Food poisoning at a wedding!!!

I feel like if food poisoning happened at a self-catered wedding, it wouldn't be something to hit the internet. No one else really would care I don't think... as compared to if a catering company caused food poisoning.

Good point Melissa

Yeah, you can review a restaurant or venue online, but not someone's personal wedding. Did not think of that.

You can get food poisoning either way. The difference is if your guests will be taken care of if they get sick. Can you afford hospital bills for the size of your wedding? If not, it's best to go with a caterer. ETA- to answer your question, no I have not because I specifically avoid foods that need to stay hot or cold...so I end up drinking bottled drinks all night

Luckily I have never gotten food poisoning from anything but I'm not going to start by eating warm potato salad and undercooked chicken at a wedding.

So you would not eat if you went to a self catered wedding?

You can certainly get food poisoning from a professional caterer, however, it is much less common.

A lot of people also blame food poisoning on the last place they ate, when in fact, you may not have symptoms until up to 72 hours after eating contaminated food! If you ever file a report with a health department, or restaurant, they typically ask you for a food log of every single thing you ate for the past 3 days.

Caterers also have liability insurance as pp's said. You don't want to be stuck with those bills if you self-cater and get someone sick. People can die from food borne illnesses as well.

Like I said, I'm not self catering, I have just seen it being posted a lot. So I just wanted to know if someone had gotten food poisoning from a self catered wedding before.

I have! My friend's mom made mini-cheesecakes for her wedding. For some reason they put them out before the ceremony, which was at 4pm. At 9pm, they realized that they hadn't been served and ran around pushing them on people. We all got diarrhea and a few people vomitted. My friend didn't eat any and was fine.

My friends had a backyard wedding and it was tacos catered. I love tacos. Like LOVE TACOS. I went to bed with a bubbly stomach and what the next day felt was like slight food poisoning. Nobody else got it but it was right after I ate the tacos my stomach was not feeling normal and I've had my share of tacos (esp from B grade tacos trucks, haha).

Eta: I thought my tummy not feeling normal after the tacos was due to the beer that was had.

And no, I would not eat at a self-catered wedding. I would stop at McDonald's and IDGAF if the bride/groom sees me eating my crappy fast food instead of their self-catered warm potato salad with a splash of cat hair.

I think it's more of the fact with a professional caterer, they carry all the liability because they are insured. When you self cater you're basically fucked if someone comes after you.

The best food I ever had at a wedding was self catered. However, the groom was a chef, and he got the food at cost. So it made since for them. I would not want all that stress on myself or family/friends.

@Jaci if I'm not mistaken, I think a girl did a BAM a couple of months back and she'd self catered/had an inexperienced friendor cater. She came back and said that her and H spent the majority of their honeymoon sick as dogs. She obviously advised against it.

There was a girl who posted here a few months ago how she got food poisoning from her own wedding and had to delay her flights for her honeymoon because they were sick. Anyone else remember that? I couldn't tell you what her username was but I remember being shocked while reading it.

If I knew a wedding had been self-catered, I absolutely would not eat.

Self-catering is bad twofold: yes, there's an exponentially higher chance of food poisoning from food being mishandled and mua kept by people who are inattentive/distracted/just plain don't want to be working during the wedding/or don't honestly know how food needs to be kept to keep it safe. It seems a LOT of brides who think self-catering also like to think of dishes most likely to cause issues with listeria or salmonella, like BBQ food (all those salads like macaroni salad and potato salad, or deviled eggs!) are just asking for trouble. Add to that the liability issue: whoever cooks and serves the food is liable should their guests get sick. If those people are the bride and groom, you could easily have medical bills for 150 people. Or worse, in the case of listeria, maybe nobody gets sick, but you have a pregnant guest who ends up with a baby who develops birth defects or is still pen thanks to a listeria infection, and you are the one responsible for that. Somehow, I don't think you're ever going to be able to get over the guilt of something like that, and she will probably hate you the rest of her life.

When you hire a caterer, they become responsible for ALL of that. You're paying for their expertise and their licensure, for their insurance should something go wrong.

That's why people argue against it. Just because the food poisoning doesn't hit every single guest, there are always going to be some who are more likely to be profoundly affected by even a slight danger that others could maybe fight off with minor issues, like in the pregnant woman example.

I know you said that you aren't doing it, but these are the reasons NOBODY should be doing it.

Self catered or potluck? No. I had food poisoning from a potluck where the cream cake had not been properly refrigerated. Staph aureus toxin. Fun!

When I'm at events like that I choose food items that are less likely to cause food borne illness.

Yeah, didn't think about the liability insurance that professionals carry.

Didn't someone on here share a story about finding cat hair in their cupcake?

I got invited to a self catered wedding next month and am planning on eating before hand and just enjoying the booze lol. Not taking any chances!!!!