Catering VS Having family cook

I am buying the food and have 4 people helping us cook it. We are doing foods that can be cooked ahead of time for the most part. I didn't ask my family they offered.

Or see if you can find someone who can do the serving, but don't make family feel pressured to help.

FS and I talked about this in the beginning too. The main reason we did not is that our families live in NY and NJ and we're in DC. We had the same concerns though, we wanted them to go to the wedding as guests, not vendors. I think you should also keep in mind that it's not the same thing to cook for family occasions as it is to cook for a wedding. Depending on the number of guests it can be very stressful. Also, depending on the type of food, it really needs to be cooked day of instead of the day before. Who's going to transport it? Is it going to keep on sternos (sp?). There's a lot to think about but if you have a small enough guest list and can work out the logistics, I say go for it.

I should have mentioned my family owns a resturant and loves to do it. so everyone is use to catering. they got my sister's wedding together less than a week because she wanted to be married before her husband went over sees. he proposed on Christmas they got married on my bday Dec 29.

Oh well there ya go ;-) Sounds like a plan to me

That's what we did, we prepped everything Friday. Had our meat ordered and delivered cooked and sliced. All the Hired kitchen workers had to do was cook the cabbage rolls, toss the salads and maintian the buffet. We did hire extra servers just for our head table though. So we weren't hoggin the buffet line LOL

My MIL took charge of the food for our reception, though there were some definite things that helped: my MIL works at a facility that is equipped with a commercial kitchen and she hired her business's kitchen manager to assist in food preparation. In addition, we paid for her to hire servers (girls she knew) for the reception.

I had actually wanted to just have a BBQ place cater, but MIL was pretty insistent that we do things this way (and said she would cover the food expense, so how do we say no?). In retrospect, there were pros and cons: I wasn't happy with the attire that the servers wore (white button tops and khaki SHORTS for a wedding reception), I didn't care for the way that some of the buffet areas were set up (they had a COOLER holding the champagne sitting next to the keg of beer), and there was a little drama over the menu (MIL tried to nix the food that *I* wanted, for instance).

Here is what we planned to do prior to Todd's sis and bil offering their restaraunts to us...

Have family and ourselves cook night prior... hire a few friends of friends of the family to "serve" or in our case man the buffet! We also felt like if WE cooked it we know everyone would enjoy it! WE are all family, our wedding will be so we all eat the same stuff!

Good luck!

We are in the same position. He really wants to do the food ourselves.. which translates to him doing most of it! I am concerned that he will be tied up cooking all day. Our venue will provide servers so that we don't have to worry about that part of it and we have access to all the roasters/ chafers whatever else we need but I don't know! Also, there's a little debate over what food we will have if we DIY... ie, pig roast, ribs, chicken, beef roast!

Anyway, I think if you have the resources to do it yourself you can save a LOT of money and you are sure that it will be good! I say find someone you trust to take charge and do it!