Budget menu ideas?

deusimus · January 2012

So we are working on a tight budget with roughly 100-120 guests (almost all family) and we'd rather not have to cut out people that we would like to be there to celebrate our big day (to us, people are more important than fancy meals). We originally were going to have it catered with a sit-down reception, then decided to do a catered buffet, then decided to do a non-catered buffet, then had to switch again to something cheaper lol. We seem to be at the point of DIY meals or cheaper alternatives. We are paying for the wedding ourselves and have limited income, so we cant do anything too fancy.....and We didn't realize how expensive weddings are when we started the planning!

We are thinking of a pasta bar (3 different types of pasta, 3 types of sauces separate, ground chicken and/or beef separate and people can mix it together however they like, garlic bread as sides) I can also buy veggies and fruit and make my own fruit salad/trays and veggie salads. I also saw a mashed potato bar at a wedding once and i was so happy about it! (mashed potatoes with various mix-ins as you like. Does anyone have other suggestions for cheap meals to feed people that we can make? Any easy, cheap chicken dishes? (I don't quite have the kitchen to make 100+ bbq chicken breasts, for example) Any thoughts would be wonderful! Thank you!

ATexasBelle · January 2012

I'd do pasta. You could get the pasta from Pizza Hut or another pizza place, and buy the mix-ins/sides from Sam's Club. Put it in pretty hot tins and nobody will know!

NOLAbridealmost · January 2012

I think the pasta idea is great!

cwill6212 · January 2012

I am thinking of going the pasta route myself. It's filling and it definitely stretches the $$.

colourz · January 2012

Buy from Sam's Club or Costco. It can end up costing the same as making it yourself and is much easier and less stressful.

Sue-n-Kevin · January 2012

Look into gourmet food stores. Many of the ones near us do catering, and because they don't only get their profits from catering, but the food store as well, they are more willing to negotiate. Plus they have delicious food items on hand already.

Good luck.

ElisabethJoanne · January 2012

I don't know if Whole Foods counts as gourmet, but its catering was more expensive than full-time caterers.

Lasagna would be even simpler.

If you've got help, and depending on the time of year, you could feed all those people with 5-6 large turkeys or hams. We did turkey for a high school party just a bit smaller than this, and Dad said it was easy. You just need the ovens and for turkey, someone to cut it up.

Joy of cooking has a recipe for chicken with white wine and mushrooms. You could probably fit 100 chicken thighs into a home oven. 1 thigh is a small portion, though.

mach10ski · January 2012

At my wedding we are thinking about doing raviolis, pre mix salad and italian bread(the kind they serve at olive garden). We are getting it all at a place called Cash and Carry. It came out to I think around 2-3 dollars per person with 250 people. We looked online to see if we could get raviolis cheaper but I didnt find anywhere. I would def try the food before you buy it because we had found some cheaper raviolis but they where horrible.

neongreenbox · January 2012

hey I see you are a philly area bride. I don't know if you checked out this caterer but you might be able to work with them at least a little to make it easier for yourself. http://www.moosengoose.com/

They do picnic style and most options are between 10-25 a person depending on if you want them to just drop the food off or serve it. If you look at the DIY picnic on any page you can also buy the trays of whatever food you want.

We are using them for both a rehearsal welcome picnic and then for our wedding

Gospelgirl86 · January 2012

Definitely do the pasta! We just decided on the same menu last night :•} Good Luck!

vickywil5 · March 2012

Maybe a few salads, a pasta, meat and veggie lasagna, garlic bread, then wedding cake as dessert.

Budget menu ideas?

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