Earn cash as you plan. Get a $20 gift card for every 200 points with The Knot Rewards
Budget Weddings Forum
randomslove
member
Budget Food Ideas
Okay, so I had a little bit of a wake-up call when talking to a potential wedding caterer. We have a budget of about 3700 for food, drinks, booze for somewhere around 90 people (assuming everyone RSVPs) for a winter wedding. The caterer I talked to gave us two options to look at-- one was with everything we wanted for more than 6000 and the other was exactly our budget for one entree and some sides. No booze, no drinks at all. She suggested a cash bar, which is not an option.
We have a little more than ten months until the wedding, and we have a little (very little) wiggle room in the budget since I was lucky and won my wedding dress, and we are only doing bouquets for flowers. Still, I'm struggling to find someone who is within our budget.
I figured I'd post here because I've seen some awesome suggestions on these boards on proper hosting. I want alcohol at the wedding. Even if we have to start stock piling now and just do beer, wine, limited drink options. I've even thought of ordering pizza, or finding a restaurant willing to let us pick up enough food for everyone. However, I really want my guests to be properly hosted and wasn't sure if that would be inappropriate.
Does anyone have suggestions?
ETA: I know food is one of the most important aspects to guests. I'm willing "sacrifice" other, less important things to get it right. We are buying cheesecake and just adding a few little touches for the cake. There aren't going to be a lot of decorations. The food and booze are most of my budget.
We have a little more than ten months until the wedding, and we have a little (very little) wiggle room in the budget since I was lucky and won my wedding dress, and we are only doing bouquets for flowers. Still, I'm struggling to find someone who is within our budget.
I figured I'd post here because I've seen some awesome suggestions on these boards on proper hosting. I want alcohol at the wedding. Even if we have to start stock piling now and just do beer, wine, limited drink options. I've even thought of ordering pizza, or finding a restaurant willing to let us pick up enough food for everyone. However, I really want my guests to be properly hosted and wasn't sure if that would be inappropriate.
Does anyone have suggestions?
ETA: I know food is one of the most important aspects to guests. I'm willing "sacrifice" other, less important things to get it right. We are buying cheesecake and just adding a few little touches for the cake. There aren't going to be a lot of decorations. The food and booze are most of my budget.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Budget Food Ideas
You are planning backwards. You have a vision in your mind of the reception that you want. Forget it! It obviously doesn't fit your budget or your guest list. Plan something else that does.
Why is alcohol so important to you? It is pretty far down there on the list of "must haves".
As for the alcohol... I'd rather not have a dry wedding. It's just a preference. If we did cake and punch, we'd probably go dry then.
Do have something like a fruit plate for guests who are diabetic or lactose intolerant. (I LOVE cheesecake!)
As others have mentioned, try local restaurants, etc. for cheaper options. Just be careful with how you keep things cheap- when you bring food in yourself, you still need people to serve, clear, etc. You also need to make sure that you have the facilities/equipment to keep food safe and at the required temperatures.
Finally, consider posting on your local board for deals. There may be people who can recommend vendors with great prices!
Good luck!
A chili bar with fixings and cornbread could be a delicious alternative. You can easily have a vegetarian option with this. A soup and salad bar, coupled with some delicious fresh breads could also be an affordable option.
Caveat: This did not include set up, like chaffing racks, sterno cans or serving utensils. I think that stuff came to about $125, though we'll actually reuse the racks. The restaurant just brought the pans of food to the reception and put them in the racks we set up. A more full service caterer will normally provide these things, which is part of what makes them more expensive.
We did BBQ - I didn't realize it was an overdone trend but rather we like BBQ and it was cost efficient. It also worked for our casual outdoor event.
We looked at 4 local restaurants (one is a local chain, the others are national or regional chains). Prices varied between about $10-15 pp for the food but the setup/delivery/serving etc varied wildly. I looked at our budget and we spent around $1200 to feed 65 with 3 meat selections, salad, 2 sides, plus bread. I think the food itself was under $1000 but their fees were high (and a bit unnecessary but alas H was being a pest about the other places so I stopped caring).
or, if you're like me - and don't even know what's overdone or trendy since I can count on one hand how many weddings I've even gone to in the last 10 years! I go with BBQ or Italian yes!
edit: spelling
Subway caters... KFC caters... Famous Dave's caters... Green Mill caters... Many local restaurants offer catering... Provided you aren't locked into using specific caterers with your hall, you've got more options out there, keep looking - ask the hall for recommendations!! Don't just check the places that do a lot of advertising, there are small caterers out there and they do have budget friendly options. For $66/pp, I expect a lot (is that including taxes/gratuity?) - and exactly what's wrong with a "dry" reception if that's what you can afford? There's not a gosh darn thing wrong with it! It's also not as if you 've got to lock in a menu now, a lot can change with your budget once your guest count gets done from RSVP's being returned.
I agree to look into local catering. There is a lot more out there than you think. When I was helping plan a friends bridal shower, we weren't quite sure which route we'd go, so I started googling "catering" just to see what options there were- SO many places, either restaurant or independent catering companies have packages for lunch, dinner, snacks, etc.
You could also find a lot of good deals from a larger grocer- somewhere you can pick up pasta trays, salads, sandwiches, fruit & cheese/ cheese & crackers/ veggie trays, finger foods like Swedish meatballs and other hors d'oeuvres.
Also, when we have chosen and finalized our choice, I'll update so lurkers can know how this was successfully resolved.
we are fortunate enough to have a really close knit family who offered to make us hor d'oeurves for our cocktail hour. we got lucky with our byob venue..a relative is providing us with our wine at a very low cost and we have a local craft beer store that is providing us a 15% bulk discount for good craft beer which is allowing us to do open bar..still freaking out on the catering scenario though..:) i never thought of pizza and itallian food...this is definitely something i'll look into...we have some great delivery places here in little italy.
Plus, unless they're professional caterers and used to cooking for large amounts of people and keeping food at proper temperatures, there could be serious food safety issues. Please reconsider this! I know weddings can be very expensive but there are certain things worth spending money on. Like a caterer so your guests are guests and not staff.