My FI and I have been looking at keeping a fairly modest wedding budget. One of the ways we plan on saving money is by avoiding catering. We've been to weddings in the past where the catering has fallen short of expectations, and we're looking for more of a "family" style reception. Plus, there isn't a single person in our families that isn't talented when it comes to cooking.
We're planning on having an autumn wedding, and had talked about something along the line of sandwiches and a soup bar.. (his grandmother's potato soup, my dad's chili.. so on..) But my MIL thinks it would be too informal. My FI and I have talked about it, and we both like the idea of having different options available to our guests without breaking the budget.
We are planning on having our RSVPs be in the form of recipe cards, so I feel like having homemade food at our reception would be a good way to tie everything together if we had some of our favorite homemade dishes included in the reception.
I'm not sure if the idea of serving soup is too informal... any opinions or ideas on what to serve?
Edit: We would be using our family members recipes, not making them cook..