Food Ideas

Amanda, like I said. You can have all the experience in the world but without the right equipment it doesn't mean much. I can assist at surgery but I wouldn't do it in the bathroom. Same same.

I'm not going to continue to defend Celia, she's perfectly capable of doing that for herself.

Penny, like I said. Good luck. You won't find many people willing to provide advice on how to do what you're planning though.

@Desert I work in food service so I am able to cook for that amount of people and hold everything properly. I cared about them and wanted to give them a more personal experience so I cooked for them, it worked out for me. They got a complete scratch made meal and it was better than any catering within my budget. I paid way less doing it myself for better quality food.

@amanda congratulations then if it indeed worked out. I'd want to hear from your guests before taking it at face value, along with anyone you roped into helping

@ desert would you like some of their numbers? I'm sure they'd be happy to give their opinions .

@penny yaaay I love that response. If budget doesn't allow for catering, do what you can, those who are wanting to help will, and it's not the end of the world. I would recommend catering if it was in your budget, but have the wedding you want!

There obviously seems to be no understanding of peoples unique situations... some of do have friends who want to help us with our weddings and have the experience, we have guest who mainly don't drink and expect "self catering" and will love the food and receptions we host. Whether it be religious, culture or whatever! In my case it's religious and family background. Everyone knows my mom and I's cooking in our friend and family circle, and people love to eat our food. I can't imagine having food catered (especially since there's no where to cater vegetarian food in our town) when we can make way better food. Really people, some of us do have it together. You guys get so worked up when you don't know the whole situation... it's not being a rude host when you know your guest and are making sure the food is prepared safely (and of course knowing what kind of work you'll put into it and having the right help available). It just seems people can be so intolerant of other ideas. What's wrong with a dry, self catered wedding? Nothing in the right context. Is it the right thing for your wedding? Well I don't know you and your guests and your situation, but I do know mine and I know I've made the right choice and things will go smoothly because I'm prepared.

Soon2bmrsh... Yes the dry wedding for us is also religious related. Self catering is due to budget and I have so many people volunteering to help especially my church family. The reason they want to help so much is because I help with events going on at the church all the time and this is there way of paying me back they said.

So a few years ago my sister conscripted me into executing a 30 person wedding for her step daughter at her house. I was otherwise not invited so this seemed like a great solution to everyone. I took off 2 days of work, and helped my sister scrub her house, move furniture, iron/steam everyone's clothes, and decorate. The day of i had to heat and serve pre-made food from GFS (i feel so ashamed to have been part of this, but i was very vocally against this plan. also important to note my sister was a certified food handler at this time, but like who cares she did not participate in the aspect at all). The food was cafeteria grade and it was very awkward to serve my family, but not actually spend time with them because i was "working". This actually hurt my feelings in a weird way i wasn't expecting. This exhausting and miserable weekend concluded when my sister made me lift a full size sofa over my head to carry up stairs, and i pulled a muscle in my back and had to go to the emergency room, which i paid for myself. I should have said no, but I was young and my sister is 14 years older than me and very authoritative, and for years i never even though to stand up to her. No one, including my sister, from the wedding cared and seemed annoyed that I would no longer be able to do more work. I really appreciate that thank you card from the bride though. Every so often i still have back discomfort and have had to go back to the doctor when I over do it, so talk about making memories. I resent the shit out of my sister for this, maybe i am petty or out of line, but to ask people to do this FOR FREE when you couldn't invite me to your wedding is obnoxiously rude in my opinion. My sister has tried to commandeer many parts of my wedding, most notably the floral arranging, thinking she could parlay this into a second career. She has never arranged fresh flowers in any capacity in her life. I told my mom that i was sure that if this wasn't perfect i would never forgive her and that it was unfair to let her do this to indulge a potential hobby. I told her i made a decision to hire a florist. She has now checked out of my whole wedding, which i think is for the best, TBH.

i understand you are looking for plans of action vs. advice, but it is very hard for a lot of people, like Celia and myself to a much lesser extent, that have done this, to forget all of the heartache it caused and all of the potential problems it could lead to, to help anyone come up with a menu. Perhaps think of all of the responses that caution against this like that, or don't, i guess.

Applause for Jona! I'm sorry you hurt yourself working someone else's wedding! That's another really good point. What if someone slips on some lettuce and breaks an arm? Are you going to set up worker's compensation for them? Another source of responsibility I didn't even think of.

Some venues don't allow u to bring ur own food. They ask for you to get food from a licensed caterer. No pot luck style.

Just wasted 10 minutes of my life reading this and I am going to weigh in once more.

Aside from the safety issue this seems like it would be so stressful for the couple and family members. It's a lot of prep, cooking, and clean up. Is that something you really want to be dealing with on your wedding day? There are already so many other things that you are going to be worrying about. Once of the reasons I am spending money on a caterer is so I don't have to worry about set-up or tear down.

If you do go the self-catering route (which I don't recommend) please please please don't serve anything mayonnaise based (potato or macaroni salad). Those go bad after about two hours and actually could make someone sick even if you have it on ice.

Mashed potatoes!