Engagement Party Menu & Music

saumurec2

My mother offered to throw my fiance and I an engagement party with about 50 ppl attending.  I will be traveling to her for the party, from NJ to OH.  I want to help her with the party since it's just her hosting it.  I'm between cooking myself vs. catering, or a mix of both.  I'm thinking it will be pretty easy to do the veggie, fruit & cheese and other small apps, but what about other foods, like a chicken and a pasta...any ideas?  i haven't found any budget friendly places to have a few dishes catered from, but i stilll have some searching to do!  Any menu suggestions greatly appreciated as well as playlist suggestions!  Thanks ladies!

SuMmErKuTiE

The veggies, fruit, and cheese sounds great! I wouldn't worry about serving things such as chicken or pasta unless you're planning on a sit down dinner which can be a huge burden and expense for 50 people.

Our engagement party was a cocktail party with hors d'oeuvres. My mom had some of it catered and me and her made the rest of the food. We had tomato and mozz slices, beef wellington bites, baked brie with cinnamon apples, prosciutto wrapped melon, shrimp cocktail, veggies and dip, and for dessert my mom ordered a cake from a local bakery and made chocolate dipped strawberries. For drinks we had a non alcoholic punch and another bowl of champagne punch, bottled beer, champagne for the toast, and a signature drink which was a pink martini made with citrus vodka, chambord, and sour mix.

I wouldn't worry about the music, it should just be background music. We just put an ipod into a dock in the living room and called it a day. It was so loud with all the people, you couldn't even tell there was music on.

therocks!

I kept it brunch like:

Eggs benedict - ham
Eggs Benedict - smoked salmon
Sides: potatoes and bacon
       


fruit tray: watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries
"gourmet" cheese and meat tray with honey- brie, manchego, cheddar, prosciutto, salami, capicola

pitchers of white sangria
berried champagne

Raspberry chiffon cake

I like small but fancy when it comes to the size of the invite list and the quality of food...
This was a lot of food for my small invite list...Hope it helps!

LisaTyler1984

I always find that I end up spending more when I cook myself. I would get it catered so this way you can just relax. We had my party in a restaurant that was closed for the season and the price of catering was reasonable. I think my mom paid like 55/person. It included a cocktail hour of passed hors d'oeuvres and some stationary displays like cheese, fruit and hummus, followed by a buffet of entrees. I can't remember everything but it included calamari fra diavlo, paella, a carving station with sirloin or something, a pasta bar, a few more options I can't remember, cupcakes and an ice cream bar for dessert plus a full open bar. It was a blast and we didn't have to worry about a thing. We also hired a DJ for the music