Wedding Catering Add-Ons
A good wedding catering service can take care of everything, from food and drinks to rental supplies like tables, chairs and dinnerware. But there are also many add-ons that can impact your final catering bill. For professional help, contact Wedding Catering Seattle WA.
For example, grazing tables and other interactive dining ideas can make your wedding more unique but will definitely increase your overall bill.
Your wedding menu should ideally reflect your unique tastes while also embracing your loved ones’ dining preferences. You’ll want to consider your budget, guest count and the style of service you’re opting for (plated, buffet or family-style).
The type of food you choose will have a significant impact on costs. Elaborate cuisine with premium ingredients will be more expensive than simple fare. Your bar service will also be a major part of the total cost, so it’s important to decide whether you’re going with a cash only bar, limited open bar or full-open bar and how much alcohol to serve per hour. There may also be additional add-ons and rentals like linens, plates, cups and glassware that can tack on to the final catering bill.
It’s essential to do your research and get referrals from your venue, wedding planner or recently married friends before selecting a caterer. Once you’ve narrowed down your options, request quotes for your estimated guest count and style of meal service. The quotes should itemize food, drink, rental fees, service charges and gratuity so you can compare apples to apples. It’s also worth figuring out what types of special accommodations your catering company can make for guests with dietary restrictions or allergies, like vegan, gluten-free and kosher/halal diets. This will help to avoid any unexpected surprises on your wedding day.
Drinks
To ensure that your guests have a great time, it is important to provide a variety of drinks. Consider having a signature drink for your big day that reflects the couple’s personality or love story. Or choose a seasonal specialty drink that highlights ingredients in your area. Non-alcoholic options are also essential for designated drivers, sober guests and anyone else who prefers to skip the booze. Serve a delicious mocktail, sparkling water or fruity iced tea to keep everyone refreshed and happy.
Hard liquors can be a great addition to any cocktail bar, and it’s helpful to split them up into clear liquor (like vodka) and colored liquor (like whiskey or bourbon). This allows your bartenders to create a variety of drinks with different alcohols, as well as ensure that all your wedding guests can enjoy their favorite cocktails.
For a refreshing summer drink, try a simple watermelon mojito made with lime juice, mint leaves, white rum and fresh watermelon. If your wedding falls on a hotter day, a jug of Pimm’s is an easy crowd pleaser. And mulled wine is a great choice for a fall or winter wedding, with flavors like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and star anise adding to its cozy appeal. It’s a good idea to serve at least 7 drinks per guest, which includes 2 glasses of wine, 1 glass of beer and 5 servings of cocktails or soft drinks.
Desserts
Desserts are a wedding staple that can be served both buffet-style and plated. Many couples opt for a smaller selection of desserts than a traditional cake to give their guests more options and variety. Some popular non-cake wedding desserts include macarons, cheesecake, and ice cream.
For an easy-to-eat and fun alternative to traditional wedding cake, consider cookie cakes. These are simple to bake and can be decorated with whatever toppings the couple chooses. They also make a great favor option for guests to take home.
A fruity wedding dessert is perfect for a summer or spring event. It can be a great way to showcase your theme and add a healthy, light touch to your menu. This is a great option for weddings with guests of all ages.
Another great option is a cheesecake bar. Cheesecake comes in a variety of flavors and can be decorated to fit your theme or personality. Cheesecakes also add a sense of elegance and sophistication to your dessert table.
If a cake isn’t for you or your guests, try a pie bar. Whether you prefer a pumpkin or blackberry pie, this is a perfect dessert for fall and winter weddings.
Dessert Bar
A dessert bar is a fun alternative to the traditional wedding cake. It’s also a great way to add more options for your guests and give them something to talk about! A dessert bar can be as simple or elaborate as you want, and it’s a great way to showcase your personality and aesthetic. You can incorporate sweets that use family recipes, honor your heritage, or highlight your favorite foods.
Some popular choices for a dessert bar include chocolate, donuts, cookies, and tarts. Cookie bars are a good option for a more casual display that can fit any style, while tarts make for a classy and elegant addition to any dessert table. A sweet ice cream bar is another crowd pleaser, and a great idea for summer weddings! A sundae station is a perfect way to let guests pick their own toppings and create a personalized treat.
If you’re looking for a more formal option, a macaron bar is an elegant and pretty choice that can fit any theme. These delicate bites can be displayed in different colors and even feature edible decorations.
If you’re not big on pie, a dessert charcuterie board is an easy and delicious way to show off your flavors. Choose a variety of pastry treats, such as fruit, chocolate, biscuits, and marshmallows, and let guests serve themselves.
