Wedding at the Blue Rooster B and B

This summer we had the opportunity to cater a wedding at a new venue site for us - The Blue Rooster B and B in Lorane. The B and B is maintained and run by Nancy and sees quite a bit of traffic from King Estate which is just down the road. As one of the few B and Bs in the area, Nancy has quite the monopoly on wine tourists along Territorial HWY.


The grounds were gorgeous! Manicured lawns and flower beds. A large pond and backed by acres of trees with a view down the valley. A huge old barn with re-finish floors for events and several live birds nesting in the rafter. With her unique setting and low prices, Nancy always books out with weddings between Labor Day and Memorial Day and is, in fact, already booking into next year. With this venue site, the bride and groom are responsible for renting and bringing in EVERYTHING needed for their event. A nice thing Nancy does for the wedding party is rent the facility by the weekend not by the day. This cuts out the need for the wedding party to break everything down the night of the wedding or to be rushing around like crazy the day of setting up. Much less stressful.

Like all couples, this bride and groom were working within a very specific budget. Our initial consultation revolved around the different pieces of the reception and what I should / could do as the caterer and what they might look into doing themselves to save money. First up was the bar.

BAR SERVICE
Alcohol is a huge expense for any event. This bride and groom decided they would be better served to hire an individual with an alcohol permit (as the site requires) and purchase the kinds and amounts of beverages they wanted themselves rather than doing it through the caterer (me!). There are pros and cons to doing this. The biggest plus is the potential money they saved by buying the alcohol themselves as they may know someone and get a good deal. With open bars, caterers charge by consumption and this charge is added to the final total on top of which gratuity is figured so they also saved a little there as well. In the end, I don't know how much money they actually saved paying a bartender separately and buying the alcohol themselves.

RENTALS
They chose to handle the rentals of china, tables, chairs, and linen themselves as well rather than go through me. Again, the only cost they saved here was the additional gratuity that would have been generated from a higher final total due to rental fees. If they picked up and returned all of the rental equipment themselves, they could have saved quite a bit of money as rental companies charge an arm and a leg for deliveries. It was a lot of work for members of the family and the wedding party to do on the wedding weekend though. By taking care of the rentals themselves, they also took responsibility of clean up and set up of all rental equipment. Not so, if the caterer handles the rentals.

MENU
We were able to put together a very attractive menu that stayed away from BBQ at the bride's request. To save money, we split the entree down the middle doing Smoked Tri Tip for 100 and Roasted Garlic Chicken for 100 rather than enough of each for all 200. In this case, it worked
quite well, but then again, we always bring extra! We also prepared several appetizer trays at the Mother of Bride's request which were served just after the ceremony while pictures were being taken. It was a beautiful display, but not quite enough for everyone. The bride and groom took care of the non alcoholic beverages themselves as well, so the meal was quite literally all we handled for this event.

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We did our best to clear tables and pick up glasses before we left but, with the family handling the rentals, we didn't stay long after dinner. This was the first wedding I had done where the bride, groom, and assorted family took so much of the work onto themselves. I am a money saver too, so initially, this made sense to me. Now, I am not so sure. Here's a few things to consider when you or someone you love is thinking to save money by 'doing it themselves.'

TIME COST
This is the big one and the one couples and families often deem an acceptable sacrifice in order to save money. Weigh it carefully! Should the Mother and Father of the Bride be shopping for foods, beverages, utensils as well as decorations right up until the day of the wedding or even cooking for the event in their own kitchens. And what about set up and clean up? The wedding party and family should be able enjoy their time at the reception, not jump right into tearing everything down and hauling everything away once the final guest takes off.

ACTUAL COST
I think buying food / alcohol yourself gives the impression you're saving money when really not. The costs are just not going to show up all nice and neat on a catering estimate. Same goes for rentals. All couples save themselves is a little bit of extra gratuity from the rental fees by not going through a caterer for rentals. But they are costing themselves a lot of time and effort in set up, clean up and tear down of said rentals. All I do as the event planner when handling rentals is pass on the exact fees the rental company will charge me.

QUALITY
This isn't one most people think of. Quality is in the details. In general, professionals do a better job than amateurs. Having a professional catering company in charge of the reception from set up and food and beverage service to clean up and tear down will ensure a top notch experience for all of your guests. Thing also won't fall through the cracks like they do when volunteer friends of the family are in charge. For instance, the coffee will get made, the punch bowl refilled, the bar glasses collected in glass racks, trashes emptied, cake passed, and the cake plates and forks in place for the cake cutting. Details really, but these are all details the Mother of the Bride or event the BRIDE doesn't / shouldn't have to be thinking about on the day of the wedding. If you can't delegate a non family member to do these, I think you need to hire someone (like your caterer) to do it for you. Just a few thoughts!

