Catering my own wedding

noseybonk

Ok, I have about 70 people to cater for, and I have NO idea of how much food I need. Also at our venue we only have one fridge (about the size of a normal upright in your kitchen), one freezer and a drinks chiller. And an oven. We are getting married in June, so obviously leaving meats out all day would not be a good thing. Does anyone have any advice for me? Is this do-able? I really don't want to have to pay thousands to get caterers in...

galvanizersbaby

Hi Noseybonk

You may find that you get better help/advice on the weddings/special occasions board

noseybonk

Ah. I didn't spot that. SOOO many forums! Thanks.

noseybonk

Hello! Ok, I have about 70 people to cater for, and I have NO idea of how much food I need. Also at our venue we only have one fridge (about the size of a normal upright in your kitchen), one freezer and a drinks chiller. And an oven. We are getting married in June, so obviously leaving meats out all day would not be a good thing. Does anyone have any advice for me? Is this do-able? I really don't want to have to pay thousands to get caterers in...Heeeeeeelp!

Horace

Hopefully one of the moderators will move it over there for you.

Some caterers dont cost that £1000s some are reasonable.

Horace

Do you have a budget for catering? As the venue only has a domestic fridge it might well be worth hiring a caterer because they will at least have the necessary equipment to keep food cold.

Caterers don't cost thousands unless you are catering for a high end wedding. You could have a hog roast and that can cost about £500 all in (rough guesstimate off the top of my head).

Evansangel

Are you doing a buffet or a sit down meal?

Im doing my own buffet and i wondered how i would go about it.

I did think about cooking it on the morning of the wedding since im having a late afternoon ceremony. Then storing it somewhere... ?? lol.
x

noseybonk

We're doing a buffet.

We've already looked into catering. The cheapest we have found after extensive research is £1400 (once you take all their costs into consideration), so really not an option. Yes, this includes quotes for a burger and sausage type bbq and hog roasts. We can buy the food from somewhere nice like Waitrose or M&S for a small fraction of that.

The thing is, I'm not fussed about cutting costs with the food that much, as it won't got over £500, and that is fine, it's more the logistics of how much I'll need to feed 70, and where to put it!

ema_o

Is there space at the venue for additional fridges if you bring your own along? If so friends / family might have a spare fridge (eg beer fridge) or you might be able to pick up a second hand one cheaply (we bought second hand for our kitchen and paid £30 for both!) It does sound like you might struggle for space in the fridge otherwise.
What sort of food are you planning on doing??

noseybonk

That's not a bad idea, I'll ask the venue. We only live 5 mins from our venue, so worst case scenario I guess we could get someone to pop home to pick some bits up. I was actually just wondering if we could get some frozen food and do quiches and things as well as refrigerated things such as ham etc. We have an oven. Food can be anything, but we were going to do just your normal fork buffet style stuff. Nothing fancy, just tasty and good quality.

galvanizersbaby

noseybonk wrote: »

Ah. I didn't spot that. SOOO many forums! Thanks.

No worries - this board does have marriage in the title but I happen to know that they set up a special one for weddings/occasions
Good luck x