BYO Food in Fredericksburg, VA

If having a catering is outside of your budget, I'm pretty sure you cannot afford medical bills if people get sick from food poisoning.......

1) It is a TON of work, many professional caterers choose NOT to cater their own wedding because the amount of work it entails. You and your guests should enjoy your day, and not work on it.

2) Unless you are certified in food safety and have the proper equipment to prep, cook, and store the food you are taking a HUGE safety risk. Food poisoning is no fun, and if guests get sick you are liable and they can sue you!

3) Most venues won't even allow unlicensed caters because of the liability

4) Self-catering often doesn't save that much money, and you risk being sued!

5) Guests may have severe food allergies. Licensed caterers know how to properly prep food to avoid cross contamination and safely serve guests with allergies

Some inexpensive catering options are Italian food and BBQ.

Buckle up, because this will not end well. Self catering is such a terrible idea.

If you can't afford to properly host all your guests, cut down your list or wait to get married.

Also, you don't have a date till you have a venue. Your venue's availability sets your date.

Eesh.

Do not self cater!!!!!

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You want to feed 200 guests for $1,000...... Yeah, good luck with that

Most places don't allow self-catering for insurance reasons.

They'll allow food made by certified, licensed caterers because they have insurance in case things go wrong.

And they DO go wrong.

Do not do this.

If it comes down to catering is unaffordable for you and FH because it's pricey to feed 200 people, cut your guest list over making yourself and/or others work to feed 200 people apps, a full meal, and dessert.

Catering is more affordable than you think.

Just do a cake and punch reception. Get a cake from licensed baker and have the wedding in the afternoon

Sounds like you can't afford the wedding you are planning. You need to drastically cut your guest list.

Small wedding at the courthouse with immediate family and go out to dinner afterwards is a more realistic plan probably.

Or just get married with your FH, later on when you can afford to properly hose your guests then you can have a vow renewal.

also:

I'm positive that you won't find a venue like that because there are major liability issues. If someone gets sick they could sue and you'd be shelling out money for their medical bills. Licensed caterers are required for a reason.

If you can't afford catering then you should cut your guest list so you can or push back your date so you can save more. My sister is also getting married in Fredericksburg and there are plenty of affordable caterers and catering options around there. A more affordable option is a cake and punch reception in the afternoon. Good luck OP...this thread isn't going to go over well.

ETA: finding a venue that cheap, this late in the game will also be difficult. @Kate is right, no venue, no date. My sister booked her wedding for November last month and had 2 dates to choose from out of this entire year.

As BeachDreams said, there are quite a few inexpensive catering options. However, you're not going to get that for $1,000 for 200 people. It may be redundant, but your need to cut your guest list, it's the easiest way to save money.

This is a seriously ridiculous idea. Do you have ANY idea what it's like to cater for 200 guests? I was a pro caterer and I can tell you that it's an almost impossible task, off premise, even with pro staff and pro kitchens. And cobbling it together with self catering and friends and family as labor? Nope. Just nope. It will be chaotic, stressful, insanely late and the farthest thing away from the day you're thinking of.

You won't find a place because they will want you to have insurance, workman's comp and health certification. They will not let you bring in your own food.

Cut the list to the immediate family, go to a nice restaurant with 20 of them and enjoy the day. Stop thinking, right now, that you can invite 200 guests and do it yourself. Because you can't.

....and we were doing so good today.

Hold tight OP. You're in for a surprise..

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Celia said it perfectly, as always!

If you do not have the budget, than cut the guest list. It is a reasonable explanation if someone asks why they were not invited "We would have loved to have a larger guest list but our budget was tight so we had to limit our wedding to immediate family and a few friends".

Do not attempt to cook food for 200 people. I say order cupcakes (easier to serve than cake) and do a ceremony at around 2. Serve the cupcakes and soft drinks after the ceremony. Still cut the guest list though.

Sounds like a potluck is coming........

To answer your question: check out public halls/city and county-owned halls, and lodges. That said, these are usually VERY bare bones - some might not even have tables and chairs.

I'm one of the few who don't automatically say "don't self-cater" because I did it successfully - but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't thrown a large party/cooked for large groups/isn't good with details/hasn't handled food.

Self-catering because you can't afford a caterer - not a good enough reason. ESPECIALLY for 200 people. Self-catering isn't always cheaper because you have to pay for all the extras that would normally be included in catering, such as plates cups, napkins, salt, pepper, condiments, linens, etc. And that stuff adds up.

Also, DIY for 200 is incredibly difficult. You'll have to hire help - don't ask your family and friends. Asking them for help in this case is rude. But think of set-up, take-down, cleaning, details during the reception, etc.

This isn't a good idea.

Why don't you wait another year for the wedding or host something small?? Save money and do it right, don't rush it because you want it now

If you can't afford a caterer than you can't afford your wedding.

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