diy Catering

You should DEFINITELY do this. As long as you have like a microwave or a crockpot laying around for easy reheating, you’re good!

No I am not doing this. I would never subject my guests to traveling to my wedding and feeding them my own cooking. I plan on properly hosting my guests by serving a catered meal and an open bar all night. Anything other than that is poor hosting.

I should have thought of this!

This is not recommended for multiple reasons but most importantly for Health Safety. When serving a large crowd it is extremely important to ensure all food is cooked thoroughly and served at appropriate temperatures as to prevent illness. You would need insurance to cover any food served on premise so that if someone does get sick and goes to the hospital or just pukes all over a rug the venue or sick person is not coming to you to pay for their costs. Its not ideal at all to rely on family or friends to want to help let alone actually do the task correctly (Aunt Ruth may forget she's in charge of bringing the cake) and ultimately do you really want to be super stressed days before the wedding trying to meet cousin sue's tree nut allergy, sensitivity to soy, and not able to touch anything thats made contact with gluten?

Find a restaurant or deli that will cater. Its cheaper than you think.

I don't think DIY or self catering is a good idea. That is A LOT of work OP, plus health risks. You mentioned you have smaller budget, the same meal you are thinking of preparing can be done by an Italian caterer. Italian catering is one of the budget friendly catering choices.

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I don't necessarily think its poor hosting. We are not having an open bar. We aren't serving alcohol at all actually. I would never expect my guests to pay for their own alcohol, which is why we decided not to serve alcohol at all. If I was a poor cook, then of course I wouldn't do that, but I am still feeding them a good, full meal. It's not like I'm not serving them at all. Serving light snacks instead of dinner would be poor hosting in my opinion.

I can't believe I didn't think of this! Ugh instead of serving my guests a duet plate of beef tenderloin and salmon and 100% should have just made the food myself

#WeddingRegret

Italian catering is very budget friendly. $12 pp for us and none of our friends or family will have to work on our wedding day. I also will have one less thing to stress about since I know the food is being professionally cooked to safety standard and served on time.

Oh, no it is 100% poor hosting. Think again.

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Sure. I'm just not finding venues/catering that is within our budget. If the venue is in our budget their catering options are through the roof. And if the catering is in our budget the venue rental fees are too expensive. I don't even know how many venues I've contacted and nothing seems to work. That's part of the reason we are thinking about this because it would allow a little more wiggle room for rental fees and other wedding expenses.

I feel like doing your own food just adds one huge last minute stress. We decided to do a Mexican food buffet, it's super inexpensive and we don't have to worry about anything when it comes to making sure all the food is hot, making sure there is enough, or anything! The caterers will do it all and I and my FH can focus on the day.

Obviously, do what you feel is best. But I think there are options to cater, I would just do some research first.

Olive garden caterers... just saying.

I wouldn't be asking guests to help with food. It would be my parents and In-laws who are 100% for helping us.

I did this for my mom's second wedding. It was miserable. I nearly missed her ENTIRE ceremony. I missed ALL of the reception because i was so busy cooking.. NEVER AGAIN. I'll never get those memories back.

Also, can you handle dietary restrictions and allergies??? Gluten Free, Milk Allergies??

FH is a chef, and there's no way he'd self cater.. Invite less people. Invite those you can afford to cater.

If cost is an issue then look into Italian or BBQ to help keep costs down.

This. is. a. bad. idea.

View Quoted Comment Then invite less people. Host it at a restaurant.

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Are your parents and inlaws not guests?

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How small or big is your guest list, would you consider cutting it? Have you looked into all inclusive venues? Sometimes the catering option ends up being more than a venue with everything included, when you add in all the fees and rentals. I thought of catering in my area but decided against it after I compared catering, rental fees, venue fees, ect vs an actual venue.

View Quoted Comment We are working on cutting down our guest list. But we both have HUGE families. Right now over half of our 200 guests is family. That' the biggest dilemma we are having. Our budget for the whole reception (rentals, catering, cake, decor) is like $3-4k. We have found some catering options that we could afford but we would have to have the ceremon there and it would be outside, or doesn't fit enough people, or there' no ceremony options nearby for us there's just a lot of issues we keep running into.