Can i cater my own wedding?!?

Have you asked if local restaurants will cater, rather than a full service catering company? I would highly recommend NOT catering yourself. Do you have a professional kitchen to cook in? Are you a professional chef, trained in food safety? How will you store all the food at food safe temperature, how will you transport it at food safe temperatures? Who is in charge of reheating, replating & making sure everything is at a food safe temperature to serve? What if some food isn't good reheated? How will you accommodate food allergies?

What is the price for a restaurant to drop off food & servers to serve it? Less than the $150-$200 per plate? For 28 people you wouldn't need more than two or three servers.

Have you contacted restaurants? There should be a restaurant able to handle 28 people. Honestly, I want to be doing the least amount of things possible leading up to my wedding. Also when you get quotes leave the word wedding out and say "event." Sometimes places upcharge for weddings.

Look into local restaurants. You don't want to give yourself more work for your wedding than you already have, and many local restaurants will cater, you can still hire servers, and it's very affordable.

Check Olive Garden, Chipotle, Chilis, etc. So many restaurants will do it.

The general advice is to avoid cooking for your own wedding, even if it's small. It's another stress for the day. But there's nothing wrong with it if that's really what you want to do.

I would look at the cost difference between cooking the food yourself and having it catered where they just drop off the food. (Have you looked at restaurants as opposed to event catering services? A local Italian, Mexican, bbq, etc.) Then decided if the difference is with the additional work for you.

These are all very valid points! Food safety is a huge issue!

You can 100% order from a restaurant for less than 40 people.

Look into your local grocery / Market. I had them cater my engagement party and the food was absolutely amazing!

We have local restaurants cater to our office ALL the time for $12-$20 per person. Our office only has 10-20 people in it so it can definitely be done. Check out restaurants in the area. Tia's grocery store suggestion is a great one. We have a local grocery store that does awesome catering for events/weddings.

My mom is insisting on catering my reception for 60 people. I would rather her just be mom for a day but she won't let it go. I'm honestly not worried about the food itself as she frequently makes food for 30-40 people at a time and also catered my sister's much bigger wedding. The key is to plan ahead with a mix of things that can be made ahead of time and not being afraid to use simple things that may simply need reheating. She usually picks one key thing and focuses on that and then goes simple for the rest. Good luck whatever you decide!

Look into smaller chain restaurants or local places. We cater in food all the time when I work and it's generally around 25 people. However they normally set up everything on provided tables as a buffet kind of line where they use throw away items so there isn't anything to return back to them. Some of the local BBQ places around here have options of picking the food up, them dropping it off or just managing the buffet line.

Many will tell you not to because of the time and stress but it's your wedding.

If you can afford the minimum of 40, just do it and have leftovers to take home or give away.

Another option is to contact smaller restaurants as stated above.

I'm "catering" my own wedding with the help of my family (mom, aunts, cousins) who will be helping set it up. We're doing a taco and baked potato bar. I plan on cooking the meat in advance and heating it to a safe temp for the meal. The rest will just be cut up veggies or things like sour cream poured into a bowl over ice.

Do you have a reception venue? If not, why not just go to a restaurant and use a private room?

A lot of people have said this, but most local restaurants can do it. The other thing I've been looking into is a local food truck. There are lots and lots of them in the SF Bay Area, and most will give you a reasonable price. Plus, the food is going to be awesome!! Check it out.

We has a small wedding (less than 40 people) and we talked about doing the food ourselves. Once we dove into the logistics of it, we decided against it. It wasn't the cooking. I could have handled that. Who set up? Who makes sure all of the food is the right temp? Who refills when the tray is empty? Who serves? Who attends to the guests needs? And most importantly, who cleans up? Who clears the guests dishes? Who empties the trash? Who cleans and puts all the rentals back in their bins?

We ended up going with a full service caterer and she was amazing! Food, service, clean up and everything was fantastic. I know that you said you can't find one willing to do it for less than 40 people, but I would have paid for the extra 12 meals just for the service this woman and her team provided. I did not lift a finger and when she left, the kitchen was immaculate. Do you have vendors (DJ, Photographer, videographer) to feed? They can go into your guest count.

I would figure out what it will cost you to hire professional people to do all of the serving/clean up if you did cook yourself, plus figure out the cost of the meal. Then find out what the caterers would be and see if the difference is worth your time and sanity.

Lostforest, I am definitley going to hire at least 2 or 3 servers. I definitely wasn't clear in my OP. I have never entertained the idea of serving myself. Ahhh that would be nuts lol I am just not seeing the value of purchasing food from a restaurant or catering company for drop off. Food safety, food temping, storage, allergies, set up, busing, paying for people's medical bills, ect. are not covered when ordering from a restaurant. None of those issues are eliminated by hiring someone else to actually cook the food, that's why my budget brain is thinking just cook it yourself. I am hoping to hear experiences from people who have tried it or known someone who has. Rae said they typically have turned out "bleh" which is good to know! We are having an intimate, immediate family only wedding and I want to make sure it is very special for them. Thank you for sharing your advice!