Wedding Reception/Food

congrats on the wedding! My ds is getting married july 2nd. They are having about 100 guests.

What is the theme/feel of the wedding? Where are they having it? We have tossed around all these things ourselves, in the beginnning my ex who is a chef was going to do the food, but since he is a chef not a caterer it was going to be too stressful as he was doing it on his own not through the restaraunt he would have had to rent a lot of serving things ect and since he is the father of the groom wanted to play that role instead of chef. He will be doing some stuff for the rehersal dinner thought and is helping with the cost of a caterer.

Some venues won't allow anyone other than a caterer to do the food so you will have to check and see if that is even doable.

There are BBQ places, chicken places and deli's that do things that are more rustic than fancy and some just drop off the food and you are responsible for serving.

If you do it your self how will the food be served? Who will serve it? Depending on how fancy you will have to rent chafers and everything there are a lot of details down to salt and pepper shakers.

You don't have very long that is for sure.

As a bride going through all the planning myself for this upcoming July, the only hard things I'm dealing with are DF not sharing what his exact thoughts are on the whole subject and when he does decide to share its just before I'm about to go speak to a venue - gah! The other issue I have - thanks to my selfish siblings who bucked family tradition - "I" have to do everything they conveniently chose not to do - to honour the family name etc. My dad's a bit of a bridezilla if you ask me But he too blurts out something from left field and last minute and irrelevant to whatever we're all talking about. Oy.

My take on it - the focus should be on your union and commitment to each other. Not the cost or brand name of the dress, nor the food nor where its being held nor who's coming and if they're allowed to bring whomever else that you didn't invite. If you can't afford a lavish catered dinner then don't have one. What you should do is make it well noted on the invite (create another insert into the envelope if need be) of what to expect ie "cake and punch reception to follow" or "light hors doeuvres reception to follow" etc.

I researched around for all the options "I" liked for an after ceremony celebration and I honestly (and still kinda am) toying with the idea of renting a sheltered picnic site in the big local park and hiring an all in one BBQ caterer. They have their own grills, tents, paper plates & utensils etc. The only extras are drinks and servers as well as other food items not listed in their package menus. The price was pretty reasonable per person. Just ask them what their minimums are. A lot of deals are not posted on their website, which is sometimes why its best to give them a call.

If you're having the post ceremony festivities in your backyard, make that noted as well so that guests don't show up in ballgowns with stilettos - you want everyone to be somewhat prepared. This way they can dress it down a bit and wear proper shoes and not get stuck in the grass and end up twisting their ankle etc.

Contrary Housewife said:

A wedding celebration should be what you can afford, not what you think your guests are expecting.

Call it a cocktail reception. Have a couple of mixed drinks (virgin if necessary) a champagne toast, and a selection of nibbles, plus the cake.

I think 5pm is early enough that people can get dinner afterward.

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Bingo!

The Muse said:

Honestly? I wouldn't listen to people. Not everyone can afford $50,000+ for a sit-down meal. If people are that hard up for a free dinner, they should go to a soup kitchen.

The focus of a wedding should be on celebrating 2 people joining their lives, not on what is or isn't served. As long as you're completely clear in the invitation as to what they should expect, there shouldn't be an issue.

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Exactly!

We had a night wedding 8 pm under a full moon. We provided cake, drinks (of all sorts), fresh fruit, other dessert type items, pasta salad, and mini tea sandwiches. We had 350+ at our wedding. Outdoors in my aunts back yard. Because it was so late no one expected a full meal but got to snack and eat something anyway. My family made everything from the cake to the decorations! You can do this! My family asked for help from friends and neighbors to help check on, keep the food area nice, and so on. They enjoyed the reception too and took turns overlooking the food. The food was almost gone but there were some leftovers of some items but not much. It went perfectly even if it was stressful making sure all was ready that day.

What time is your daughters wedding going to be? I say if it's 7 or after you don't really need to provide a full meal. If it's 6.. I think you're cutting it close. However, as long as you put what kind of reception on the invite so people know what to expect would be fine! No one says you need to provide a full meal! There are so many options out there these days.

And DON'T forget the wedding party! They will be busy most of the day. Make sure they get a meal in them early!!!!!! We had put pork and beef in a couple crock pots and made sandwiches, and other heavy side dishes out so our wedding party could eat any time of the day. I think the wedding party had more options for food than those at the wedding. I wanted to make sure that they we covered because all helped us throughout the day setting up and so on.