What was your catering experience like? ❤️💍

We had full service catering stations and wouldn't have done anything less. Catering drop off could work for others, but it would have been too much of a stressor for us. Pot lucks and self catering are a ton of work and a huge liability, not to mention, most venues won't allow it anyway.

Self catering is definitely not worth it! As Caytlyn mentioned, people can get sick if something isn't stored correctly or kept at the proper temperature. At the very least I would go for drop-off professional catering

Definitely hire a professional caterer for your wedding day! Like the PP have said there are too many things that can go wrong, and god forbid someone gets sick they can come back and sue you for it. That is too big of a liability. If you have it in the budget definitely do full service catering.

While DIY is often a great approach in some aspects of wedding planning, I also wouldn't suggest catering your own wedding as PP's have said! Many reasons to go a different route and also lots of different options out there. We're having a buffet catered at our venue

We're the odd ball on this site. We are catering our own wedding for 130 people. It's not that big of a deal as long as proper procedures are followed. Use common sense... It does not mean it is going to be easier. It is a metric crap ton of work and still costs a good chunk. But for our vision it is what works out best for us. It's not the first major party I've done. I used to work for a caterer. If you have the skills, why not?

We had a bbq buffet with servers and nice dishes. It turned out wonderfully.

My venue does in house, full service catering! But I think doing drop off professional is fine too! As the others have said, full service or drop off come with more assurance that the food is safe to eat!

We did a full day caterer. They provided appetizers during cocktail hour, a plated salad then buffet dinner for the reception, etc. I can't imagine cooking our own or asking guests to cater our wedding with a potluck. It sounds like a ton of extra work and stress.

We did full service with a sit down, served meal. We chose this option for a couple of reasons. 1- It was easy. 2- We had a semi-formal wedding, and I feel a plated dinner went with the feel of that. 3- I did not want a buffet. Almost every wedding I've been to that had buffets either ran out of something or the food was cold.

As far as pot luck or providing your own food; many venues will not allow this. It is also a lot of work for you! I would not recommend it.

View Quoted Comment We are only having a wedding of 50-70 people if that and I am having a problem finding a caterer that will cater a small wedding. Most of all of them will not cater if it’s less than 120. That’s why I was thinking of cooking my own.

View Quoted Comment This has been high on my list! We are having a small wedding, with only about 70 on the list, and none of the caters I have talked to want to cater the wedding with it being under 100 people

View Quoted Comment My family ( just my nana, her sister, and daughter) kind of cater around our town. They cook for schools, church’s, big events, etc. I am only having 70 people if that at the wedding and the venue doesn’t have a kitchen due to the age of the venue. It has a area to store food safely but not to cook it. I am just having a problem finding a caterer to cater my wedding with less than 100 people. They want to charge extra fees and it’s more expensive the less people I have.

View Quoted Comment

That was part of my problem. Less people was creating more expense so when we finally balanced out the guest list (it's right around 130 people) It was going to end up being almost the same price for traditional catering (which was almost our entire wedding budget) whether we had the 50 people we wanted or the 130 we ended up with.

We decided to self cater because of the helpers I have available to me and the suppliers I have relationships with who are giving me incredible deals. We are prepping everything in our home kitchen and keeping everything at temp with roasting pans and refrigerated tables both with temperature monitors.