Namely, that I think this sounds like crazytown, and the planner thought it was a very lovely and cozy idea.
She did point out that things could get a little expensive that way, since you would need more tables, obviously, to accommodate your guests, and therefore more centerpieces, and possibly waitstaff, and all that jazz—and while that’s a great point, it actually didn’t even come into my head when I had my initial reaction. My first vision was of a bride ripping her hair out as she tried to break down and match up 200-some people into happy little gatherings of four or six. No. Thank. You. Seems to me there’s not enough wine in the world to help make managing that seating chart anything other than cruel and unusual torture.
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 Brand X Pictures Being food-lovers, Sean and I have been looking forward to our menu tasting since we first picked our venue. And, once our venue was taken over by Cescaphe we were even more excited, as we’d hear amazing things about their food!
About a week ago, a representative from Cescaphe called to schedule our menu selection appointment and we were ecstatic, though curious because we were scheduled for a 9:30am appointment. When I called back to confirm the appointment, I decided to clarify whether we’d be tasting or simply selecting, and was disappointed to find out there would be no sampling involved.
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 Dynamic Graphics Sometimes you need a little pick-me-up in life—or in my case, wedding planning.
I had had a few power weeks, once even having three different wedding-related appointments in a week, and was constantly working on some wedding detail. And then a lazy weekend rolled around, and a busy work week, and I was constantly pushing my tasks aside. But then one of the more exciting and enjoyable appointments came along: cake tasting! And there’s nothing like a good sugar rush to get your booty moving and back on track.
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 Shutterstock Q: It’s looking like we’re going to have around 350 people at our wedding, and I’m not sure how to go about greeting each of them and thanking them for coming and still get to enjoy my own party. Is it important that we speak to each one personally? If so, when and how should we get that done? We’d like to be able to still have time to eat dinner and dance the night away!
A: It is indeed hugely important that you thank each of your guests personally for coming, and for that, there are a few options.
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A cake designer from the UK—Donna Millington-Day of the Fairytale Cake Company—sure brought her A game to the National Wedding Show in Birmingham, UK. And by her A game, I mean a six-foot-tall wedding cake that looks like a lovely bride in her wedding dress.
The cake reportedly consists of 17 layers of sponge cake, 17 pounds of Madagascan vanilla butter cream (yes, please), seven pounds of jam; 49 pounds of sugar paste icing; two pounds of royal icing and sugar pearls. The grocery list for the cake is also rather impressive. Oh, and the cake costs $9,000.
Click on the bakery’s profile pick on their Facebook page to get a better look. It’s really something.
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 Photodisc Finally this week, we got down to some details! It’s my professional and personal preference: I love the knitty gritty details. It was a wedding-packed week, but I was excited to start some new tasks and cross a few more off our ever-growing to-do list. With that being said, I’d love to share with you how we made some tough decisions, easily and stress free.
First things first: We sat down with Donald Conner of Conner Catering this past week, and finalized our menu selection, linen selection, time frame of events, and discussed other planning-related topics. In preparation for our meeting, we had marked off our preferred hors d’oeuvres and picked out a few salads and sides that interested us, but left the final decision up to complement our main entree, the narrowed-down list of which (we decided on a chicken and a fish) we presented to Donald at our meeting. We wanted his opinion on everything, since he is much more familiar with each selection on his menu and how they compliment each other. He also allowed us to adjust and customize choices, like combining certain elements of one salad with another or eliminating a spice in a dish we didn’t prefer. We ended up with a lovely summer selection that we are satisfied with and can’t wait to enjoy!
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Below, find ideas for a gorgeous ballroom wedding in the city. Not that we think you should put your wedding in a box, of course. But chances are you at least have a feeling when it comes to your Big Day: Will it be a swanky formal affair in a candlelit room with a marble rotunda? An airy soiree where your guests sip cool drinks from mason jars with fields of wildflower-dotted wheat in the background and cotton-candy clouds overhead? Whatever your vision for your wedding day, we’re here to help you plan it. In the following pages, you’ll find ideas for five different types of weddings—not just for gorgeous venues in the Philadelphia area, but for your flowers, gown, cake and bridesmaids’ dresses, all from local vendors and shops. Just find the one that feels like you, and you’re on your way.
{This article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2013 issue of Philadelphia Wedding.}
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