Think small to save big

One of the major costs of a wedding is the reception. And food takes a huge chunk of the reception budget. A very clever way to save on costs is to think small. Bite sized is best.

A sit down dinner can run as much as $75 per person without the wine. That means a guest list of 150 is going to run a tab of close to $12,000. Instead of dinner consider a buffet of bite size appetizers, or even better those appetizers passed on trays by servers. People have a tendency to fill up a plate at a buffet wasting a good portion of the food or stuffing themselves. They're much less likely to chow down in front a wait person or clear off their tray.

It takes a good 15 minutes after you start to eat for your brain to tell your tummy that you're getting full. It takes longer to consume food if you have to wait for the server to come back with another portion.

Little appetizers are very fashionable right now. Served creatively and elegantly your guests won't even realize you're cutting back on costs. Here are a few suggestions:

3 tiny shrimp served on mini rye toasts, spread with cream cheese, garnished with a sprig of dill

Cherry tomatoes stuffed with cottage cheese, basil, and Parmesan cheese

A slice of rare roast beef with a dab of honey mustard sauce served in a pastry puff

Chicken drummetes, chicken wings with the meat pushed down to one end

Sushi - california rolls can be bought the day before.

Salad to go - tiny grape tomatoes, shredded carrots, diced cucumber, baby lettuces served in a small clear plastic 4 ounce cup

Mini burritos. Stuff the smallest size flour tortillas with your favorite burrito mixture, then cut in half.

Augment the mini appetizers with a lavish display of veggies and dip or a basket of crackers and cheeses.

Check out the freezer case of your grocery store for more appetizer ideas. Choose those that taste good at room temperature. It's easier to keep foods cold because you can serve them on a bed of ice, or place the serving plate on a bed of ice. Keeping hot foods hot is more of a challenge. Small servings of food have a tendency to cool off faster.

Garnish the serving plates with ruffled kale, a bed of butter lettuce, or thinly sliced citrus fruit. Garnishes don't get eaten (usually) and cost much less than the appetizer, yet they take up space on the plate and enhance the attractiveness of the food.

Dee

Fancies – Yes, Diamonds Come in Colors.

Think of diamonds and you think of breathtakingly clear stones, clear as water, pure as ice. But diamonds do come in colors, over 300 different colors in diamonds have been found in nature so far. Diamonds are normally graded from colorless or rare white, to brown. Black is not used in jewelry except as a novelty item. Colors deeper than light yellow are not usually used in jewelry making, although on occasion, champagne diamonds or cognac diamonds appear. These are really, in most cases, white diamonds of an inferior color grade, rather than fancy diamonds.

The colorless is the most expensive of the white diamonds. Diamonds with a faint tint of yellow are less valuable and a yellow color visible to the naked eye are the least valuable.

Fancies are the term used for colored diamonds. Diamonds can be found in every color and intensity: red, blue, yellow, green, and lavender. The intensity of the colors can range from palest pink to red, lightest blue to sky blue and so forth. Fancy diamonds are rarer than white diamonds. The most common fancy colors are yellow ranging from canary yellow to orange. Colors such as pink, lavender and light green occur much more rarely than the yellow colors. Most valuable of all are the deep reds, greens and blues.

One word of caution: colored diamonds can be created artificially by subjecting inexpensive yellowish and brown stones to radiation or heating. Fancy diamonds, other than green, can be tested to see if the color is natural or the color has been induced. Fancy diamonds can also be created synthetically. These artificially colored, or produced diamonds, don't have nearly the same value as fancy diamonds found naturally. It some cases the colors fade, revert back to their natural state, or change color.

The Hope diamond is an example of a fancy blue diamond. The Argyle Mine in Australia produces a small number of red diamonds and is the world's largest producer of pink diamonds. Several of their pink diamonds have sold for over $1,000,000 per carat.

The Dresden diamond is an apple green diamond weighing 40.70 carats. The Tiffany diamond is orange.

Colored diamonds are valued on a different scale than white diamonds. The color's saturation, hue, and darkness determine the value. In other words the more intense the color the more valuable the diamond is. Make sure you take any fancy diamond you plan on purchasing to a certified lab for evaluation.

Dee

Party Ideas for Kids

Weddings on a Shoestring Budget

5 Tips for a Champagne Wedding on a Shoestring Budget

Are you faced with planning a wedding on a shoestring budget? Considering the state of today's economy, you can rest assured that you're not alone. Many brides-to-be are in the same boat. You can have a champagne wedding on a shoestring budget.

The good news is this: there are many things you can do that will actually help you save money on your wedding. You can still have a beautiful day, without spending thousands of dollars in the process.

Tip number one. Develop a budget. Be honest with yourself and your fiance about how much you can reasonably spend for your wedding. You can do some preliminary estimates by going to websites and seeing how much a three tiered wedding cake costs, a dramatic bridal bouquet, centerpieces, invitations, and so forth. Once you set a budget limit, stick to it. It's easy to get carried away and decide that the darling tissue paper liners for the save the date cards are a must have and add only $100 to the total cost of the invitations. The problem is that if you keep adding $100 here and there you'll end up thousands over budget.

Tip number two. Decide what's important to you. If you've always dreamed of a beautifully embroidered wedding gown with yards of lace then cut back in other areas. Or find a wedding gown that fulfills your dream but is second hand. Because most dresses are only worn once, opting for a 'gently used' gown is almost like purchasing a new one... for a whole lot less.

Many bridal shops carry at least a small selection of used wedding dresses. You can also utilize online resources such as eBay. You will probably be surprised at the number of 'designer' gowns that are currently up for grabs, for a fraction of the price.

Tip number three. Determine what you truly want. You might think that a sit down formal dinner is the only alternative for your wedding but what you really want is to share a wonderful meal with friends and family. There are alternatives to that sit down dinner. A buffet is a great idea and cuts costs, or what about an elegant boxed lunch picnic? Or perhaps consider a selection of appetizers instead of a full meal.

Tip number four. Offer your guests the opportunity to help pay for your wedding as their wedding gift. Several of your friends could decide to pay for or supply the wine for your wedding. Others could participate in paying for the wedding cake, music, photographer, and so forth. This isn't as crass as asking for cash donations directly and it makes your guests feel they made more of a contribution to your happy day than just showing up.

Tip number five. Research, research, RESEARCH! There are many websites that provide information on low-cost weddings. Take the time to visit several of them. Chances are you will run across MANY great ideas that you may not have thought of on your own.

The websites don't necessarily have to be geared specifically toward weddings. Even sites such as Better Homes & Gardens and Redbook often feature wedding related articles.

Follow these tips and you can have a beautiful wedding on a shoestring budget.