Food

Definitely don't ask guests to work at your wedding.

You could hire someone or does your venue have anyone you could have do it?

Hire someone. Ask the venue if staff can assitance

Hire someone! If your venue doesn't have anyone, I would imagine that you could find some local college kids (responsible ones) who would be happy to make a couple hundred bucks managing the food at your wedding

I agree. How someone. Your guests should enjoy the day.

I would hire someone, you can’t put that pressure on your mom or guests or even other members of your party.


I’m sure you can hire a server for a night at a fraction of the cost

I'd recommend hiring affordable servers

Hire someone, your momma should be focused on the wedding. I have cousins in their late teens early twenties who love making a little extra money. We have talked about hiring them to do various little things. They are also being hired for another aunts wedding to do busing of tables and keeping the venue cleaned up

Definitely hire someone who can keep things refilled and at the proper serving temperatures.

So funny - one of my stations is "southern" with fried chicken and waffles! My others are honey pecan salmon and a carving station with flank steak. But, I have a caterer - I could NOT do the food myself, lol.

I give you a lot of credit for tackling the food on your own. However, it's your day and you deserve to enjoy it so enlist help. you're going to have to appoint at least one person to monitor the food and keep the chafing dishes (if using) "stocked." A family member, the bridal party, whoever you feel comfortable asking. Maybe you can give said person some type of token "gift" afterwards as way to say thank you.

You should hire someone. It’s not your mom’s or any of your other guests responsibility. They should be able to enjoy your wedding as well. Caterers are expensive because it’s hard work.

Hey girl we cut coners on ours to. We wanted Chicken and Steak with Herbed Potatoes and Green beans with Cobb Salad with Fruit Tray. We have Golden Corral doing ours. We didnt want to hire Family members so we asked for a server. Maybe whom ever is delivering your food ask them if they want to serve your guests maybe offer them $ 100.00 or ask there manger if this could be arranged. Don't hurt. Good luck.

I broke down and hired caterer I didn't want to originally but I am certain it was the right idea for me. I have enough things to worry about and I didn't want to put my family to work. I am doing a pasta station and salad. Seems easy enough to me. Was more expensive than I thought it would be which bothered me at first as it is half the cost of the wedding expenses but at least my family will hopefully enjoy it.

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Chiming in with the (long) list of others who recommend hiring people to work at your wedding. Your nearest and dearest should feel free to celebrate with you, not work for you.

You should hire someone so guests don't have to work & cater your wedding.

You could always see if any of your local pizza shops offer catering. That would save you A LOT of money and they could take care of the refilling issue you're trying to work out. The average plate at a wedding costs anywhere $50-100 per person, I can't imagine it would cost anywhere near that for a pizza shop to cater.

See if it's an option to be included in the delivery. It doesn't hurt to ask the pizza place if the delivery guy can stay an hour for $$ to pass out pizza. Maybe the chicken place will have an off-duty waiter/waitress that would like to pick up the extra gig.

How big is your wedding? Unless its super small, I would hire someone to help with food.

The number of guests is everything. I have done weddings at our home for other family and friends weddings here, with Mom, an aunt, sometimes an aunt it sibling. And grew up doing them at My mom and grandmother's . They had some professional cooking and Inn cooking just s, and I have, so nothing we could not handle. But if you have more than 35-40 people, there is so much to do that it would take one person away from being sociable for the entire time from a half hour before , to an hour after, after everything is set to go and ready. To keep hot things hot, cold things cold, you are covering and unco ering constantly, and keeping any utensil that has touched one dish, or a plate, from ever touching anything contaminated is too much of a juggling act to do while everyone is helping the mother of the bride. In trying to help, people mess everything up. And make it harder. For your sake, and your mother's, make sure someone else serves. At most, she can instruct people, and tell other " helpful" people to leave the servers to work and come be sociable with her. She should not have to work your wedding, once it starts, beyond giving direction. Same with other guests. Usually 2 people are needed as servers and to put out things and take new ones to the tables. We can do 20 or 200. But forbid guest help. And did not do my wedding, or sister's, grandmother's. And mom did not do any of the 3 of my sibs who were married from home. So I practice what I prea h. Speaking of which, in this rural area, and in the dense suburban suburbs of Boston and Seattle, it was very common for some Protestant churches, especially Lutheran and Congregational, and some Methodist, to have service circles. Essentially, they have a few usually 40-70 year old parishioners who will work weddings, baptisms, collations after funerals, family reunions, provided they are not in a restaurant or catered venue. They charge a small fee, compared to a caterer's staff, and the fee they earn goes to their church fund for good works. So they don't do it just for their congregations. They are not skilled cooks. They unwrap, transfer food, serve it, empty platters get refilled , and see to it that the food is kept clean, to temp. After they will scrape and clean, but not wash dishes or pans. If your area is difficult to find skilled amateurs in, you might ask around local churches. I was surprised to find they still did this outside the rural area I grew up in. But it is a sociable way to earn church funds, rather in addition to church fairs and other fundraisers. And because they mostly do family oriented things, never businesses, there is not a lot of regulation.