The Proper Wedding
04-22-2010, 08:39 AM
Can anyone come up with a way to do food the cheapest way possible for a reception? Having it catered is probably going to cost too much. We were planning on doing it all ourselves.
Originally we thought of doing ham and turkey and just a few simple sides, like baked potatoes and then vegetables. But we'd have to make so much ham and turkey!! I think my stepdad came up with something under $2000 for 300 people (we're rounding it up to 300).
Then he was thinking about steak, which he really wants to do. He said he can get the best cuts of steak for about $8 a person, but that doesn't include the potatoes and veggies to go along with it. So we were figuring that to be about $3000 total. I mean $10 a person isn't bad, but coming up with all this money is hard, so we're trying to cut costs best we can.
So he thought about pizza from Pizza Villa (the place we want to have our rehearsal dinner). He was thinking they're probably about $10 for large and one large would cover 3 people. So we'd need 100 pizzas ($1000) plus we'd probably need a salad bar, so we figured probably close to $2000 again (and I only just thought of bread sticks, probably should have those too with pizza). I really liked the pizza idea, it's different, which suits us ;) but it's still a lot. Though there's a possibility that we could get a discount (not for sure thought) if we buy that many pizzas at once...especially if we're also using them for the rehearsal dinner (feeding 30 people). But that's something we'd have to check in on. They might not give us a discount.
He'd mentioned that a friend of our family is having a wedding. The mom is my parent's hair stylist. So he was getting his hair cut and she was telling him about her daughters upcoming wedding. They don't have to money to really throw something big. And they're apparently inviting a LOT of people (like I was..400 something). So they're going to have a late wedding at 6pm and then only serve hors d'oeuvres. He proposed we do something like that. But the problem with that is our wedding starts at 4 and the reception at 6. I'm not sure we could pull that off, though it would save quite a bit of money. Also, our invitations already say "feast" (medieval wording lol) and having snacks isn't really a feast.
Oh, and my stepdad is completely against serving sandwich meat. My mom suggested it. When he told me I said we'd definitely consider it because it would probably save a bit of money, but he said he doesn't want to serve anything at my wedding that he wouldn't allow at his own. haha (I think he's afraid people won't get full, and he feels the meal is a very important part of the reception. something people will remember).
So does anyone have any suggestions that might lower the costs?
Originally we thought of doing ham and turkey and just a few simple sides, like baked potatoes and then vegetables. But we'd have to make so much ham and turkey!! I think my stepdad came up with something under $2000 for 300 people (we're rounding it up to 300).
Then he was thinking about steak, which he really wants to do. He said he can get the best cuts of steak for about $8 a person, but that doesn't include the potatoes and veggies to go along with it. So we were figuring that to be about $3000 total. I mean $10 a person isn't bad, but coming up with all this money is hard, so we're trying to cut costs best we can.
So he thought about pizza from Pizza Villa (the place we want to have our rehearsal dinner). He was thinking they're probably about $10 for large and one large would cover 3 people. So we'd need 100 pizzas ($1000) plus we'd probably need a salad bar, so we figured probably close to $2000 again (and I only just thought of bread sticks, probably should have those too with pizza). I really liked the pizza idea, it's different, which suits us ;) but it's still a lot. Though there's a possibility that we could get a discount (not for sure thought) if we buy that many pizzas at once...especially if we're also using them for the rehearsal dinner (feeding 30 people). But that's something we'd have to check in on. They might not give us a discount.
He'd mentioned that a friend of our family is having a wedding. The mom is my parent's hair stylist. So he was getting his hair cut and she was telling him about her daughters upcoming wedding. They don't have to money to really throw something big. And they're apparently inviting a LOT of people (like I was..400 something). So they're going to have a late wedding at 6pm and then only serve hors d'oeuvres. He proposed we do something like that. But the problem with that is our wedding starts at 4 and the reception at 6. I'm not sure we could pull that off, though it would save quite a bit of money. Also, our invitations already say "feast" (medieval wording lol) and having snacks isn't really a feast.
Oh, and my stepdad is completely against serving sandwich meat. My mom suggested it. When he told me I said we'd definitely consider it because it would probably save a bit of money, but he said he doesn't want to serve anything at my wedding that he wouldn't allow at his own. haha (I think he's afraid people won't get full, and he feels the meal is a very important part of the reception. something people will remember).
So does anyone have any suggestions that might lower the costs?