Could you cater your own wedding?

by Ilona Peltz (RSS feed) on Jul 19th 2008 12:00PM

Filed under: Cakes and Catering, Budget Advice, Do-It-Yourself, Receptions

We confess to being just a little dubious about this. We can see the temptation, however. Receptions eat up (no pun intended) a huge percentage of your wedding costs. If you're working with a very tight budget, those costs may well be something you'd like to reduce. Is it realistic to self-cater?

It would depend a lot on the size and formality of the wedding, of course. Catering your own formal sit-down four-course banquet for 300 guests? We can't imagine how you'd manage that. A simple cold buffet for 30? That could be do-able.

The trick is liable to be in spreading out the work. Most people have family or friends who love to cook. Maybe you could organize a reception pot-luck for your casual wedding. In that case, you're likely not going to be doing much of the food preparation yourselves, but instead be organizing the people who will be bringing the food. What do you think? Could the couple organize their own catering, or is this one wedding task that really should be left to the professionals?

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Jul 19th 2008 @ 3:44PM

z said...

I did it for my daughter's wedding. We had a hog roast, which easily feeds 100+ people and I made a couple of vegetarian alternatives, goats cheese and onion tartlets and a vegan dish of rice-stuffed peppers (on the day), as well. We had salads, and a few friends got together in the morning and did those and we served the meat in bread rolls, which a local bakery made. I poached peaches and pears in wine over a couple of weeks and froze them, made hundreds of meringues, which keep in airtight containers and bought home-made-style icecream from a local good quality source.

We hired a huge marquee from a nearby village, a smaller food tent from another village, booked a ceilidh band for dancing and entertainment and decorated the tents ourselves. We hired lavatories as well! Our village pub is also a micro brewery and we bought a few barrels of beer, as well as crates of wine and loads of soft drinks.

It was great fun, no need to limit guests (we have a field, so people could bring tents if they wanted to save on the cost of a hotel room) and, though it was a lot of work, we kept the food simple and tasty.

Jul 19th 2008 @ 3:33PM

Mary said...

Oh, that sounds absolutely lovely!

There is no question in my mind -- and you've just proven the point -- that a hard-working and creative family couldn't pull it off. Could the bride and groom alone manage it? I doubt it.

(Do you have any more children you plan to marry off? Could I come?? I'll even help out in the kitchen. I can sew, too...)

Jul 19th 2008 @ 3:44PM

z said...

Actually Mary, she was the second one. The first had a hog roast and ceilidh too, but we got a local caterer to organise it as we didn't get much notice of the wedding! Second time around, it had been good enough to choose again (and daughter is fussy, but we decided that we could do better than the caterer.

No, bride and groom alone would have found it hard as they both worked full time in London. In the country, possible with lots of friends to help.

One more offspring to go. No serious relationship at present, but I'll keep you posted...come along and bring your thimble!

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