Ethnic Traditional Wedding

Hit us with some questions! This community is pretty diverse, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. We all are here to support each other.


My sister married a Brazilian man, and the venue wouldn't let us bring in an ethnic caterer, but instead we talked to the staff about their ability to replicate some of the dishes. According to his family, it came out pretty well! Also, my mom used a community hall for her wedding so she could have a family business cater. Lots of options!
Also wedding prices can be insane. Lots of ladies on this forum are doing budget weddings and have great ideas to keep costs low without sacrificing your vision.

Yeah it’s very limited so we couldn’t really have the typical southeast Asian wedding here (not that I wanted one) but anywhere to bring your own food or alcohol we would have to do it at a hall or shelter house at a park.

View Quoted Comment Do you know how she asked? And if there was an extra cost for the substitutions

View Quoted Comment She came up with a list of some dishes she thought would be possible and asked if they could do any of them. I'm not sure if they charged extra. I actually think the things she asked for had cheaper ingredients than what was included (rice and beans is usually pretty cheap). I know she asked for a carving station for one of the meats, which did cost more because they don't normally include that.

We had to use the in house caterer but we needed some kosher meals and they were able to order out for those in order to accommodate our guests that needed them.

Yes, it can be difficult. I recommend finding some examples of the type of wedding style you're looking for on youtube.

I looked on Pinterest at other Indian weddings in my area. With so many Indian weddings in the U.S., many venues allow outside catering but some don't. Because this was a must have it was easy to find our venue & vendors from looking at other events before mine. I basically hired vendors based on other people's weddings, people I knew would know how to work an ethnic wedding

I wanted and HAD ethnic food for my wedding and honestly I suggest renting an air bnb if you are having a small wedding.... I don’t know what area you in but there are a lot of small venues in Massachusetts where I was able to find no catering requirement for a small extra feee sucks BUT don’t give up keep looking what you want it out there !!

View Quoted Comment Ok thank you!

View Quoted Comment I’ll start looking at shelter houses

View Quoted Comment Unfortunately the wedding style i fell in love with before searching is nowhere in Columbus Ohio haha. Now I’m trying to find a new style

View Quoted Comment There are a lot of Indian weddings here so when they do allow outside catering it’s a preferred list of Indian chefs. I guess i can talk to one and see how they’d go about making Ghanaian cuisine

View Quoted Comment Having about 200 people. A small venue wouldn’t work unfortunately but thank you for your help !

View Quoted Comment

Yes that can be true but not the case with all venues. My sister got married at a clubhouse and they allowed any outside caterer.

Have you tried finding a caterer first and seeing what venues they have worked at before?? I know it's hard to work backwards but a lot of ethnic weddings is word of mouth of who has worked with who in the past for similar weddings

View Quoted Comment Ooo I’m in Columbus. There’s this big hall in white hall where my cousin got married and we get to bring our own food. Also try the analog Center, my friend was getting married there and was allowed to bring food but their wedding is postponed!

Makoy Center**** it holds large weddings and you can bring your own food.

View Quoted Comment Oh yes. I used to live there myself. I understand your pain.

If you're talking about food you might be surprised by what a venue's list of approved caterers can do. Our caterer has so much experience and ability to adapt and work with couples that want traditional foods from their own cultures. I was absolutely shocked by how well our tasting went for some traditional Chinese dishes. I was afraid to ask for them because American-Chinese is not the same of course, but the chef made a real effort to do it right. I'm not saying every chef can do that, (certainly not...) But it's worth checking with the caterers directly before crossing a venue off. We didn't book the venue until I knew we'd want to hire one of the five approved caterers. Hope you find what you're looking for ❤️

View Quoted Comment Oh cool another Columbus girl! Lol I went to the Makoy and the guy who took me on the tour told me i couldn’t :/. That’s the problem I’m having I’m going to locations i know have let good come in from outside but I’m being told no.

View Quoted Comment What’s the name of the hall in Whitehall