Dessert Stations
The traditional wedding cake is a staple for many couples, but there are endless options for other desserts. Consider chocolate mousse bars with different toppings like berries, nuts, fudge, or sprinkles to give guests a tasty and interactive alternative. Or maybe a less traditional cake is your thing—choose babka, carrot cake, or even chocolate chip banana bread!
A dessert station is a fun option that can be set up during the cocktail hour while guests are enjoying drinks and appetizers. This will give your caterer a chance to get the sweets ready before dinner begins. The buffet or plated food comes later, and the desserts can serve as a late night snack or wedding favor for guests to take home.
When setting up your dessert station, consider splitting the selection up by color for a bold and enchanting visual. For example, you could have a blue section with cupcakes, blueberries in the pies, or blue macarons, and a red section with doughnuts, cookies, or parfaits.
Some brides are opting for a self-serve style dessert table that gives guests the option to customize their sweet treats themselves and choose their own portion size. For this, make sure your catering company has the equipment to handle this and offers plenty of to-go containers for those who want to take their sweets home with them.
Dessert Table
A dessert table is a great way to offer a variety of sweet treats for your guests. It can be used in addition to a cake or instead of a traditional one, and it’s also a great option for couples who want to go all out with their wedding decor.
The best part about a dessert table is that it gives you the opportunity to be creative and come up with an array of treats that will please everyone’s taste buds. You can pair cookies with milk, have a cupcake bar with assorted flavors and icings or serve up mini desserts that are sure to appeal to kids.
A couple can create a beautiful display by arranging the treats in eye-catching ways and adding decorations. Some of the most popular styles include staging the desserts at different heights and displaying them on pretty serving platters. Many couples even add a backdrop behind the dessert table to add a special touch to the décor.
A dessert table can also be themed based on your wedding colors. This is a fun way to add a pop of color that will tie everything together visually. For example, a blue-themed buffet could have a mix of blue cupcakes, cookies and donuts. You could even go as far as pairing the desserts with candy, ice cream or other items in the same hue for a truly cohesive look.
Landscaping Services
Landscaping Stafford VA is the art of using natural elements to transform an outdoor space into a beautiful aesthetic. Focalization, repetition, line, and variety are just a few techniques to create a visually appealing landscape.
Focalization draws the eye to a particular point, creating an inviting atmosphere. The line can be real, implied, or curvilinear.
- Soil
Soil is a natural medium for the growth of plants, trees and grasses. It is a complex mixture of weathered mineral materials, organic material and air. It differs from its parent materials in texture, structure, consistency, color and other chemical, biological and physical characteristics.
Soils are a vital resource for our planet and provide a wide variety of essential ecosystem services. These include storing water and nutrients, preventing floods, and regulating the flow of greenhouse gases. Soils are also home to many organisms that provide food, shelter and protection.
The type of soil used in landscaping can make or break the health and appearance of the plants in your yard. The best way to choose the right soil is to understand what it is made of, where it comes from and the specific needs of your plants and trees.
It is important to understand how the different soil types are classified so you can recognize the characteristics of your specific site and the requirements of the plants that will be grown there. There are several formal classification systems, some of which are based on geology and other factors, others on a combination of physical and chemical properties.
Soil is often classified by the percentage of sand, silt and clay particles that it contains. This combination is called the soil texture. For example, loam is a common name for a soil that has equal parts sand, silt and clay. Choosing the right soil for your plants and trees will ensure they thrive and look beautiful. It will also help prevent problems like drainage, erosion and pests. A well-designed and healthy landscape can also promote mental, social and physical health by encouraging people to spend time outdoors, which in turn releases endorphins, the body’s natural “feel good” chemicals.
- Water
Having plants around us brings physical and psychological benefits. It reduces our stress levels, improves attention and memory, increases our ability to concentrate, and helps us feel more connected with nature. It’s no wonder why people spend more time outdoors, soaking in the sunshine, green grass, beautiful flowers, and sweet fragrances.
Landscaping is the art and science of designing and modifying outdoor spaces to enhance beauty, function, and value. It includes plant selection, layout, and placement, hardscape features (pathways, patios, retaining walls), and water features. Landscape design considers how the different elements work together to create a balanced, harmonious environment.
A well-maintained landscape provides a great first impression for your home or business, and studies show that it increases property values. Proper landscaping of your home or business also saves energy, as trees and natural grass provide shade and help keep temperatures down.
The way in which water is used is another important consideration. Water management is a major part of landscaping, especially in areas susceptible to erosion. Using rainwater to irrigate gardens and lawns is one alternative to using municipal water, which conserves resources.
