Conserve Your Cash While Your Guests Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

Catering can drain your checking account faster than a leaky bucket. But you can plug the holes and still provide your guests a fabulous feast.

Check with your reception site about their rules on whether food can be brought in, or whether you have to use their food catering provider. Many hotels will not allow outside vendors to be brought onsite for a variety of reasons. Hotels charge a hefty price for their food service, sometimes as much as $15.00 per guest for a simple beverage service (no alcohol) just coffee, tea and soft drinks. A continental breakfast self service buffet can be over $20.00 a person.

A buffet is usually less expensive to provide than a sit down meal. You can also stretch a buffet to feed 10% more if extra guests show up. You can’t do that with a meal. Buffet service requires labor to set up, replenish the buffet and clean up. A meal service requires servers to bring the courses, remove them, refill drinks, fill special requests and clean up. That extra labor is an extra expense.

Breakfast and lunch are less expensive than dinner. Breakfast foods require less expensive ingredients while lunch means smaller portions than dinner.

A meal doesn’t have to be served at all. You could provide a fruit tray, a veggie tray and perhaps a few appetizers. Consider ordering the trays from your local grocers, which will cost considerably less than catering. Stick with food that tastes good at room temperature and doesn’t need to be kept cold for safety reasons. Deviled eggs are always a favorite and for the cost of two dozen eggs you get almost 50 appetizers. Crackers and spinach dip is another good selection at a reasonable price. Mini ham and cheese sandwiches served on a dinner roll is economical. If you use parmesan cheese and add a basil leaf you have a gourmet sandwich.

If you have an open bar hire a bartender. He or she will save you money by making sure that the drinks are proportioned properly. Guests may be too generous if they mix their own drinks.

The least expensive option is not to serve alcohol at all, and many sites prohibit the consumption of alcohol.

Champagne punch is an alternative to straight champagne. Sangria, a fruit and wine cocktail, allows the usage of a lesser vintage of wine, since the taste is camouflaged by the addition of the fruit. You can also add ginger ale or lemon-lime soda to stretch the wine even further. A white sangria can be made with a white wine, lemon, orange, tangerines and lemon lime soda. Pink sangria uses the same recipe but adds raspberries or strawberries to the mixture. Just about any juicy fruit can be used.

1 and half liter bottles of wine means a savings of about 20% over the standard 750 liter size bottle. Many stores offer additional case purchase discounts of 10%. A standard tactic is to serve a ‘good’ wine as the first glass and then switch to serving a lesser vintage as the festivities wear on.

You might see if there is a cooking school in the area that would agree to provide the catering as an exercise for their students. These students are not beginners and all the food preparation is supervised by the staff so the quality of food should be high. You may have to provide containers for the food and transportation from the school to the wedding site.

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

2 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.

Mini meals are fun and tasty. Try these ideas at your wedding reception.

Guests love bite size snacks they can carry with them. Just about
everyone loves macaroni and cheese. You can make it special and
portable by hollowing out a small dinner roll and stuffing it with
mac and cheese. They won't even need a spoon.

Stuff cherry tomatoes with a mixture of one cup of cottage cheese
mixed with one quarter cup of Parmesan cheese.

For a variation stuff the tomatoes with chicken salad or tuna salad.

Chicken wings are fun and easy. Cut a chicken wing in three pieces.
Save the bony wing end for making chicken broth. Bake the wings at
350 degrees until done. Serve at room temperature with dipping
sauces. Mix equal parts honey, lime juice and mustard for a tangy
dip. Or try equal party ketchup and brown sugar for a BBQ like
sauce. Each guest gets their own little cup of dipping sauce.

Miniature hot dogs and buns are always a hit. Buy the little franks
and refrigerator biscuits. Cut the biscuits in half. Place one
little frank in the center and roll up. Bake as package directs.

Grill baby burgers and place in a cut dinner roll, top with a slice
of tomato, a lettuce leaf, and favorite condiments like mayonnaise,
ketchup, and mustard.

Keep portions tiny.

Salad to go. Wash endive leaves. Fill the broad end with a teaspoon
of your favorite prepared salad. Wash butter lettuce leaves,
selecting the smaller more pliable leaves. Spread out the lettuce
leaf and put a tablespoon of salad on the end nearest you. Roll the
leaf forward covering the salad. Tuck the ends of the leave under
as if you were rolling up a burrito.

Lightly fill celery stalk with cream cheese. Press dried cranberries or
raisins into the cheese. Cut into bite sized pieces. For a change use
flavored cream cheese.

Mini pizzas. Use refrigerator biscuits. Lightly flour a
board. Roll each biscuit flat doubling the size of the biscuit.
Place biscuits on cookie sheets. Spread with a teaspoon of tomato
sauce, pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce. An alternative is to use a
slice of fresh tomato. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake as package
directs.

A veggie platter and dip can be made special by using baby
vegetables. Carrots, summer squash, patty pan squash, string beans,
both yellow and green should be blanched by immersing in boiling
water for one minute and then in immediately in an ice bath. Add
snap pea pods, grape tomatoes, both red and yellow, and boiled baby
potatoes.

Mini tacos are fun and easy. Use the corn chips that are made for
dipping and have a bowl shape. Fill with a teaspoon of cooked taco
meat, a bit of refried beans and top with shredded cheese. Bake
until the cheese just melts.

Valentines Day is coming up fast but it's not too late to snag a few
party ideas for kids they're not just for children.

Dee Power

Weddings on a Shoestring Budget
http://www.weddingsonashoestringbudget.com