Maybe you’ve got the details of the actual wedding ceremony worked out, but what about the reception? One of the major costs of the wedding reception will definitely be the food, so you’ll want to make sure you’ll have enough food for everyone without spending too much money. Here are some top ways to cut on your catering bill that will ensure that your guests enjoy your receptionand you save money.

Don’t order more food than you need.

Most couples want to order an extra tray or two of hors d’oeuvres in case extra guests show up. This is fine (and usually a smart idea), but you should still make sure that you’re not order more appetizers than you actually need; use your discretion based on the guest list. For instance, if you know a number of your guests are vegetarian, you may not need to order as many appetizers with meat. Also, ordering two or three types of hors d’oeuvres will help to reduce your catering bill. If you buy more of the same dish, you can usually save money with most catering companiesdifferent kinds of foods will increase the bill, so it’s important to keep it classy but simple at the weddingeven when it comes to food.

Caterers will also try to encourage you to spend more than you may need to on the actual meal as well. You may not need a five course meal if you’ve already purchased three types of appetizers and a salad, or three extra desserts if you already have a pretty large wedding cake. The time of day that you hold your wedding will give you a good indication of how much food to serve; if you’re having the ceremony in the afternoon or early evening, you may want to serve more food.

Pay attention to the types of foods you order.

There are some foods that are always going to be expensive, even if you only order small amounts. So, since you have to order a considerable amount of food, ordering dishes that aren’t so costly will help you to keep your catering bill reasonable. Certain seafood, like shrimp, lobster and salmon will definitely make your catering bill higher, so if you have to have them, try to use them as only one of the course choices for dinner, or purchase these foods as appetizers to save on costs.

Have food stations.

Food stations are a unique way to serve a variety of foods at your wedding reception, and you can be sure that everyone will find something they like to eat. This way, you won’t have to worry about people changing their minds about their meal choices once they arrive at the reception. A food station with different types of pasta is usually a hit with most guests, and can be very economical. You can also include food stations with other types of the ethnic foods, such as Mexican or Indian fare, to celebrate the cultures of the people who will be attending your wedding, or to acknowledge your backgrounds.

You may also be able to cut your catering bill by not requesting an elaborate setup for your food stations and tables. Using a single color for tablecloths, usually white, will cut down on labor costs. To add more color to your reception decorations, you may want to add elaborate centerpieces, so that you can spend as much as you need to on the meals for the reception. To get menu ideas and more pricing information, log on to sites like www.weddingsutra.com and www.foreverwed.com.

About The Author
Michelle Ferrell is the author of “How To Plan Your Dream Wedding On A Limited Budget” - Discover other creative ways you can save thousands on your wedding at www.bridebargains.com.

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Secret Shopping has become a very popular part time job mainly because it is a very convenient way of earning extra money, assignments are usually easy and prior experience is not compulsory to apply for the job. However, there are some important things to keep in mind before becoming a Secret Shopper.

First of all, ask yourself if you have all the necessary qualities to become an effective Secret Shopper such as a love for shopping, patience, practicality, good writing skills (when submitting reports), understands the true meaning of customer service, keen sense of observation, punctuality etc. These are some of the main qualities that employers are looking for before hiring a Secret Shopper.

Beware of scams. Never respond to Secret Shoppers’ job advertisements that require application fees or registration fees. You may only wind up with a useless handbook or information about hiring Companies. Genuine Secret Shopping Companies never charge fees. Normally, all you have to do is simply fill out a paper or an online application form and wait for the company to contact you.

If your application is accepted by a hiring company, there will be an initial training program, introducing you to the basics of the Secret Shopping industry and other crucial information regarding the type of assignments, basics of customer care service, how to construct reports and everything you need to know on how to become an effective Secret Shopper.

If you are selected for a particular assignment, you’ll be notified by email or phone. So be sure to check your mails regularly and give a phone number where you can be easily reached, like a cell phone number if you have one. Once you start working on an assignment, give it your best shot so that the hiring company is impressed enough to employ you again in the future.

Secret Shoppers provides detailed information about secret shoppers, how to become a secret shopper, restaurant secret shoppers and more. Secret Shoppers is affiliated with Instant Win Sweepstakes.

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Don’t despise the scraps of time or anything else in your life. Instead, use them to help achieve your goals and transform the way you live.

Five minutes every hour can help you make strides in learning a skill. If the five minutes escalate into ten minutes an hour, the results can be astonishing.

Don’t wait until you have an extra hour or so available. That hour may never come and you may never learn that skill. Even a few minutes a day can help you make progress in playing that banjo or whatever skill you desire.

Don’t despise the scraps of exercise in your day. Get up and walk around during the advertisements in two hours of TV and you will have walked for nearly half an hour.

