Catering Your Own Wedding

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Keeping the wedding budget down

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The Basics of Catering Your Own Wedding.

If you are like most couples who are about to get married, you are already discovering how expensive a wedding can be. Adding up all expenses of the wedding dress, flowers, photographers, reception hire, and all the little extras you soon realize that by catering your own wedding you can really keep the cost down.

You can provide anything from simple wedding finger food, a buffet to a full sit down meal at a fraction of the cost that a caterer would charge. All that you need is careful planning and the help of some reliable friends who are willing to give you a few hours of their time.

Image by Colin Purrington

Menus and recipes are important when planning your reception, but you have to make sure that your particular situation is right for self catering. The two most important things to ask yourself before you start planning are:

Do you have enough family and friends who are willing to help out?

To cater you own wedding will require a group effort and this could mean enlisting the help from anywhere between eight to thirty friends.

You will ask your friends to work as a team of two and for each team; you will assign a task or two that they will do on the day: such as making a pot of coffee, or cutting up vegetables, setting up the buffet table etc, by doing this every person's job will be light and they will still be able to enjoy being a guest at your wedding.

Is the Reception Site Suitable for Catering Your Own Wedding?

Before you settle on any reception site you must determine if it is suitable to self catering. Things that you must look out for are:

Find out if there are any restrictions on bringing in outside food? Many places will insist that you use their own caterers or caterers that they recommend and if you don’t use this service the hire for the facility increases.

Is the location large enough to hold the number of guests you intend to invite? This question should also be asked if you are holding the reception in a private home.

Does the kitchen have a refrigerator and sufficient table space for food preparation? Although a refrigerator is not necessary it would save you the trouble of hiring or bringing in coolers to keep the food from spoiling.

Are there enough electrical outlets and are these located in the areas that you intend to set up the serving tables? You may want to set up an urn for hot water, food warmers to keep the food hot, or decorate the hall will fairy lights.

Will the venue provide items that you otherwise may have to hire or buy? Some venues have their own tables and chairs, linens, trash cans and other items that their customers can use when they hire the hall. This will save you a lot of money and help stretch out the budget.

Now that you have read this article and would still like to cater you own wedding the next step is Where to Start?

For more great ideas visit Party Recipes and Ideas they offer free step by step photo recipes with shopping lists and planning guides - party food ideas from simple to elegant when you're cooking for a crowd!