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Lindsay Carter: Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 8:28 PM
 According to the rules ofpolite society, during a toast everyone is supposed to stand up except the recipient of the toast. This is a little impossible during a wedding however. There are just too many toasts to expect everyone to jump up the minute that someone wants to make a speech or raise a glass. Those who adhere to the rules of "polite society" also consider it guache or a faux pas to drink to yourself. If you are the recipient of a toast, and you want to follow the well-mannered, then skip the sip. It is like laughing at your own joke or applauding yourself. A champagne toast at a wedding is a whole lot different. Most people expect you to take a sip. They also expect you kiss everytime they collectively begin tapping their glasses with their spoon. Polite society would not go along with this either. It sure is fun though. You might want to relax those etiquette rules and just have fun at your ceremony. After all, if you have fun, everyone else will too. |
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Lindsay Carter: Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 7:58 PM
 Write your post here. |
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Brett Willard: Posted on Monday, December 13, 2010 11:49 PM
  Write your post here. This is a no brainer when you do the math. If you buy your own alcohol, you will save a ton on your wedding reception. With most of the couples that we meet, this is the first plan or rule that we lay down. That being the case, lets try to map out how much we should be buying. The first thing to remember is that whatever you don't drink you can return as long as it hasn't been open. It is such a party killer to run out of alcohol at your most important party. It happens when people forget this rule. In planning your wedding lets buy extra of everything and take the unopened bottles back. This will be just one more stressor that we are removing from the big day. I recently wrote a blog about how much to purchase for our other party planning site First lets look at how much people will drink. In general, I budget more booze for weddings than for corporate or family events because most of the attendees are young and in that heavy consumption phase. Here are a few rules: -For a one hour cocktail party with a dinner service, you can count on average consumption being 2 drinks per person during the cocktail hour and 2.0 to 2.5 glasses of wine during dinner. - During a long 4 hour cocktail/dinner party, plan on estimating about three to four drinks per person. Now these are nice clean cut rules, but they are not written in stone. In fact, I have probably encouraged you to buy more than you need, but you won't have to come back to me and say we should have brought more to our biggest party. You can tell if your group of friends and family will drink more or less simply by measuring roughly how much you and your fiance drink. So use these rules as a guideline for estimating your wedding reception alcohol consumption. Now lets look at how much each bottle yields. How many drinks can I get our of a bottle of wine? It depends on your bartenders, but a safe bet is that your should get 5 glasses of wine ber bottle. What about champagne? How many servings do I get per bottle of champagne? The standard 750ml bottle of champagne should give you about 80 glasses per case. This is a high yield mainly because each serving is about 3.5 ounces. The champagne flute (properly filled ) doesn't hold very much. Soda is a variable based on how much ice you are using and also based on how large your glass is. Buying one two liter bottle of soda for every 8 glasses. So if you have a lot of soda drinkers, or mixed drinks, buy a lot of soda. In my next blog, I plan on laying out how popular each different hard liquor type is. In general, the list should go Vodka, Gin, Scotch and whisky. Hard alcohol can be ver seasonal so I look forward to getting into this too. Don't worry, at the end I will give you a more specific guide that you can use for your reception. If you haven't already set up a private tasting in our Seattle tasting room, please call us at (888)98-CATER or go to our quote form and tell us about your wedding goals at: |
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Lindsay Carter: Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2010 2:22 AM
 Everyone approaches their wedding invitations differently. For that reason, I don't advise rather I supply information. If you have always wanted to have that close personal attachment to every part of your wedding, this blog may be of little interest to you. On the other hand, if you want to save money in different areas of your wedding planning, you should consider taking a close look at your printing costs.  The printing industry has become a lot more customer friendly in the past 10 years. Custom layouts and typesetting are from a different era. Years ago, custom print requirements drove up the cost of printing substantially. Now, the do it yourself bride is able to save money and produce a much better invitation by using one of the online services. Fed Ex/Kinkos, UPS Stores and Vista Print are a few large organizations that provide you everything you will need to design your own wedding invitation online without purchasing software. When you visit their websites, you can quickly find their wedding invitation templates and start trying different combinations of color and style. They offer a wide variety of paper, envelopes and print style. You can design your entire invitation in an hour or two. Once you have them designed, you will be amazed at how cheap they are to produce even after shipping and handling. Vista Print is the company that I have the most experience with and it has all been very good. In fact it has been fantastic. Once you design the invitation, they show you what all of your other printed items will look like if ordered at the same time in the same