1). Caterer:
YES!! We've unofficially booked the caterer and they have been generous enough to let us pay the deposit after the holidays! I still need to fill out the official contract as well but we have till Jan 16th or so to do that. Woohoo! They are called Footers Catering and are located in Denver, CO. Unfortunately, the price is better than most I've seen but still when you factor in the # of guests that I'm expecting, it's still a lot of money. But food-wise it comes to ~$23.00pp. When you add in rentals of tables, chairs, plates, silverware and all that shit, it's more like around $52.00pp. Which, is really REALLY not bad.
Plus, the food was really great! We're going to have apps, like mushroom quesedillas w/ pesto and 2 stations: Pad Thai and Crepes. I don't want to give too much detail because you'll have to come to find out what all the yummy choices are, but I will say that it is about 75% vegetarian. Only 1 app, 1 soup and then mix-ins for the stations will have meat in them. (For the stations, you can elect to just not have meat but can still eat the whole rest of the stuff in it). =)
2). Photographer:
We've found a great local photographer courtesy of on of my high school friends. He's a young photographer just starting out, but with some wedding experience already. He's got a great eye for light and effects and is a great price! He is also letting us put down the deposit in January, which save us for the holidays. ^_^
His name is Chase Hoffman, and he's charging us $800 for the whole wedding from before to after and for ALL our good pics on a DVD. Amazing rates. I'd highly suggest you check him out, though he did say that he was planning to raise his prices a bit. But still a great deal, I'm guessing. And also a great person to work with. :)
3). Videographer: I have enlisted a friend of mine to do the videography-ing. The "cheapest" videographers I've found were $700-$900 and, I'm sorry, but that's just way too much to hold a camera and ask people to give their best wishes to the bride and groom. And since we have all the equipment and Math is great at making videos, we decided that all we really needed was someone to hold the camera. And yes, we ARE paying him like $200. Plus, I think he will do a very great job. He's an architect (methodical) and also very people-persony. Whew...cross that off the checklist!
4). Hotel: My mom booked a block of rooms at the Westin Downtown. Rooms are normally like $200/night but she got a deal of like $130 or something like that. I made a VERY extensive list of details and things to do on our wedding website. So please go check it out, don't let my efforts and roughly 2 1/2 hours of my life go to waste!! I still need to research cheaper downtown hotels for those who can't/won't afford the Westin. Though I hear that it's a very nice hotel! We'd love for all our friends to stay downtown and join us for brunch the next morning. There's nothing like the party that keeps on giving. ;-)
I still have to find a DJ. Ours was supposed to be an employee from The Artwork Network, but he is no longer working there and the owner didn't give me his contact info so I'm guessing he left on not-so-great terms. So, that leaves us w/o a DJ so the same applies as above. We will pay you ~$200 to monitor our iPod playlist, make sure stuff cues on time and make important announcements.
I'm also still looking for a florist/deciding if I WANT a florist. I have a couple contacts, but they wanted to wait until after the holidays, which is totally understandable.
We're getting close to having all the big stuff done. Yay! After that, the fun stuff will start.
