How to tell guest to bring food?

How is this going to work? How will you make sure there is enough food for everyone? You would need to have people sign up for different foods and quantities on your wedding website I would think.

I saw this wording and thought it was interesting. It's a tad wordy though but I like the general idea behind it:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b5/3f/26/b53f26edd6353b6683a10232ceb18ba7.jpg

You don’t. Host the wedding that you can afford or postpone until you can afford the wedding you want. It’s not your guests responsibility to provide the food for your event. You could do a cake and punch reception at a non meal time.

I would do an insert with the invite that details you're having a potluck reception and to bring food.

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Completely agree with the above ^

View Quoted Comment We thought about getting different places to get different snacks for everyone to snack on. But, everyone at his church, my family, and his family has been telling us to do a Potluck since they’re common in LDS weddings.

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Yea....I gotta agree with this.

View Quoted Comment Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Wedding website would definitely make it cleaner, thank you.

You might want to reconsider and do a appetizers-and-cake type of reception. Or just a cake reception.

I've never been to a wedding where the guests provided the food. I don't know that I'd attend a wedding that asked me to bring food for everyone. (who is everyone? How much do you make? What if they end up with 5 crock pots of meatballs and nothing else? What if I don't even consider my cooking good enough for myself, much less a crowd of people I don't even know?)

I understand if that's not what you want to hear. But it might be even more upsetting to you if a bunch of your invitees don't attend due to this.

I would rather go to an extremely casual affair that won't feed me then expect to show up and feed everyone else.

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But ditto this.

View Quoted Comment We did plan on getting different platters of food from different places to get some variation but everyone at his church, my family, and his family have been trying to lean us to a Potluck since it’s common for LDS weddings including the ones in his area. But, it looks like everyone is totally slamming the idea here lol

View Quoted Comment I agree with the cake and punch reception. Besides being a good host to your guests, nobody will be stressed out about juggling the various foods at their correct temps to avoid food born illnesses.

View Quoted Comment Yeah you're never gonna get favorable responses when it comes to potluck weddings on here.
I totally get the LDS culture of potlucks though. It's in our nature

View Quoted Comment My FH’s family is trying to really keep our budget to the lowest possible even though we can afford it. But, I guess we’ll see how it goes! Might have to bring it up to some of the other guest to see what they think before putting the idea in the trash.

It’s funny because when talking to my grandparents about wedding stuff, they said it was the norm to have a potluck reception at the church! This was 60+ years ago of course, but it’s interesting to me how the wedding industry has blown up and made all these new rules for what a wedding is supposed to be.

If your wedding is small, just call up a few close family members/friends and ask if they’d be interested in bringing something. Make a list of what everyone is bringing (dessert, salad, etc.) and see if you need to personally provide anything else. That’s my suggestion!

View Quoted Comment Yeah, his parents did a potluck for their wedding that’s why they keep bringing it up. 😂 But, thank you! That’s really helpful. 😊

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Right, nobody likes this idea. But it's really nothing personal. We're just all thinking about the difficulties and problems associated with doing a wedding reception this way. You are hosting a wedding reception, which basically is a celebration of your marriage, and a thank you for those guests you have invited to share it with you. If you are only going to have a very small guest list (under 30), then it could be doable, without much issue. But if you're thinking of trying to pull this off for 100+ people, there are serious problems to consider: How will you make sure there is enough food for everyone? How will you make sure all the food is kept/stored at the right temperature, so that nobody gets sick? Does your venue allow for outside food from those that aren't professional caterers? If so, will your venue have enough outlets, warmers/coolers, etc., to keep the food at the right temps? What happens if people tell you they are bringing x, y, z.........and then don't show up?

It's because of the potential for these problems that most couples opt to go with professional catering for their weddings. There are just too many unknowns, too much hassle. If it's out of your budget, then consider a punch and cake reception, at a non-meal time of day.

You say it's fairly common in your community, so I hope you have people to help you pull this off. Good luck.

My fiancé is from a Mormon family and when we first got engaged all his sisters could talk about was potluck or making the food for us and I was quick to shut that down. I’d rather have done cake and drinks with apps if that was the only other option. But we hired a caterer.

I think it’s only okay to have a potluck style reception if it’s a small intimate wedding like only close friends and family. Otherwise just have a cake/appetizer wedding .