Logistics of diy Appetizers, etc.

We did this for apps since we had a very short cocktail hour. We made some skewers and pinwheels and fruit/cheese trays the day before, labeled each tray and where it should go and stored them at the venue (we had access a full day prior). The day of, my H's aunts (who were very eager to help with something) set them out like 10 minutes before people arrived. That said, it was time consuming to MAKE enough things. My mom wanted to do it that way, so we did, but I think she would have been happier in the end of we had had fewer options and had the caterers do it.

For my wedding ceremony we had a social hour after and we actually did it ourselves!

my mother in law and her church ladies made most of the food, bought fruits, and ordered egg rolls. and we cold brewed the drinks ourselves.

i honestly didn't care cause my mother in law wanted to take charge so i honestly didn't do a single thing and it came out nicely. basically the church ladies and my bridal party set up the tables.

i do see what everyone means though by saying don't DIY it because it's more to add onto your plate so you can just do something simple like fruits and store bought stuff.

Yea, absolutely don't do this. The liability you'll take upon yourself if someone got hurt/sick from this is huge. It's also a huge time suck like PPs have mentioned.

When working as a wedding coordinator one of the venues I worked at did allow self-catering. It was always a hot mess and the people in charge complained and wished they'd just hired a caterer.

A good point is that your caterer for your meal may (likely) not allow this.

I know it seems like a great cost cutting idea, but when you think of how much money you'll spend in ingredients, and time you'll spend making them you're almost always actually more cost effective going through the caterer.