buzztone on "[Plugin: Contact Form 7] CAPTCHA not required?"

RE: Captcha - What code are you referring to?
Everything in the Form secion of the CF7 interface. Should look something like this:

<p>Your Name (required)<br />
    [text* your-name] </p>

<p>Your Email (required)<br />
    [email* your-email] </p>

<p>Subject<br />
    [text your-subject] </p>

<p>Your Message<br />
    [textarea your-message] </p>

<p>[submit "Send"]</p>

RE: Email
Setting up a working Mail Server on your localhost is a techncially complex task and may be way beyond you current skill level. It's a task that many highly skilled WordPress Designer/Developers would likely avoid.

If you don't have a separate development site where you can test things (something most skilled WordPress Designer/Developers would have) you could as you suggest create the live site and put it in maintenance mode while testing.