Our caterer is a big art collector and agreed to supply all organic food and staff in trade for one of my husband’s paintings. (A small painting is worth 20K, and the food and staff would’ve been about 13K, so he made out with the good end of the stick). That allowed us a lot of room to play with on decor. We served Prairie Organic vodka cocktails, New Belgium Beer, and Casa Barranca Organic Wine. My husband and I are foodies and created the menu and cocktails ourselves, even squeezing 10 pounds of fresh lemon juice for the Vodka lemonade drinks.
Instead of a live first dance, we recorded a surprise comedic synchronized dance video. None of our guests knew this was coming and it was a huge hit. (seems to be the trend these days) We had a friend of ours who is a commercial director film it and included faux commentary about him. We projected it on the studio wall halfway through the reception, after toasts. See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gpbsLiTVnU
