Alternatives to dinner????

Change the time of your ceremony to early afternoon and have a cake and punch reception. If your reception does not span the hours when people normally eat a meal, you don't have to serve a meal.

Your other alternative is to cut your guest list- by a lot.

Have your wedding at a non-meal time and do a cake and punch reception with sandwiches, fruit and veggie trays, and cake

You're going to get a lot of feedback telling you to cut your guest list if you can't afford to feed them all.

You have three alternatives:

Cake & punch

Cut your guest list

Push your wedding date out until you can afford a caterer

View Quoted Comment

These are seriously your only options.

Olive Garden, Italian, and BBQ tend to be cheaper options to. I remember someone saying Olive Garden was about $13 per person (I think). Otherwise like pps said change the time or cut the guest list.

250 guests is a pretty large wedding.

You need to decide what is more important to you - feeding everyone or having 250 people there. If you can imagine your big day happening without some of those people then cut the list. If you feel like you need all those people there then look into off meal times, early afternoon or after dinner and you can get away with just appetizers and cake. There are also lots of cheaper food options, you just need to search for them.

Can you afford a couple cocktail wedding reception? Do research first though. It might not end up being cheaper depending on your area and your large guest list.

Please don't self cater. A no for many reasons. Cut your guest list.

Cut the guest list! 250 is a huge wedding for budget conscious brides. I'm only having 40-70 guests because I would rather be a great host than surround myself with a huge crowd that is being served subpar food and drinks.

What is your food and drink budget? That will help a lot to help steer our suggestions to things that might work for you.

So you chose to have a huge wedding without actually knowing you can afford it?

I'll echo what other people have said and say that you need to either move your wedding to not be during meal time, or cut your guest list until you can afford to feed everyone.

You said you don't want to spend hundreds on catering... I'm hoping this was a typo. What is your catering budget?

Thank you all for the suggestions I’m definitely going to cut the guest list down!

View Quoted Comment This. Except the cake and punch.

If I were invited to a wedding that had that many people and all there was to feed me was cake and punch I’d be pissed off. My first thought would be, why the heck did they invite so many people if they can’t afford it?

The fact that you mentioned hundreds instead of thousands, makes me think cake and punch are your only options. My simple brunch is costing about $70 pp when you add in linens and china. I chose a brunch bc it's so much cheaper. You can host a nice brunch for $20 without alcohol. I added in a bunch of other options. BBQ is probably the cheapest way to go. $10-$15 pp here in the south.

Cut your guest list a lot or push your date to when you can afford it.

View Quoted Comment

I can not impress upon you enough to NOT self cater for any amount of people. Close your eyes and think about having ten people over for dinner. Now multiply that by 25!! Don't self cater for ten people, don't ever do it for any amount of people. It is hard work, huge liability issues and just....a bad idea. Please don't ask family to do it either and don't accept their offers.

Look at BBQ, or Italian buffets. Lots of KC Halls/VFW Halls offer catering that is less expensive.

Think about a lunchtime wedding with no dance to keep costs down. Cake and punch is not a great idea in my opinion. I will be blunt: to invite 250 and only offer cake and punch will make you look gift grabby.

Cut the guest list waaaaay down.

It would probably be more enjoyable for you and your guests if you cut down the list. Food is always a big part of the wedding, so you want to provide a decent meal. Guests want to feel like they’re getting something out of coming to your wedding

I went to a reception where they just did a variety of desserts and people loved it. They had no negative feedback. However, the key is, they had a little disclaimer “**” on their invites so people were prepared to eat before they came. They also had two hours between the ceremony and reception so people could go eat. In my opinion, I attend wedding to see a the couple being married and celebrate with them. It’s not about the meal or alcohol to me. But I do know a lot of people on WW really care about those things. Just do what you can with what you have and those who are true friends and good family will be there regardless.

I'm going to agree with pps that your choices are to do cake and punch, cut your guest list, and/or to push the date back.

I'm also going to agree with pps that if you do cake and punch, you should really significantly (like at least halve) the guest list. At some point when you host a ton of people (and 250 is a ton, much bigger than average) as cheaply as you possibly can, it starts to look like you're trying to profit off gifts.