Economic Options

Weddings can definitely be expensive events. While money should not be what its all about, it can feel like money (or the lack there of) is the determining factor in many of your decisions. Below are the result of an email conversation I had with a good college friend who had recently gotten engaged. She was frustrated with even finding a PLACE to get married. If you're thinking venue and catering or not right now, this post is for you!

Weddings cost a bundle no matter how you look at it. Either you pay someone to do it (cook, clean, decorate, etc. . .) or you pay for it with time and energy and do it yourself with the help (hopefully) of friends and family. Having been a caterer for years, I would not recommend using one if cost is an issue. Often food/catering costs will be in addition to facility rental and equipment rental fees. Very spendy and you pay gratuity on top of food costs. That being said, food preparation and service isn't necessarily the thing you want vital family or bridal party members tied up doing the day of your wedding. It's incredibly time consuming and takes longer the less experience your helpers have. The way I see it, there are two cost effective options for food /venue:

1) Have friends and family doing food UP UNTIL the day of the event and then spend a little extra on a few staff people to actually put the food out, stock the buffet, and clean up. Still a huge drain of time with shopping and prep plus requires someone to direct the staff the day of.

2) Or my favorite - utilize a facility that has everything on site already such as a restaurant. Too often, wedding venues cost a fortune and include little beyond the use of the site. With our restaurant, what I do most often for brides, is offer them a wedding venue where they can have the ceremony and the reception (cut out a site rental fee right there) that also includes most of the basic equipment rentals. Restaurants obviously already have tables, chairs and china. Rentals would be limited to arches and possibly ceremony chairs if desired. Restaurants may have a fee for renting out part of their space, but more often than not, they are just looking to
make money off of the food and alcohol. What I do at my place is what's called a 'Food and Beverage Minimum.' Meaning if the cost of food and beverage for the event meets the minimum set for the day and time scheduled (obviously a weekend has a higher minimum than a weekday) then there is NO FACILITY RENTAL FEE! I am sure there are places in Portland who do this.

Other cost cutting options to think about
- Time your wedding so it doesn't center around a meal time. Mid afternoon weddings are too early for dinner and too late for lunch. You could get away with lighter food. Late weddings (after 7) could get away with just doing desserts for their guests. You just notate it in the invitation: "A dessert buffet will be served following the ceremony at _____."
- Don't include alcohol service. Instead, have a cash bar where people can pay for their own alcoholic beverages. Bar costs add up faster than any other if not controlled. It is perfectly acceptable to ask people to pay for their own liquor these days. Again, just notate it on the invitation so your guests are prepared with money. If you want to provide something, do
drink tickets that way consumption isn't

Hope this helps a little!

Spetember Wedding at the ODB

As some of you may have noticed, that on September 13th, we closed the restaurant for a private event. A young couple from our area got married at a local church and booked the ODB for their reception! Aside from the 3 Perkins weddings last year (3 of us daughters got married within 6 months of each other), this was our first large, in-house wedding reception.




It was a beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon with a light breezy. Not too hot and not too chilly. Perfect for the outdoor seating necessary for a group the size of about 150. We could have easily sat 50 more for an even 200 guest event utilizing our backyard and front patio. I look forward to doing more of these next summer.



Foodwise, this is a much easier event for us than would be a catering at another location of the same size. All work aside, the catering aspect of the ODB is where we'd like to grow. However, it became apparent to us that we really need to promote weddings here at the restaurant. When an event is in-house, you have all your tools right there at hand and everyone knows where they are. Unlike a catering, where you have to pack, load, unload, find, repack and put away ALL of your equipment every time. (That's why you have professionals.) We also had a level of familiarity with the location (our restaurant) that is not even possible with off-site events. We were able to utilize our regular staff rather than calling on part time caterers because we did not have to staff the restaurant AND an off-site catering. All in all, it was an incredibly successful event at every level.





The happy couple chose to go with a light brunch buffet for their meal option. The menu included Quiche, Crepes, our Cinnamon French Toast, Roasted Red Potatoes, fresh Fruit Display, an assortment of fresh Pastries and delicious salads. We also provided a mimosa bar which was the hit of the day. We learned the hard way where not to put the receiving line - next to the buffet! The key to handling a large volume of people is handling the traffic flow of said people.




The restaurant was beautiful for the big day. The bride's colors were white, pale green and gold. White linen was everywhere. Each table was decorated with an elaborate centerpiece consisting of a tall candle surrounded by green fruits and vegetables on a gold plate and topped with gold ribbon. It literally took 3-5 of their people 3 hours to get them all done! The cake was a unique creation made by the mother-of-the-bride. It consisted of 3 simple round cakes tiered atop vases and covered with spun sugar. Beautiful!