Need some advice about food

So my mother-in-law plans on cooking for me we're thinking about doing barbecue like cooking the meat a day before the wedding because how long it takes what kind of meats do you think would be good for barbecuing and sides and also what kind of drinks would be good and desserts. Just need a little advice, I could get a caterer but my mom-in-law wants to cook for me and I wanted to let her to make it cheaper on me