diy Catering?

*bring heated trays

All venues we looked at either required using their caterer or a caterer that had a license and insurance. If you need to cut costs, cut your guest list.

If you want to cut costs then cut your guest list, don't serve crappy food and force a friend to work for your wedding. That's rude and tacky, and you run a great risk of giving your guests food poisoning or botulism by "self-catering."

This is very frowned upon by the weddingwire community, rightly so. I would have suggest lurking for a while before posting...

Depends on the venue, but honestly, self catering is really not a great idea. There are all sorts of health concerns, and legal concerns- if someone gets food poisoning, they can sue you and you are liable for it if you self cater. If you have a caterer, they would be liable. Also, as a bride this is a *really* big 'extra' to worry about that usually isnt much cheaper than just hiring someone. By the time you get around to renting chafing dishes, serving ware, the food, the labor involved in cooking, etc, it really wont save you much money. Honestly, the easiest way to save money is to cut your guest list as much as you can.

Look into BBQ or Italian for catering. We found a locally owned BBQ restaurant we really like and they gave us a fantastic deal. We had considered taking an experienced friend up on the offer to do the food but we decided we preferred to have reliable food and a staff we knew could deliver and a lot fewer moving parts. The bit of extra money to do it is totally worth it for the peace of mind.

It's possible. I catered a wedding in the past, full dessert buffet. Finger desserts and nobody had to serve anyone. Ive also done some where the food was placed in chafers on stereos and the food was well prepared so no food poisoning occurrences however this style may coat more than it saves as many people choose their own portions. Wedding party such as ushers can aid with serving proportions on the plates. Sneeze guards are also not used so the usher tends to have the chafer turned slightly inward only to show the guests what is in it but make it unavailable to eat or grab from. Certain venues have policies to enforce their catering used, however there are venues that will provide a full kitchen area and you must rent the tables and chairs etc. The venue would give u allotted hours and after the wedding you will be responsible for ensuring it is cleaned. And unless food doesn't go with weddings or by sit you mean ordering take out, your catering choice will not be tacky.

Lol - self catering will not save you anything.

1. You will need to find a venue that allows you to bring in your own catering.

2. You will need to purchase liability insurance because no venue in their right mind will let you bring in your own food without one.

3. If you want to do serve yourself you need to double the amount of food per person.

on top of all those costs either you yourself or your family will need to be cooking i nthe days and hours leading up to your wedding. Were you planning on skipping the rehearsal dinner so you have more time to cook? Did you realize you won't need to place any reserved signs because your parents will be in the kitchen cooking during your ceremony? Do you plan just wearing your hair or make up any way that it takes ten minutes to put up so you don't have to worry about the hours before being taken up by hair and make up so you can spend that time prepping the food?

Skip the self catering. Go with a cheaper dinner option. 30$ pp is BEYOND reasonable. In my area you cannot get below 85$ pp and that doesn't even include alcohol.

Self catering for a wedding is tacky and dangerous. No one wants crock pots sitting around. Also, with any reputable venue they will make you pay for ridiculous liability insurance IF you can find anyone to cover you at all.

View Quoted Comment Lol. At least try to be nice, she was giving you advice. Enjoy your flag for name calling.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the advice! We're vegetarian, so BBQ wouldn't work for us, but finding an Italian restaurant with pasta options might work for us.

View Quoted Comment Frank advice is still advice. I definitely suggest lurking more. There is also a search function, and millions of discussions about self catering that have all gone the same way.

View Quoted Comment You can call an idea anything you want. You can’t call a person a name.

This really depends on the venue, but most will not let you make and bring your own food. My venue has a preferred caterer, which we are using, but would allow any other licensed facility to provide food. If your friend is properly licensed and insured, that's a different story. One thing I looked into was drop off catering from local restaurants. The restaurants I was considering provided everything needed to serve and warm the food, and set up and picked up, and it would have considerably cut the catering costs. But, I decided I wanted servers and passed appetizers, so we went a different route.

I dont personally agree with the whole "cut cost cust your guetlst theory" as that did not help at all. I was literally down to about 20 people using that logic i could just pick my fav resutaunt and pick uo the food and do a biiffet style or cut out expensive favors or videographers. Get a sams wedding cake. Etc. There are so many more less drastic ways to cut costs that literally not inviting people to your wedding just because you cant serve steak and unlimited alcohol. Make it work for you. The guests who actually care and want to be there will have a good time just celebrating with you. Just do freeze them, feed them and have a little entertainment.

View Quoted Comment I agree that $30 pp is very reasonable, but there's often a 75-95 person minimum for those prices. I should also have mentioned we're having a smaller ceremony/reception. Around 40-50 people.

I didn't think of the liability insurance though. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

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Avoid a place with minimums or let them know your guest list and if they might make an exception. If you move to an out of season date or on a off night (like a friday or sunday) Venues will generally work with you.

Also You can certainly use a place that lets you choose your own caterer - and look into BBQ or Italian.

So because you're a vegetarian means that everyone at your wedding has to eat vegetarian?

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Since all weddings boil down to a per person cost cutting your guest list quite literally is the easiest way to cut your costs. Also the reception is a thank you for the guest for attending your wedding (which is the ceremony BTW not the party you throw afterwards). When I invite my friends and loved ones to a party I go all out because I want them to have an amazing time.

Can you save money by cutting costs like a videographer or using a cake from Sam's - absolutely and those options are often recommended when it comes down to the nitty gritty if you have a very small budget. But that doesn't change the fact that when you are paying for someone to eat dinner it boils down to the per person cost and the only way to keep that cost down is to keep the number of people down.

View Quoted Comment Not necessarily, we've discussed having meat options as an add on, and we probably will have at least one dish with meat in it for people who feel so inclined. I just feel like BBQ wouldn't be the best option for our wedding.

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You're welcome. Check around with local restaurants you already like. Depending on what you want, you could find a place that offers both meat and vegetarian options to suite everybody. Our BBQ place has vegetarian options for anyone who wants it.