formal. Place cards, invitations, engagement announcements, thank you cards and envelopes can all be put in the same order and the savings are incredible. What are the drawbacks of ordering invitations online? As I mentioned before, I have never had any problem with Vista Print. Before I ever ordered from them, I read all of the reviews and indeed I found a few horror stories. I felt that most of the bad experiences were due to either unrealistic timing expectations of miscommunication. I recommend that if you use one of the online services, that you give yourself enough time to correct any errors that may occur. Another problem is that their is no real customer support. You have a fair learning curve in front of you, but the savings are worth it. In the end, every time I receive an order from Vista, I am more than satisfied especially when I consider that you never have too leave your home. I am the wedding planner for Arista Wedding Catering and I am also a Chef. The reason that I chose to write this blog is to show you how to save money in the areas of the wedding planning that seem neutral. If you can save in these simple areas, you can make a more grand presentation and host more of your close friends on the most important day of your life. If you would like to come in for a private tasting, please contact us at (888)98-CATER. You can also see what your wedding reception will cost at : Vista Print is at: Finally, if by chance you are planning any non-wedding events that need catering, visit our main website at Thank you for visiting my blog. |
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Lindsay Carter: Posted on Friday, December 03, 2010 11:43 PM
 It pays to do your homework and be willing to do some of the work yourself. Last weekend we turned a normally dark and institutional wedding venue into a electric dance club with some clever use of commercial stage lighting. It was cheap, unique and fun. So many of the large wedding venues were built with cheap fluorescent lighting. We almost always rule these venues out when we are planning our weddings. I recommend that you take another look at these locations and consider what they might look like with different lighting. Imagine just leaving the fluorncenl lights off and bringing in lighting from one of the commercial stage lighting companies. You will be surprised at how much money you can save and how stunning your venue will look. I am no expert on lighting, but I know when something looks cool. We totally transformed the venue for less money than I imagined. In this particular venue, we were able to take a large hall that only cost $1500, add $500 worth of lighting and make it feel and look like one of the finest hotels. The room looked amazing and the bride was able to afford to invite 300 people to her wedding instead of 200 because she turned a room that initially looked bad into something nice. I also want to say that I had a very good experience with our chosen lighting vendor. It was Hollywood Lights in SODO. They were very helpful in telling us what type of light to use to meet our objective. They put the entire package together so that all we had to do was plug the lights in when we were ready. We didn't even have to pay a delivery fee. I have attached a link to their site. If you visit them, let them know that we at Arista are singing their praises. Also, if you are planning another event other than a wedding, contact our event planner at www.seattlecatering.co our sister company. |
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Brian Oberlander: Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2010 11:50 PM
Congratulations. You have selected the perfect wedding venue and now you just need to get the right caterer and you will be home free. Let me encourage you to ask serious quesions so that you don't make a mistake with the biggest day in your life. I have been in this business for 20 years and have done hundreds of weddings. One thing that has always amazed me is how few questions the wedding client asks about our reputation and our references. I work for Arista Wedding Catering currently and most of our clients come from referral so that amight explain why the client doesn't ask the difficult questions. In this blog, my hope is that i will give you the confidence to ask these questions. First of all, what are the best ways to select a caterer? Without a doubt, the best way is to select a caterer that you have seen in action. When you go to your friend's weddings this season, keep a close eye on the caterer. It is like doing a test drive. If you dont have any first hand experience, you will have to rely on people that you can trust to make a referral. It is at this point that you should begin asking those questions that I was referring to. If someone recommends there caterer, ask them the following questions about the caterer: -Did the caterer meet all of their obligations and deliver what they promised? -Ask your friend if the caterer ran out of the expensive food items early in the party leaving only the low cost food items? -What was the appearance of the staff? Were they wearing the approriate attire and conducting themselves professionally? - Were there enough servers, bartenders and a solid manager at their event or was it managed by one of the bartenders? -Was the hot food hot? -Was the food on time? -Did the caterer present the food in an appealing manner? -The last qustion should be phrased in a positive manner, but ask your friend, "if you were to change anything that the caterer did, what would it be?" These are just a few of the questions that will get you closer to making a sound decision. You still need to go through a private tasting with the caterer and it is at this tasting that you can find out how commited the caterer is to making your day perfect. I will discuss this more in my next posting, but suffice it to say that I would want to get some serious commitments from the caterer to know that everything will be perfect. I look forward to sharing those with you. If your wedding is coming soon, please contact us at Arista Wedding Catering. Our number is (888)98-CATER and we would love to help you. If you are having a holiday party this year, you can also call our sister comany Arista Catering. Their website is www.seattle-caterers.com and their holiday menu can be found at Good luck. |