Landscaping can be done in many ways, from installing a garden with native plants to creating an eco-friendly yard by using pollinator-friendly plants and reducing your use of pesticides and fertilizers. It can also be done in a way that reduces erosion, and utilizes natural water sources like ponds, streams, and rivers to control flooding and improve water quality. This is known as Xeriscaping, and can be done in a wide range of climates and soil types. It’s a cost-effective and low-maintenance way to improve your outdoor living space.
- Lighting
In landscape design, lighting is an important element that highlights the beauty of a space after dark. By drawing attention to specific features and creating shadows, lighting can enhance a landscape’s visual appeal. In addition, it can help to illuminate pathways and prevent trips or falls, making a space safe and usable at night.
Landscape lighting offers a variety of styles and techniques to choose from. The type of lighting chosen is guided by the features that are highlighted and the purpose of the area. The use of color, both in unity and contrast, also plays an important role in landscape design. For example, warm colors like reds and yellows add excitement to a space, while cool colors, such as blues and greens, create tranquility.
Uplighting is the process of shining light upwards to illuminate a feature or surface. This technique can be used to highlight stonework, draw attention to trees or accentuate architecture. Another way to highlight a feature is to use Shadowing, which is achieved by placing a light behind and angling it towards a structure. This will cause the light to cast a soft shadow onto the surface in front of it.
Floating lights are a relatively new trend in landscape lighting. These lights are installed in the ground and gently wash an area with light, without displaying the fixture itself. This technique is great for highlighting a walkway, creating an inviting entryway to your home or illuminating an entertainment area. To control the amount of light an area receives, look for a fixture with adjustable lumen output. This will allow you to customize the brightness of a given fixture and keep it from being too bright, which can be distracting.
- Plants
Plants are a crucial part of life on Earth, and they provide beauty, variety, and interest to the landscape. Their physical characteristics give each plant its own personality, and some plants are more dominant than others due to their size or other factors such as color or texture. Plants with upright forms, bright colors, coarse textures, and more are more dramatic and attract attention. Conversely, rounded forms, soft colors, and fine textures are more subtle and tend to blend into the background.
Planting provides a number of practical benefits to the home landscape, including providing shade, privacy, and reducing erosion. It also creates a more natural environment and improves air quality by removing dust, dirt, pollutants, and other debris from the soil. Landscaping can also help reduce noise and light pollution by screening or blocking the view of neighboring buildings, traffic, and streets.
Choosing the right plants is an important aspect of landscaping and can be done using several principles, such as unity and contrast. Aim for visual consistency by matching the colors of different flowers and incorporating colors from your home’s exterior into the landscape. Contrast is also key and can be achieved by juxtaposing different shapes, sizes, colors, and textures of plants and hardscapes.
Plants come in a wide range of forms, from trees to shrubs and ground cover to flowering plants and even grasses. In terms of form, rounded forms are the most common and help to create a more balanced design. Plants with a more dramatic, conical, or pyramidal shape should be used sparingly because they can overwhelm the design. Adding more rounded forms around these more dramatic plants will temper their accenting qualities and allow them to blend into the design.
- Design
Design is a broad term that encompasses the artistic qualities of line, form, scale, color and texture that make up landscape composition. Landscaping also includes the planning and implementation of non-living elements such as hardscape (such as walkways, fences, and patios) and plantings (such as trees and flowers).
A landscape’s design is the foundation for its aesthetics and functionality. The design process starts with a clear understanding of the project area and determining how it will be used. It should include the layout of the plants and hardscape, the placement of water features, and the use of varying textures. It is also important to consider the natural environment, such as how wind and sunlight will affect the landscape.
Using the 5 fundamental design elements of rhythm, unity, balance, proportion and emphasis, a garden can be designed to create harmony and order. This can be achieved through arranging and combining plants, trees, and other garden ornaments to provide a visual attraction and guide the viewer around the garden.
When designing a garden, it is important to incorporate plant and flower colors that will complement the home. Also, it is a good idea to choose colors that offer interest throughout the four seasons. For example, evergreens and conifers can add year-round color to a garden.
Adding trees to the landscape can improve air quality by reducing carbon dioxide levels and absorbing nitrogen oxides, which cause smog. They can also reduce erosion by holding soil in place and creating shade. Additionally, they provide habitat for wildlife and can help prevent stormwater runoff and flooding. Landscaping can also increase the value of a property. It can be done by simply installing a trellis of flowers or by creating a peaceful pond with water lilies.
