What exactly is self-catering?

Yeah, that is kind of grey area. I wouldn't consider buying trays from a grocery store or restaurant self-catering as long as the food is kept at proper temperature and not left to sit out too long. If you go that route, I would still hire servers and only keep a certain amount of food out at a time. Like if you do a tray of sandwiches, make sure you have a few more sitting in the refrigerator for the server to replenish instead of having them all out at once.

Self Catering (to me) is the friends/family providing the food.

Food Trays (to me) is a gray area. It's a mixture of both.. just be sure you keep the items cold/hot as needed.

Catering (to me) is hiring a company to prepare and serve the food.

That does make sense - I've just seen a lot of people lump all non-professional catering together as 'self-catering' and I wasn't sure where the defining line was.

In my opnion self catering is when friends/family/or the couple wants to make the food for the wedding. I think picking up food from somewhere and putting it out can ba a form of self-catering if you don't have any staff or help to man the food and serve it.

We may be doing the self-catering/potluck thing. We have several friends and family who have said they'd be happy to help out of we go that way. To me it pretty much means either potluck food or like the other ladies said picking up food trays. My FH bought chicken shack food for his daughter's wedding, i'd count that too

Thanks for the insights, everyone It does seem like "self-catering" is open to interpretation, depending on the scenario. I guess the best thing to do would be open that dialogue with potential venues as to what they consider self-catering, beyond the hosts making/serving the food themselves. Thanks!