Menu help needed!

Get food that can be prepared the day before and refrigerated. Do you have a second fridge that can be used just for those? Keep in mind that 11am to 1 pm is lunchtime. Some will skip breakfast to get ready and travel and many will not eat lunch expecting to be fed something substantial. Pinwheels and chips are fine for a picnic when it’s too hot to eat a lot but they are not filling. There is no rule that you must serve a full meal and many successful weddings actually do not but they are not held during meal times as yours is. Browse Costco’s deli for sandwich/pinwheel platters and hearty salads which are great for lunches. What beverages are you serving?


Strongly consider hiring serving staff from Thumbtack.com so your guests are free to enjoy themselves without working all day.

View Quoted Comment We are in total having 15 people so a serving staff in my opinion would be a waste of money.


Yes I have actually 3 refrigerators two of which we planned to store food in for the wedding. And we are just having sodas at the wedding. Neither me or my fiancé drink and we know most of our guests will be drinking at other events later that day. So we didn't want a risk of someone driving from our wedding to another event after drinking.

I feel like this is fine. Its around lunchtime and seems like you'll be offering appropriate food for that time of day. Since its all close family most everyone will be able to help with set up and tear down, probably even preparation.

I echo Michelle's suggestion to focus on things that can be made the day before and refrigerated. Chips and pinwheels sound find—what kind of sliders are you thinking? I.e. pulled pork made in a crockpot that guests can use to make their own sliders is a lot easier to manage than grilling individual mini-burgers.

To round out the meal more inexpensively, I would add a large green salad, crudite platter with hummus (or ranch, if that's more your guests' vibe) and some kind of pasta salad that tastes better the next day (either a mayo-based or vinegar with Italian meats).

And you can also try googling "make ahead party meals" or "make ahead summer party food" for more inspiration.

View Quoted Comment I was planning on doing like a barbecue pork or chicken sliders. And then maybe a ham and cheese like slider sanwhich. Or something else easy like that. Since my fiance can only eat poutrey and I have another guest attending that is allergic to poutrey and I felt doing any type of beef item would be too time consuming.

I would avoid anything with mayonnaise as far as side items - but I agree with Kylie that a big green salad, a crudite platter with dip, and a pasta salad would be good choices. You could also do fruit cut up. You definitely want to have enough food for people to have a solid lunch, since they likely wouldn't have had any with the timing of your ceremony.

I’m planning on making out own food as well because is a very small wedding and was thinking of including salad 🥗 as a side because is easy and inexpensive also maybe like a macaroni salad… both things I think will go well with what you mention you had in mind

How fun! Your food sounds delicious you could also do some nice salads a green salad, pasta salad, bean salads, potato or macaroni salads, bruschetta bar, pita and hummus, fruit salad, cheese plates, raw veggies and dips, pigs in a blanket. Good luck to you!

Do you have vegetarians coming? Things like lasagna and baked ziti are really easy to prepare in large quantities ahead of time and can be heated up easily.