party :)

sarahlou89

Right, Im wanting to organise an engagement party and i really have no clue were to start lol.
Would like to do this as cheap as possible...without it looking too cheap lol.
We have booked the room
And got the decorations really cheap of ebay.

The food is the main problem.. does any one have any ideas on how I could do this??

bigmomma051204

depends what you want... Cold buffet, hot buffet?? Self catered i presume?? You going to make most of it yourself or buy as much ready done as poss??

LJM

a cold buffet would be easier i would imagine to cater for

sarahlou89

Yeah a cold buffer and yes me, my mum and the mil is going to do it

tazmac25

Sarahlou

Ive seen a new trend happening at engagement parties in recent times
Rather than a gift ask for people to bring party food....... never been to one so not sure how well it works or you just end up with a million sausage rolls and nothing else - it also might not be your kind of thing but it could be a real scream too

if this isnt to your taste my recommendations are
Dont do sandwiches ~ they always get left ~ but loads of baskets of both soft rolls and french bread and some little bowls of butter
A cheese board & a cold meat platter then if they want butties they can make their own
Make loads of dips ~ I can give you the easy and dead cheap recipes for ~ garlic ~ thai ~ curry ~ prawn mayos then you can have loads of raw veggies i.e. carrot, cuecumber and peppers to dip in them as well as nachos and crisps etc
Check out the deals in farmfoods and cool trader for party food always tonnes cheaper than the larger supermarkets and often branded as asda etc
Save time ~ buy precooked mini sausages from asda ~ open box put on plate bowl!!!!
Beware of chicken wings and drumsticks ~ never a great idea

Make your own quiches ~ I use morrisons ready baked savoury flan cases ~ chuck in beaten egg, milk, cheese and bacon and mushroom or just cheese and tom then into the oven ~ just make sure you have precut these into portions when you put them on the buffet table as it can get messy else

Buy big jars of pickles and onions etc ~ asda do nice size ones as that will fill the table out a bit
Pork pie
Saus rolls ~ think I got 50 for £1 in farmfoods near christmas

hope this helps and let me know if you want the recipes for the mayos
xx
Taz

youngie

for a cold buffet large bowls of pasta salad and rice salad both cheap and easy to make

sarahlou89

Asking people to bring food sounds like a good idea..but then it runs the risk of like you said ending up with tons of sausage rolls lol.

The sandwich idea i am definatly going to go with.

And them recipes if you pm me them or something would be very helpful.
I was thinking of getting some of them party platters from iceland

Thank you all so much for the helpful comments

happy35

how many people would you be catering for?

I went to an 18th birthday party a few months ago and there were little bowls of nuts, crisps and sweets on each table which I thought was a nice idea.

THere was also a cold buffet, I find that bite size things are really popular if you have a large number of guests and Iceland is good for this as they have about 80 items for £5 in their boxes, and if you have a few bags of onion rings, garlic bread along with some dips, veg crudites and crisps you should be able to do a really nice buffet for not a lot of money

jem1276

Have you or anyone you know got a costco card?

Huge cake that they will ice your message on for £12 and it is yummy. Lots of savings on multi bags of crisps/nuts/sweets etc...

Often £1 and 99p shops have lots of party food too.

Are you near a big market? A friend of mine did a cake made of cheese, bought cheaply from Bury or Stockport market, can't remember which.

Congratulations and good luck with the weightloss

CurlyTop

Congratulations on the engagement. For picky nibbles, you've got to have the retro hedgehog (half a lettuce covered in tin foil with mini hotdogs and cheese on a stick - cheap, cheerful and you'd be surprised how it always gets eaten). Vol au vents - Iceland do a pack of about 50 / 100 whereby you cook them in the oven and pop in your own filling - prawns with salad cream and tomato sauce mixed together to give you your very own 1000 island dressing or campbells mushroom soup cold inside. Cold pizza - if you get an oblong one, you can cut into strips. Large bowls of rice and salad stuff always go down well. Enjoy