Cheap As Possible

Have you considered "light appetizers only" or cake and champagne? Of course, this depends on the time of your reception. These are good for early afternoon or late evening (after 8pm).

IF you have not set the date you might want to have it on a friday or a Sunday you usually save on everything photographer, dj and reception hall. Keep in mind that hords can be costly you should stick to a buffet. I have been in the catering business for 9 years if you have any questions feel free to contact me via email.

Hi,

I think if you feed 250 and cater it yourself you CAN do better. I have been doing this for some time and it is definately cheaper and much easier to go with casserole type foods rather than finger foods that take a lot of labor. The reason being that you can freeze the casserole foods so that can be done the week before the wedding.

How you present your foods will make it elegant or not no matter what you decide to serve. A silver tray will make it look elegant a plastic one will not.

Putting your foods in a silver chaffer that can be rented will look more elegant that putting it in a stainless steel chaffer.

To rent items for buffet is the way to go. You can rent china, glassware and silverware, linens and napkins. Keeping it simple saves money.

Or you can go to dollar stores and purchase everything but silverware and tablecloths. Then sell it after the wedding to get back most of what you paid.

Don`t just put your chaffers or trays flat on the table. Put boxes and cover them with satin fabric at different levels.

Nancy

We were just married on October 4th of this year. We originally were going to have it catered but our finances were running small. We decided to do it ourselves. I am not sure what you are wanting. Our wedding was semi formal. We bought roasters from Walmart for about $30 dollars and we made party potatoes (which we froze about 5 days before the wedding) and we made barbeque pork for sandwhiches(we also froze this a week before). We bought veggies and dips the day before (It took three of us about a half hour to prepare). Overall it ended up costing us just under $250 to prepare enough food for 250 people. This was wonderful compared to the $1400 we were going to pay out in catering. The earlier posting is right. It really isn`t what you serve but how you present it. We had everything decked out with white table coverings, greenery, and it ended up looking wonderful. We had many compliments, everyone felt comfortable and we all had a good time. I hope this gives you some ideas. Weddings are so expensive now adays. It just comes down to what is the most important to you.

Best wishes,
Jennifer