Catering My Own Wedding - Buffet Ideas?

lauracusack

Me again, yet another food question!
I'm getting married in Feb yay! We are having a buffet at our evening reception and I want to do it all myself. I did this for our engagement party but I want something a little more posh. Also, I'm going to be brave and go all-vegetarian. This way I don't have to worry about what I can eat because someone's dropped ham on the pizza or something.
There's going to be about £150 people there. Would I be mad to try to spend £1 or less per head?? We have like no money! Lol. Anyway, any ideas for what to serve would be much appreciated. I'd rather do stuff I can serve cold but really don't want bog standard buffet stuff (veggie sausage rolls, quiche and the like). we are having a rather offbeat wedding and would like the food to follow the theme.
Anyway, I can't think of anything good! :eek: please help...

Flora_Poste

Can you give us more details on the theme of the wedding so we can suggest stuff that will go with it. I would think £1 a head is do-able but will require create thinking.

lauracusack

Flora_Poste wrote: »

Can you give us more details on the theme of the wedding so we can suggest stuff that will go with it. I would think £1 a head is do-able but will require create thinking.

Well it's laid back, young, colourful (I have four wedding colours), my friends have used the words indie/hipster several times... We want to incorporate local produce and most of the decor, etc will be handmade (and look it!) by myself or one of my face easy sellers. it's hard to pin it down really! I think we're mostly playing on the fact that we're really young and so are most of our guests.

Sorry, don't know how this will help the buffet :rotfl:

caitybabes

Hello I just wrote a long thing of suggestions but it got deleted so here's the essence of it:

Our evening buffet was loads of cheeses (from our cheese tower - whole wheels of cheese stacked up like a wedding cake, used mini jars of chutney as tier separators) with lovely breads, pate, olives, hummus, etc. Basically it was like a gourmet picnic and our friends loved it.

Last week I catered for my birthday party (25 people ish) and did afternoon tea. What really helped is that I planned some food that could be made in advance and frozen such as mini cheese and mushroom quiches (made in fairy cake tin) and mini pizzas (cut out with cookie cutter) along with loads of cupcakes and scones. Then on the day made all the fresh stuff but had less to do

lauracusack

caitybabes wrote: »

Hello I just wrote a long thing of suggestions but it got deleted so here's the essence of it:

Our evening buffet was loads of cheeses (from our cheese tower - whole wheels of cheese stacked up like a wedding cake, used mini jars of chutney as tier separators) with lovely breads, pate, olives, hummus, etc. Basically it was like a gourmet picnic and our friends loved it.

Last week I catered for my birthday party (25 people ish) and did afternoon tea. What really helped is that I planned some food that could be made in advance and frozen such as mini cheese and mushroom quiches (made in fairy cake tin) and mini pizzas (cut out with cookie cutter) along with loads of cupcakes and scones. Then on the day made all the fresh stuff but had less to do

It's the worst when that happen!
Anyway, I was actually thinking of cheeses. It's a great suggestion. Plus I just found these cool little individual diy cheeseboards on the martha blog. Like a template on how to do them and things. And there's this great little village near us called Corbridge that has the most awesome farmshop with super yummy cheese!
Oh and we did those cookie cutter pizzas for our engagement party too

NikkeiJones

Ooohhh I love the cheese idea it sounds delicious. I was watching a show on food network TV a few weeks ago and there was a restaurant that was purely for desserts. Could you do for example lots of mini desserts? I'm a self taught cupcaker and I often get asked to make cupcakes for friends and friends of friends. Two weeks ago I made 70 full size cupcakes and it cost around £20 to make them, if you were to make them as minis it would probably be no more than £30 for 150. You could also make mini cheese cakes for the same cost, mini eclairs, toffee apples, chocolate covered marshmallows and strawberries, mini candyfloss, honeycomb shards covered in chocolate. It would be a sweet treat feast!

Pink.

Hi lauracusack,

These previous threads may give you some ideas:

Wedding buffet make-ahead dishes ideas please

Ideas for really cheap easy Buffet food please!!

Buffet Ideas

Help ! Planning small buffet birthday party for 17, NEVER done anything like this ? !

Need ms ideas for buffet for 50

buffet ideas for 100+ on a budget?

budget buffet help!!

help ideas for party food

party food for 80+ help!

Ideas for really cheap easy Buffet food please!!

Buffet Ideas


How to work out quantities for a buffet?

Need Vegetarian Buffet/Party Food



I think you're really brave doing your own buffet but if you look at post #14 in the first link addiscomber has given lots of good advice.

Pink

pocket_fluff

Hope this gives you some ideas!

Here's some of what we had:

antipasta – feta, artichokes, olives etc, breads and olive oil/balsamic vinegar dip
goats cheese tart
spinach roulade
roasted vegetable terrine
asparagus and butter
hummus and dipping veg
roasted mediterranean vegetables on kebab skewers
hot feta cheese and parsley filo parcels
sweet pepper tartlets
guacamole with herbed mini grissini
salads (e.g. bean salad, tomato, mozzarella and basil salad, green salad etc), pasta and cous cous dishes,

and then our wedding cake as a dessert with cupcakes and local cheeses, chutneys and crackers.

Yum!

jennyo

pocket_fluff wrote: »

Hope this gives you some ideas!

Here's some of what we had:

antipasta – feta, artichokes, olives etc, breads and olive oil/balsamic vinegar dip
goats cheese tart
spinach roulade
roasted vegetable terrine
asparagus and butter
hummus and dipping veg
roasted mediterranean vegetables on kebab skewers
hot feta cheese and parsley filo parcels
sweet pepper tartlets
guacamole with herbed mini grissini
salads (e.g. bean salad, tomato, mozzarella and basil salad, green salad etc), pasta and cous cous dishes,

and then our wedding cake as a dessert with cupcakes and local cheeses, chutneys and crackers.

Yum!

That sounds wonderful, sorry I've nothing helpful to offer, but wish you the best of luck.

Memory_Girl

Gay Friends (1 Scot and 1 from Peru) of ours had a van arrive halfway through the evening - a mobile "chip van" kind of thing.

They made felafel in pita with salad and chilli sauce and bags of chips ..................

............... brilliant wedding - and for all the posh do's I have been to, this was the food that hit the spot after a day of "ahem" gentle drinking.

The cake was a "clootie dumpling" - a Scotish boiled fruit cake thingie - but very easy and cheap to make (I know I did them)

Then it was all back in to the venue for a Salsa lesson.

Even the aged Aunties:rotfl:

Priceless

MG

lauracusack

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi lauracusack,

These previous threads may give you some ideas:

Wedding buffet make-ahead dishes ideas please

Ideas for really cheap easy Buffet food please!!

Buffet Ideas

Help ! Planning small buffet birthday party for 17, NEVER done anything like this ? !

Need ms ideas for buffet for 50

buffet ideas for 100+ on a budget?

budget buffet help!!

help ideas for party food

party food for 80+ help!

Ideas for really cheap easy Buffet food please!!

Buffet Ideas


How to work out quantities for a buffet?

Need Vegetarian Buffet/Party Food



I think you're really brave doing your own buffet but if you look at post #14 in the first link addiscomber has given lots of good advice.

Pink

The post you mentioned is particularly good. I'll spend some time scouring through the others when I get a chance. I just love the summary at the end of how many litres of soup, etc.