diy Catering

Spaghetti at a wedding? I am sorry but that would be a no for me. At the end is your wedding day and if spaghetti is part of your dream wedding then go for it!

Our family is cooking for our wedding reception. It's so much better than catering in my opinion.

Still massively bad idea. Not cool. You will need someone that can carry the liability for you.

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Undercooked chicken is a liability waiting to happen.

I wouldn't do DIY catering because regardless of making sure the food is all made and properly heated, you don't want to have to worry about buying all of the food, making it, having someone travel it to you, set up, proper utensils, etc etc.
That's why they created catering services. hire a mom and pop Italian restaurant where they can bring is all the trays of food you want and let them make sure it stays hot with their own warmers and table set up and even possibly serve.

200 guests at $10 a plate = $2,000 and that's not counting the equipment needed to prepare the food, store the food, and serve the food. That is more than half your budget of 3-4k already. Unfortunately, you would have to add to your budget or cut the guest list. So regardless being a good host or not here, it's not financially realistic.

Our venue allows open catering and we were either going to purchase meats from a restaurant and do sides ourselves (roasted potatoes, macaroni, green beans, salad and rolls). But my moms friend is a caterer and has given us an awesome quote so we're going with that. If this was not the case we'd be at least doing our own sides.

I don't think it's tacky, just make sure food is the proper temp and tastes good.

edit: my only issue would be not wanting to have to worry about the food when I should be getting ready for my wedding.

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Really great advice!

That be to much to deal with on your wedding date. The less of the stress the less of a mess you be getting into.

I think it would be very stressful to try and do that yourself. If you have enough support and they can handle it and take it off you plate that sounds like a better option. Or I am sure you can find a restaurant that can cater fairly cheap especially pasta.

I think it is a great idea. My dad and his friend have a huge industrial grill so I asked them to grill chicken, brisket and pulled pork. They are also doing the sides. Saves me lots of money, food people will actually enjoy and not waste. Everyone can afford to catering a wedding especially with an open bar. We are having beer and wine (that's all my venue will allow). Aside from that we are not heavy drinkers I love wine and FH only drinks beer. WIN

Personally I get stressed if I have to bring a potluck dish to a family party, so I can't imagine cooking for hundreds of people on my wedding day.

Budget wasn't a concern, but I got easily stressed with the idea of a 100+ person wedding, so I cut my list down to immediate family only, and we have 28 guests now, and I am sooo relieved and excited.

Consider cutting your list so you can do something really nice for yourself and your guests on your day.

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You are right-you don't need the rude, condescending comments.

I do agree with others that it's not a good idea for many of the reasons given-stress for you and your close family, food safety, etc.

We are on a fixed income too. We are catering for 140 for $1500 and we are doing BBQ delivery so it's something to consider.

It is definitely your choice to not provide alcohol. If you provide non alcoholic drinks that should be all that's expected. Not everyone is into alcohol and if people were upset I didn't provide them alcohol they have the right to leave or bring their own. We are providing alcohol but my fiance brews beer so he's bringing his kegs of beer and we are getting some boxes of wine. Some might think I'm a redneck for the choices I've made in my wedding planning but frankly I don't care either. I know those I've invited know the person I am and will have a blast at the event.

I am sorry to see the attitude some have used towards you though. You shouldn't feel personally attacked for asking a question on here. Good luck to you in whatever you choose.

I'm doing a mixture of DIY and catering. Ours is at the tail end of summer and it's going to be BOILING outside, so we decided to do little adventure packs with sandwiches and chips. Then we are going to have a "Candy Forest", where everyone can get different candies and snacks. We didn't want to do anything too heavy. Subway catering is cheaper than you'd think. We aren't allowed to have alcohol at the venue, but we have invited the wedding party and the guest list that would like to come, to a bar hopping party afterwards.

It can actually be pretty dangerous. I'm a tartar about food safety since I'm on low dose chemo for lupus.

However, I was considering doing a soup and salad DIY reception or Taco bar because the items that need to be kept hot can stay hot. Also getting large bowls to put some ice in to perch the items that need to be kept cold is important as well.

Unless you're used to cooking for a large crowd, I's advise against it and find a good cheap caterer. I got an amazing caterer for under $20 a head and, honestly, I think the biggest perk of that was the lack of stressing about that vital part of the wedding.

Food trucks are generally a good way to save money (many also have catering side businesses) but I'm a little cross with that advice sine the food truck I booked for our wedding dropped out 1 month before the event.

EDIT: I didn't read all the comments, you're trying to do 200 people with only $3,000?! Dude, if I were you I would just make the time an in-between meals time and do a cake and punch reception. It fits in with not doing alcohol too (I thought I saw a comment about that). My cousin and law had a beautiful cake and punch reception with 150 people for about $7,000 (but that was including a $1500 dress and $2000 photographer AND live music the whole time (no sound equipment was allowed at their location. They had a cheap rose wine champagne glasses for the toast and iced tea, lemonade (from scratch-sugar and lemon juice bought from a bulk store), and water in pretty dispensers. You can also purchase nice glasses from the dollar tree (spend the extra bit for that) and have little tags for people to put their names on their glasses because you'll end up with a person using a disposable cup for every drink they get (at $0.12 per cup or $0.25 for prettier ones), it is less expensive and wasteful to just buy 1 glass cup each (with a few extras for accidents), and then sell it afterwards. I was able to sell my wine glasses for $0.75, which means I only spent the same for each of my glasses as I would have spent on the more posh disposable ones AND they got multiple uses! Plus another bride got cups for the same price as rentals in the area (without the cleaning deposit and fees that go along with that)

Have you considered doing a afternoon ceremony/reception? We had a similar budget to you so we chose a 2pm ceremony with deserts and snacks afterward. Everything was wrapped up by 4pm so people weren't hungry the whole time!

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And that's YOUR opinion...obviously others disagree so back off.

As long as you have a good plan, help AND a good working place for cooking and storing, all will be well. And don't listen to the haters that say you "have" to get a caterer or you're a poor host. Wedding planning is universal; there's no one way to do it what works for one person may not necessarily work for another. Congrats and good luck!

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Sounds like a good plan.

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My venue allows self-catering AND professional and they are one of the top venues in the city.