Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Budget Wedding: A Guide to Catering Your Own Wedding

Every bride knows about budget constraints. Whether your budget is $50,000 or $5,000, you will need to adjust your plans based on your budget. This is geared towards brides with a smaller budget who may be considering catering their own wedding.

The first consideration is the type of reception you want. Do you want your wedding to be formal, casual, or somewhere in between? What time of day is your ceremony and reception? How many guests are you planning on inviting? All of these things will impact your menu and the preparation required. A sit down, three-course meal may be pretty tough to accomplish on your own, but you can create an elegant buffet.

After you’ve answered the above questions on size, style and timing you can start considering your menu. Your best bet when catering your own wedding is to keep it simple. You don’t need 6 salads, 3 meats, 4 side dishes and an array of appetizers. Select one or two salads that are easy to prepare and store, one or two side dishes, maybe mashed potatoes and a hot vegetable, and one or two simple meat options. You can fill out your menu with meat and cheese trays, which can be bought at Costco or any other bulk food store. You don’t necessarily have to do a hot meal, depending on the time of your reception. You can prepare several different types of salads; Caesar, tossed, coleslaw, Japanese Cabbage, pasta salad, potato salad with buns, cheeses, cold cuts and pickles for a simple afternoon reception. You can also take many Ethnic foods and prepare a fun buffet. Mexican can have make your own tacos, Ukrainian can be perogies and cabbage rolls, which can be prepared in advance and heated up that day. It’s essential to select foods that can be prepared in advance and easily reheated the day of your wedding.

Now that you’ve selected a menu, you need to find someone to serve it for you. Most brides want their families and friends to be guests, even though they may have offered to help out. It’s in your best interest to find a charitable organization that will be willing to reheat, serve and clean up your food for a donation to their group. Some places to start looking include church organizations, high school or college sports teams, sororities, girl scouts (with the assistance of parents), and any other group who is in need of a fundraiser. Ensure the group you hire is aware of food safety issues involved with reheating food. You’ll need to have a complete list of what this group will be required to do. Warm up and keep warm the previously prepared meal, serve the meal (buffet is easiest), ensure buffet is well stocked at all times and clear buffet tables and do the necessary clean up. You can also add additional duties as required, for example serving coffee and tea. There are several books and websites on do it yourself catering that are worth reading.

You will also be responsible for many duties that professional caters often include in their services. You will need to arrange rental of china, silverware and glassware, although you can find some lovely plastic options. You will need to ensure your reception site has the appropriate facilities to warm up the food and that they allow outside caterers. You will need to do all of the set up for the reception, including buffet tables.

Catering your own wedding is a major challenge, but can shave thousands off your wedding budget. With lots of advance planning and preparation, you can do this seemingly impossible task.

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