Canapes, Entree & Cake/Desserts

cncanderson2014

Hi Everyone -

Here is the idea. Please bare with me, as it is only an idea. Our wedding will consist of about a hundred. I have a friend of my daughters who is in culinary school and experience cooking for larger crowds, so I've decided to DIY "some" of my own wedding food. I know, sounds crazy, but I put a LOT of thought into this. By profession I'm an event planner, so I know the ordeals of what could go wrong.

However, I'm on a huge budget constraint and unless I can figure a way around it, it'll cost me way to much to get it catered with what I want to serve

Here is my preliminary menu

Wedding Menu

Appetizers:

Smoked Salmon on cracker with dill & horseradish sauce (me)

2 x  Cheeseballs (me)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Chicken salad puffs (?) (me)

First Course

Ø  Shrimp cocktail – Get the St. Elmo’s horseradish  (me)

Ø  Cantaloupe Wrapped Prosciutto  (me)

Ø  Vegetarian – Puff Pastry with Mushroom Pate or Stuffed Mushroom (justin)

Second Course

Ø  Tomato, Mozzarella and Basel Salad  (me)

Ø  House Salad (justin)

-          Sorbet cleanser  (me)

Third Course - Pasta Bar - add on's Justin, Sauce catered, Noodles Justin

Ø  Tomato Meat Sauce

Ø  Alfredo Sauce

Ø  Vegan – Pesto Sauce

Late Night Snack

Tortilla Chips with 7 layer dip cups (Justin)

Pulled Pork Sliders (Paul & Justin)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My dessert bar is the one giving me issues.

I don't want the huge expensive wedding cake. But I do want a small one to cut into, then 2 other types of cake (gluten & vegan), the grooms cake (chocolate), cupcakes (from SAMS; white ), 2 german strawberry fruit cakes, lemon tarts, petite fours, cream puffs and sugar cookie hearts. Then we are having two chocolate fountain bars (white chocolate & dark choclate)  with marshmallow, rice krispy treats & fruit.

I only want to make a few things of each. When it's gone its' gone. For instance: Order 40 cupcakes, 20 cream puffs, 24 sugar cookies; 48 petite fours.

Does that sound rude or do I have to have enough for everyone? Do I have to have wedding cake for everyone? Can I just have different cakes and cupcakes? I'm an event planner, but only for corporate events. Wedding is a little different ball game. But from experience, most of the people will target one thing they LOVE on the dessert table and leave the rest standing. So if the majority loves it, you always run out of one and not the other. LOL - I hate thinking of wasting.

Is it all sound a bit too much?

 

 

Jen4948

I think that if you cut a wedding cake, even a small one, then you need to serve cake to your guests.  It can be in the form of cupcakes or different flavored cakes-but it can't be left out.  And you do need enough cake for everyone.

itzMS

So basically you're doing everything yourself and your daughter's friend is cooking some noodles for you and bringing bags of premade salad mix? :-) That's a lottttt of work. Are you also having him on hand to maintain food temperatures?

Are the appetizers and salads plated, and then the guests have to get up to go to the pasta bar? That seems a bit silly to me.

In terms of the dessert bar, yes you must have a serving of wedding cake for each guest. The other desserts, just do an assortment calculating about 3-4 pieces per person. Yes, people will eat that much dessert, or at least take a few different items to try.

cncanderson2014

I know I have to maintain food refrigeration (I work for food testing laboratory). I'm serving appetizers because if I do family style, I'll have certain guests grabbing tons of shrimp and leaving others bare. Also, because I'm in the food testing industry, I'm not a fan of people in a line and touching food with their hands, even when their are tongs right next to them. I've cooked for 50 & 80 before and crazy enough, it wasn't that bad, because I planned it well with a easy menu. I'm thinking with a 100 invites and possibly 20% cancellation, that it come down to 80 again. The Italian restaurant will be supplying the sauce.The menu is actually quite simple. I am still debating on the whole pasta thing. May just have the entire pasta thing made by the caterer; nothing worse then bad pasta. I've also got two teenage servers helping with bringing out the food. I have 10 months to figure this out. Push comes to shove and I'll do the awful BBQ thing. I really need Justin to just prep and get certain things in the oven on time. I'm having a birthday party for my fiance in two months and we'll have about 50 people again, so I'm going to practice appetizers on them and make my decision from their.

JaneAustensGhost

It's reckless to plan for 80% attendance. What if 100% show up? You won't have enough food.

cncanderson2014

I'm not planning on cooking for only 80, I meant by saying by the time the invites come in I'll know if I am cooking for a 100 or 80 and that I've cooked for 80 before with plenty left over.

tammym1001

Catering a party for 80 people and catering your own wedding for 80 people are two totally different things. I think your menu sounds nice and it seems like a lot of the stuff can be done ahead of time. Are you going to do all you can ahead of time and then Justin and the high school kids will handle everything on the day of? If not, I wouldn't try it. The last thing you are going to want is to spend your wedding day cooking and serving people and worrying about when the food comes out and if it's all done or not. Even with a laid back wedding you are still going to be so busy that you won't have time to worry about the food. You should be spending that time with your guests anyways.

As for the dessert, I agree you need to have cake for everyone but I think you can get away with smaller amounts of the other desserts because not everyone will take one of everything.

cncanderson2014

Thanks Tammym1001 - The kids are my oldest daughters closest high school friends who are now college students, 18-19 so technically all but still teenagers. The are either doing culinary classes or have waitress jobs. I've been a second mom to them, so I know them. I go to their places to eat, so I have confidence. Not to mention they are so excited to be a part of my wedding and they are great about listening to direction. I'll be giving them all some money towards being there, but they already said it's their gift to me. From previous parties I've had, I know how they operate and they know how I operate. As an event planner, it's very difficult for me to just sit their, but if I know who the servers are, I'll be much more relaxed. I'm going to downsize the desserts a bit.
Yes, I'll be doing all I can ahead. Justin and I will also be working on timing, etc months ahead. He's already adding dates to my calendar (silly boy).
I'm taking 4-5 days off before my wedding.
The items I picked can all be done extremely fast and look beautifully presentable.
I'll probably switch out the chicken salad puffs.
My BIL makes the most magnificent pulled pork, so he's making that for me for late night slider snack. My sister is making the grooms cake, my best friend is making the cake pops and fiance's Mom is making the gluten free dessert and my daughter the vegan chocolate cake. LOL

hyechica81

this all sounds amazing but did you check with your venue to see if they allow a non licencsed vendor? most places wont because of liablity issues, there was a post on here where the groom or brides grandma made all the cakes enought to feed 200-300 poeple but the venue would not allow her to bring the cakes in beacuse she was not from a licencesed kitchen 

lc07

My only input is if you are doing a printed menu, I think what you mean is proscuitto wrapped cantaloupe not cantaloupe wrapped proscuitto.

cncanderson2014

Hyechica81: Yes, we can choose any vendor or make our own food. It was one of the criteria we pressed to have at the venue we chose. That of course opened so many doors for us to not only make our own things, but after a lot of research and getting some great recommendations, I have now chosen a very well known Italian family run restaurant to cook the main entree's at an incredible price.

My daughter is always making the vegan cake for family and friends, so she's a pro. My sister makes desserts as a professional caterer (but she wanted NO part in a wedding cake; therefore she's got the grooms cake & a few other things & my BFF is a candy confection maker with her own store, so she told me she'd take care of the pops and a few of her own creations.

Thanks for the spell check Ms. lc07, I wasn't checking that yet; only brainstorming. I'll keep it in mind.