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Brett Willard: Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2010 12:19 AM
One of the best thing you can do for yourselves and all of your wedding vendors is come up with a schedule for the day. It keeps everyone on the same page and on task and the structure allows the wedding party to relax and know that things are being handled. Whether it is your valet, your band, your bartenders or your clean up crew, it will save you money in the long run if you layout a solid schedule. The schedule tells all the players what, when and how they are expected to do their job. It is also your personal guide and helps you build a vision for exactly how you want the day to flow. That being said, once you have this schedule in place, keep it as you general guide. The best wedding memories are often those things that happen without your prompting. The schedule is not meant to be followed to the letter blindly. Leave room for those little gems that you find when you let the day evolve naturally. We will discuss master schedule for the day as well as the schedule for just the ceremony in my next blog. Let me know your comments or thoughts by responding to my blog. If you are planning your wedding and have not scheduled a tasting yet, click the link below and lets get married: schedule a tasting |
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Posted on Saturday, November 27, 2010 2:22 PM
Yes, this blog is dedicated to wedding catering and wedding planning discussions. I am taking a slight turn today to bring up the holiday catering that will be going on over the next few weeks. Arista Catering has published its annual menu to cover the holidays. It is fantastic and full over delicious, affordable holiday specialties for family get togethers and company parties. |
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Brett Willard: Posted on Friday, November 26, 2010 12:03 AM
We had a newly engaged couple in on Tuesday night to plan their wedding. In our initial discussion we learned that they were not vegetarian, but that important members of their family were vegetarian. Chef Manolo recommended several excellent vegetarian options. They chose Italian Pasta Florentine. We will be serving it as a second entree at their wedding reception. Since they are doing a wedding buffet dinner, the creamy colorful nature of this menu item will be appealing to both vegetarian and non-vegetarian guests at their Seattle wedding reception. Wedding planners and wedding caterers should take note that the recipe from the food network is delicious and simple. I have copied and linked it below. If you try this recipe, please let me know how you like it. - AddThis Button BEGIN AddThis Button END
Pasta Florentine Posted by Editor June 23, 2008 - Prep Time:3 minutes
- Cook Time:3 minutes
- Serves:
/time/time_container /stats /tags Recipe by Andrew Schloss, courtesy of Mealtime.org.This recipe is part of Andrew Schloss’ One Recipe/Four Ways meal system. The basic, kid-friendly mac-and-cheese recipe can be easily turned into three other recipes with a few simple additions.The base recipe for the Macaroni and Cheese used in this recipe can be found here.Nutrition Information Per Serving: Calories 470; Total fat 20 g; Saturated fat 8g; Cholesterol 65mg; Sodium 430mg; Carbohydrate 54g; Fiber 4g; Protein 20g; Vitamin A 230%DV; Vitamin C 15%DV; Calcium 40%DV; Iron 20%DVDV = Daily Value Check out the Tex-Mex version of One Recipe, Four Ways. /description Ingredients - 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 cup drained, canned, unsalted, chopped spinach
- 3 cups hot mac and cheese (see above link to base macaroni and cheese recipe)
- 2 tablespoons finely shredded, imported Parmesan cheese
/ingredients Preparation - Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, about 10 seconds. Add the spinach and heat through, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Stir into 2 portions, or approximately 3 cups, of hot mac and cheese (from the base recipe for "Tasty Mixed Up Mac and Cheese"--see link above) along with the Parmesan cheese and serve.
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Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 10:13 PM
I had such a great experience today as a wedding planner and Seattle caterer. In planning and catering weddings, it is important to not allow any chance for problems to spoil the day. Relying on great suppliers to go "above and beyond the call of duty" is one important aspect of this process. I need to know that my suppliers take my wedding caterings seriously too. Today I found out that a wedding that we are doing this weekend had some last minute yes responses to the RSVP. It was a snowy, icy winter day right before the Thankgiving holiday. Not to many people were working in Seattle due to the snow. I wondered how my suppliers would respond to this last minute request for my wedding catering. I called Greg from Express Linens, my specialty linen supplier and asked if I could get some last minute table linens. Not only was he happy to help, he called his boss Theresa who drove through the snow and ice to get me the linens that I needed. It made me more at ease to know that we would have them in time for the wedding. I was very impressed so I thought I would write about it. Their phone number is (206)383-8625. I recommend them not just for having amazing wedding linens and wedding chair covers. They also carry wedding sashes, wedding linen napkins, and other wedding props. Most importanly, they care about the brides with whom I am working. I am one wedding planner that appreciates their contribution to the Seattle wedding business. |
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