Food For Thought

It’s June and that means time for weddings! The Wedding Report.com estimates that the average wedding costs about $23,040, not including the cost of the engagement ring, honeymoon, wedding planner or bridal consultant! They also report that $11,790, or about one-half of the total wedding budget, is spent on the wedding reception. With the reception accounting for one-half of the total wedding cost, it’s easy to see why a bride on a budget may want to consider self-catering as a money-saving option!

I experienced this first-hand when my daughter got married a few years ago. Just like many other brides, she was on a budget, and just like many other parents of the bride, my husband and I were watching the costs add up as she talked to us about what she wanted. In the end, through compromise and some creative strategies like purchasing her gown at a discount bridal shop, using silk flowers, and catering the wedding ourselves (including the cake which I baked and decorated- pictured above) we were able to hold the cost of the entire wedding to less than $3,000! From our experience, I assure you that it can be done, but there are a few things you should consider first.

If you are a bride considering catering the reception yourself, you should know what you are getting yourself (and friends and family) into. Among other things, you should consider these factors:

Where do I have the reception? You will need a location that allows self-catering and has adequate facilities and equipment. Church reception halls are ideal for this, and many are available for a reasonable fee. Keep in mind that serving alcohol and playing secular music may not be an option if using a church reception hall. Ideally, you will want the wedding ceremony and reception locations to be either in the same place or reasonably close together. We held the wedding and reception at a church near our home which was convenient and affordable.

Who does the work? Make no mistake, catering a wedding is work! As the bride, it will be difficult for you to contribute much to food preparation, especially in the days leading up to the wedding when last-minute details will compete for your time and attention.  Keep in mind as well that friends and family members who are doing the food preparation will probably also want attend the ceremony, so you will need to decide who stays behind to get the food out before reception guests arrive. All our food was prepared by family members of the bride and groom, and two very generous friends volunteered to stay behind to heat up food and get things placed on the buffet tables.

What do I serve? Fortunately, this is easier than it seems, and there are lots of creative solutions that will easily fit into your budget. One of the easiest ways to control what you serve is by carefully choosing the time of day you hold your wedding. Guests attending an afternoon (and I mean after lunch!) wedding will not expect a full meal, while guests attending an evening wedding will expect and deserve to be served something more than finger foods. If your budget does not accommodate a full-meal reception, choose the afternoon for your wedding instead. My daughter’s wedding was at 2:00, so we were able to serve a buffet of finger foods without her guests feeling slighted or hungry. Tip #1: A buffet saves you money because it requires no wait staff, although people will usually take more food when serving themselves. If you plan for this, you will still come out ahead. Tip#2: Use smaller plates for your buffet as guests will not put as much food on them. The larger the plate, the more food people will put on it. I purchased 7-inch plastic dinner plates at Sam’s Club for my daughter’s wedding and they were ideal.

Now that you have the time of day determined, what about the menu? The internet and cookbooks are good resources for finding menus that accommodate 50 or 100 guests ( I do not recommend trying to cater for a group larger than this yourself)! To help you get started with menu ideas, here is the menu from my daughter’s reception as well as some of the recipes we used (we expected 75 guests so we cooked for 100):

Sliced Beef Brisket with Rolls- See recipe for brisket below. Rolls (8 dozen) were from a local bakery and sliced at home.

BBQ Meatballs- 12 lbs. frozen pre-cooked meatballs and sauce (4 bottles your favorite bbq sauce).

Shrimp and Cocktail Sauce- Approx 4 bags of 75 pieces frozen shrimp purchased from Sam’s. We purchased 4 bottles cocktail sauce.

Potato Salad- 6 lbs. potato salad purchased from Sam’s Club and “doctored” with 1 small diced onion, 2 cups sour cream and 6 chopped hard-boiled eggs.

Veggie Platter and Spinach Dip- Baby carrots (no cutting required!), celery sticks and grape tomatoes. We purchased 3 lbs. carrots, 1 ½ lbs. celery, and 3 qts. cherry tomatoes. Dip (4 qts.) was purchased from Sam’s and cost less than making from scratch.

Cheese Ball and Crackers- See recipe for cheese ball below. Two large boxes fancy crackers purchased from Sam’s.

Carved Watermelon Fruit Basket- This had to be assembled hours before the wedding due to the number of fresh ingredients. Plan for 5-6 pieces of fruit per person. We bought the following:

Robert’s Beef Brisket (Thanks to my friends Robert and Stephanie for sharing this delicious recipe) Makes a 4 lb. beef brisket-serves 12 people.

Mix all ingredients together. Place beef fat side up in an oven-safe container. Pour mixture over and refrigerate several hours to marinate. Bake in a 300 degree oven for about 4 hours. Refrigerate overnight. Remove beef and drippings from pan. Skim fat from drippings. Slice beef against the grain, put back in pan, add drippings. Heat in 200 degree oven until warmed through. Beef can also be served cold after this and leftovers can be frozen.

Note: This recipe was scaled to accommodate the required number of servings. There are computer programs such as MasterCook that will do this for you accurately. To help with portion control and save time, I paid a local deli to slice the meat for me. This is the best way I know to serve beef to a crowd without the expense of a carving station (I purchased 25 lbs. of brisket from a local meat market for less than $3.00 per pound)

Dried Beef Cheese Ball (I doubled this recipe and made one large cheese ball)

In a medium bowl or food processor, combine cream cheese, dried beef, and garlic. Mix well and then add onion salt and Worcestershire sauce. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.