Alternatively, put an exercise machine in a room with a TV and work out while you watch the program.

Do situps every time the ads come on and you could do fifty sit ups in two hours of TV. If you don’t watch TV or films, just do five sit ups every time you stop reading or writing or whatever you are doing.

Get up every hour or so and do something physical. Try walking around the house and taking a look at those rooms you seldom spend time in. Walk up and down your stairs.

Walking up and down the stairs can stress the heart a little and make it stronger. It is great value for time. I have just walked up the stairs to switch on the central heating and will need to return to switch it off. In any event, you don’t need an excuse to walk up and down your own stairs. You have paid for those stairs after all!

If your central heating or the equivalent is on automatic put it on manual and get yourself moving around the house. If you live in an apartment block or bungalow just getting up and walking to the controls is better than nothing.

You could always put away the remote controls for the DVD player or TV and force yourself to get up and use the push buttons on the actual set. These scraps of exercise all add up.

I have some foam nunchakus in my room and I practise with them for about five minutes whenever I can. I don’t use wooden ones because I might well break something in the room or injure myself when I miss a catch.

One of my taekwondo teachers knocked himself unconscious with his nunchakus when training on his own in his room. There is no point in doing any kind of training or activity which injures you.

So use foam nunchakus, preferably with a chain link, and you will be injury free and can develop a useful skill which is fun and which involves exercise. I had the main electric lights in my room moved away from the middle of the room so I would have space to swing the nunchaku without breaking the lights.

If you don’t know how to work the nunchaku, buy a DVD and learn from it. We are all incredibly fortunate these days to have DVD’s available which will teach us almost anything.

If you don’t want to work out with the nunchaku, just do something like squats or knee raises or pushups when you take a break. These scraps of movement will eventually produce results. Practise your kicks if you study the martial arts. If you don’t, get a DVD and learn a few kicks. Just practise them very slowly. This will build muscle and skill.

Humans were made for exercise as they chased down their mobile food. It is important to recapture part of that life style at least.

Use time scraps to deal with clutter. Put one or two things away in those spare scraps of time and your room can become a model of neatness.

Don’t despise the scraps of paper that tend to appear everywhere. Deal with them one at a time and you may save yourself hassle. I’ve just had a snooty letter from a credit card company because I have exceeded my limit on their card.

If I had shown more respect for the scraps of paper on my desk, I would have found out that I had exceeded the limit sooner. If you plan to keep some paper, put it in a file or home of some kind with a relevant name on it! Important paper deserves preserving and labelling.

So then; start using the scraps of time and motion in your life and they can provide you with powerful skills and a healthy body. Use every chance to get up and move about doing something. There is usually a bed or chair available if you overtire yourself!

Take care of those scraps of paper and they will take care of you. You will stay on top of your finances, relationships and many other things.

Apply the scrap or bit by bit principle to everything. I just walked to my back door and noticed a pigeon walking round searching for scraps of food. It looked quite plump and healthy. Scraps are keeping it alive and well and mobile enough to evade any predatory cat or fox.

We have all been told we should eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day but how many of us do that? However, we could all eat a slice of apple or two or three grapes or half a tomato every hour or so. As always these scraps will mount up and we may even get a taste for healthy food.

Obviously doing the above should not be a substitute for taking control of our main blocks of time each day and making a plan or schedule of the activities we need to complete or, at least, begin in order to achieve our goals.

An example of a daily plan, which I have mentioned elsewhere, is to spend an hour on learning a skill; an hour on dealing with an overwhelming task like sorting out your paper work and an hour on achieving one of your goals. The acronym SOG can help. S for skill; O for overwhelming task and G for goal.

Priorities are clearly crucial to goal achievement and doing the important things early in the day ensures they get done. I have just finished this article after starting work early this morning and have then gone on to write a second article by the early evening.

Writing articles like this is a key priority for me as I need the advice in them as much as anyone else. They may also bring visitors to my website.

Control your main blocks of time but do not despise the scraps. They are worth their weight in gold.
Make full use of any scraps of exercise or motion. You can keep fit without moving outside your house!

Deal carefully with every scrap of paper that comes your way and, if you don’t like healthy food, at least try to eat some scraps of fruit and veg every day.

Good luck with the above ideas and congratulations if you are already following the principles described. If you are sceptical, give some of the activities suggested a try and see what happens.

John Watson is an award winning teacher and 5th degree blackbelt martial arts instructor. He has written several ebooks on motivation and success topics. One of these can be found at http://www.motivationtoday.com/36_laws.php

You can also find motivational ebooks by authors like Stuart Goldsmith. Check out http://www.motivationtoday.com/the_midas_method.php

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site but please include the resource box above.

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