Several Questions

jmorse

I am slowly getting the ball rolling for our wedding next October. We have our reception location, photographer, and well, that's about it. 

I need to get some ideas for caterers but have no idea where to start. We are having approxiately 150 guests and really don't want to spend a fortune on food. Any suggestions and/or recommendations?

To back it up a bit, we need to find a location for our wedding too. This has been sort of an ongoing struggle as every place we find has been booked. We're sort of leaning towards a church wedding although that was not our original idea. Our reception is in Pleasant Hill. I've talked to Oakwood church but they charge $700-$750 for non-members which seems like a lot to me since we've already paid $1200 for our reception location. I've had some suggestions for Altoona United Methodist as well but need to contact them still. We'd like to use a church that isn't too "churchy" for lack of a better word. We also need to find a church that will allow non-members. Ideas?

I think that's it for now, but I'm sure I'll be back with more questions later. Thanks everyone in advance! 

sdose13

I got married in October at the Douglas Avenue Presbyterian Church, on 46th and Douglas Ave. It was not too "churchy," in fact, our pastor was really cool and kept it more spiritual than Jesus-y, for lack of a better word. It was very inexpensive, i think $150 to rent the church and another $50 for custodial services. You can also pay for musicians, but we used friends, so I'm  not sure what that cost was. The pastor said what we'd pay him was up to us, so we gave him a nice gift and money for the offering at church the next day. He was super laid-back, and fit well into our beliefs. Trust me, the church will not be booked. The congregation was much older, and they were all so nice. We went a few times and were just so excited to see young people there, it was kind of refreshing not to be in a huge mega-church. Also, the church was very pretty in October, with the stained glass windows and dark wood.

sdose13

Also, does your reception venue have suggestions? We used Gateway Market and thought their prices were pretty decent.

medusia00

We had our at Toad Valley Golf course for the Ceremony it was $600, and very good they setup the chairs and all that jazz.

For food, the first question would be, what type of food do you want? After that we can give you better suggestions!!

Mcsweets

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_iowa-des-moines_several-questions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:80Discussion:833b7518-4dd4-4416-b5f6-fca71acac064Post:955fa180-b9b2-42ea-bdad-c3c712bc1406">Several Questions</a>:
[QUOTE]I am slowly getting the ball rolling for our wedding next October. We have our reception location, photographer, and well, that's about it.  I need to get some ideas for caterers but have no idea where to start. We are having approxiately 150 guests and really don't want to spend a fortune on food. Any suggestions and/or recommendations? To back it up a bit, we need to find a location for our wedding too. This has been sort of an ongoing struggle as every place we find has been booked. We're sort of leaning towards a church wedding although that was not our original idea. Our reception is in Pleasant Hill. I've talked to Oakwood church but they charge $700-$750 for non-members which seems like a lot to me since we've already paid $1200 for our reception location. I've had some suggestions for Altoona United Methodist as well but need to contact them still. We'd like to use a church that isn't too "churchy" for lack of a better word. We also need to find a church that will allow non-members. Ideas? I think that's it for now, but I'm sure I'll be back with more questions later. :) Thanks everyone in advance! 
Posted by jmorse[/QUOTE]

Firstly, I don't think you're slow!  We didn't have ANY of this booked by this time last year and we just got married in October!  Of course, we weren't even engaged yet :)

As for food, we ended up using Hickory Park for the main meal, and had Hy-Vee do hors de'vours (mini quiche, bacon wrapped waterchestnuts, and spin dip w/ pretzel bread - did it for 125 ppl and it was appx $400 w/ 1 person serving).  Both were really good to work with! 

We also looked at Palmers Deli - you can get really cheap "pans" which they cook and whatnot.  We didn't know anyone to serve the food that wouldnt already be at the wedding.  But, one of my bridesmaid's mom used to own a catering company and I'm sure could do it for you if you were interested in that route.

Lastly, I know "Unity" church in DSM will do weddings.  I've never seen it - so I don't know if it's pretty or not :)  When we were looking for a church we did a google search "Non-denominational church Boone Iowa" and just started calling down the list.  We ended up with an AMAZING pastor who we ended up really close with :)