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Just Said Yes April 2022

Hiring Wait Staff

m1ss.an0nym0us, on June 5, 2022 at 12:14 AM Posted in Wedding Reception 0 3

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Has anybody tried self-catering and hired wait staff for their wedding? How was your experience? Who did you hire?

We're in the early stages of planning and a few of the venues we're looking at will allow outside catering. We're thinking of ordering food from a local restaurant and just bringing it to the venue. Unfortunately, the restaurants we're looking at are not full service caterers. We're thinking of having a buffet style dinner and hiring a few wait staff to assist (ex. make sure the trays are replaced and pitchers are filled).

We're unfortunately not rich. This is the more practical route for us $2,000 vs $10,000-15,000, so please, no rude comments. Suggestions are very much appreciated though.

Thank you.

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3 Comments

Latest activity by Grace, on June 6, 2022 at 9:16 AM

Super May 2022
Sloane · on June 5, 2022 at 11:32 AM
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I hired wait staff and I believe we paid 1000.00 total for three. Their fee was 25.09 an hour.
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Champion November 2054
Jacks · on June 5, 2022 at 8:40 PM
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One thing with self-catering is that you need to keep the food at food-safe temperatures throughout the event. Hot foods hot, cold foods cold. That requires a lot of equipment, so you should factor the rental of that into the cost.
The best way to limit the cost of the wedding is to limit the guest list.
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Super February 2022
Grace · on June 6, 2022 at 9:16 AM
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We did the same as you are planning! It worked out great but that is partly because 2 of the 3 people we hired have also worked for a catering company and done similar work before. I can't remember what we paid our wait staff but it was definitely cheaper than if we had hired a caterer! We were thrilled that we could get exactly the food we wanted and share it with our friends and family. The restaurant owner was great with giving us advice on how much to provide for our guests, in what ratios/quantities, and what dishes would hold up best on the buffet. It felt fantastic being able to support one of our favorite local businesses as well.

As someone else said, make sure you have a plan to keep the food at safe temperatures. We had multiple refridgerators, warming units, and an ice machine that our venue provided and then we were able to borrow chaffing dishes for the buffet. Don't forget to add in the cost for buffet serving equipment or other food related rentals if they are not provided by your venue.
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