Potluck reception

You're responsible for providing the food for your own wedding, not your friends. Most venues have rules against pot lucks and self catering because it's a huge liability. If budget is an issue, look into Italian, BBQ, or Mexican, they're typically the most inexpensive options.

Do any of your friends own their own catering company? You can have them on paper as being your hired company while your chef friend provide the actual meals.

By potluck do you mean you are asking your guests to bring their own food? Or are you saying the style is potluck because you'd be cooking everything? If you mean the later I don't see why not. We cook for more people during Thanksgiving in my family. I would look into what you would be liable for if your guests got sick or anything crazy happened at the venue.

Most venues won’t allow this because they don’t want to be liable for food safety issues. Places like parks or rec centers or fire halls would allow it I believe.

I think a pot luck sounds great. Don't listen to the nay sayers.

View Quoted Comment Thank you!

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A lot of the nay saying is surrounding liability and noting that most venues don't allow this. Beyond that, it's a party you're hosting to thank people for celebrating your love/marriage, and it's not a uncommon opinion that asking people to cook for you in order to enjoy the reception isn't fantastic. There are exceptions to this in cases of very very small, family weddings, where it's already an established tradition. But I'd read some of the "nay saying" comments to get an idea of why it's generally ill-advised first.

View Quoted Comment I would cook everything. Definitely not expecting guests to bring their own food. I have 3 crockpots & 2 instapots and I'm a great healthy cook! Lol

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Shoot I would be excited to come if I loved your food hahaha! Also I want an instapot and crockpot so bad.

View Quoted Comment I am very well aware of this. However, with a small group of guests, the original poster COULD find a venue that allows her to bring her own food or have guests bring food. I've seen this done a lot. Not everything has to done exactly the way the wedding industry dictates.


My wedding is coming up and will have about 12 guests. We are also doing things quite differently. I have come across many nay sayers on here but my future husband and I are still doing it our way.

Ok. I think I've decided against it. Thanks for all your feedback!

I would imagine your friends don't want to cater your wedding unless they are paid like a normal vendor would be. I'd look into cheap options like BBQ or Mexican that can cost around $10 per person.

View Quoted Comment Actually it was their idea! I've decided against it due to liability issues.

I have a friend getting married next month and one of my friends got married last year and because they didn't want to spend a lot of money on food for the reception, I don't blame them because whether or not you're thanking people for coming to your big day at the end of the day they should feel honored that you invited them because plenty people are having small weddings and some people don't make the cut, they ordered some party trays from their local grocery store. My friend that got married last year had some chicken tenders, veggie trays, fruit trays and I think some potato salad. She basically figured she was bending about 10 bucks a person. I don't know your guestlist eyes but if it's not that big you could probably spend maybe a couple of hundred and feed all those people. Plus truthfully on your big day even though I'm sure you could do it do you really want to deal with the stress of trying to cook for everyone?

I have seen some having food trucks come. It’s a trend now too. I researched it but didn’t end up doing that. You can set it up you pay or guests pay. I am doing a pasta dinner this way I can accommodate vegan and gluten free guests.


I don’t see anything wrong with a pot luck though if small wedding and all family as long as you know people don’t mind. I personally didn’t want to burden anyone so wanted to do it myself and not stress too much.

Also look into if you can just provide the insurance to self cater. I talked to my insurance agent and they said it’s under like $50 to get the insurance tagged on to your home owners.

I think that if you’re making them bring their own food, maybe you should ask him not to bring you a present???

My sister had a park wedding about 20 years ago & it was potluck. Everyone brought a dish & we played volleyball after. It was super laid back & fun.

I've been to a reception that the family cooked everything and served. It went fine. But you'll definitely have to find a venue that will let you do this. As many have said, there is a lot of liability involved and a lot of venues don't want to deal with it.
Community buildings and parks are probably a better bet for this.

Our friends wed in the church and we all brought food! There is a kitchen in he church so we could cook and reheat. It was a great time!