InTouch with Southern Kentucky February 2020 | Page 16

How to stay
under budget
when planning
a Wedding
BY CARLA SLAVEY
COMMONWEALTH JOURNAL
W
hat is the minimum
needed for planning
a wedding? A dress
and some food for
the guests? Add in a
photographer and the flowers, and
maybe some decorations. Wouldn’t
it be nice to rent a venue so you
have enough space for the guests?
You might want a DJ for entertain-
ment, and multiple dessert options
in case someone doesn’t want cake.
And don’t forget everything that
goes into the rehearsal dinner.
It’s easy to see how the a wed-
ding budget can quickly get out of
control.
“By the time you get your venue
and your food, it’s hard to get under
$5,000. Which is a lot to me,” said
Jami Dobbs, owner of Downtown
Deli and a wedding caterer.
“That’s not including that, if it’s
your daughter, you have to go get
the dress and the flowers.”
Dobbs has catered plenty of wed-
16 • I n T ouch with S outhern K entucky 
dings of all different price ranges.
She said that for her business, feed-
ing the guests can cost anywhere
from $10 to $22 per person.
It depends on whether the bride
and groom want something simple
like hot dogs and hamburgers, or
something higher end like steak and
grilled chicken dinners.
She said she always starts with
asking if the family has a budget.
“Because if you do, then we know
where we want to start.”
One person who knows first-hand
how expensive weddings can get is
Bill Patterson, owner of Cave Hill
Vineyard and Winery. He and his
wife Debbie got married in 2008, and
chose the vineyard as their venue.
That’s how they found out how
expensive it can be to rent tents
for shelter and all the other things
needed to host a wedding.
When the two decided to dedicate
a space in the vineyard as a wed-
ding venue for others to rent, they
decided to build a 3,200 square foot
large pavilion that has a capacity of
213 people.
It’s important for the bride and
groom to plan on having that large
of a space to accommodate that
many people, if that is how many
are going to be invited, Patterson
said.
At the same time, he warned wed-
ding minded-families to keep the
number of guests in mind.
“One very important aspect is
keeping on top of the number of
people that you’re going to have,”
he said. “Weddings can get very
expensive very quickly,”
Another way costs can add up is
in the realm of flowers and deco-
rating. Carol Wesley and daugh-
ter-in-law Missy Wesley of Carol’s
Creations said that planning flowers
for a wedding can get out of hand
easily.
“Depending on what they’re want-
ing and what kind of flowers they’re
wanting, a lot of times we can come
up with an idea to keep the prices
down a little bit, but yet get what
they’re wanting,” Carol Wesley said.
F ebruary 2020