Need a cheap way to cater a wedding. Help!?

Question

I need some serious help. My OH and I are looking into catering for our wedding in August 2010.

We're quite skint - she's got a load of credit card debt (about £5k) and I'm living payday to payday with a £0 bank balance at the end of the month.

We need to find some way to cater for about 60 people very cheaply.

I'm from a quite poor family, so I'd be happy with a few platters of Lidl's sausage rolls, breadsticks, and dip.

She's from a rather less poor family (but they won't subsidise it) so she's used to weddings with full-on meals, and thinks a cold buffet of finger food would be tacky, and cheapen her "big day".

The rules she has set:

*No sandwiches

*At least one hot meat

The rules I've set:

*as near to £5 a head, no more than £10 under any circumstance.

We'd ideally need someone to come along, sort out the food, clear up, and go away again.

Ideas? Help meeee!!

Answer 1

write out a list of foods that you would like,then pass the list round to everyone you are inviting and ask them to choose 1 to bring instead of a gift.or go on web site called freecycle and ask on there if anyone can help u out gd luck  

Answer 2

outdoor  grill .  

she  said  no  sandwiches  but  i am  convinced  that  a barbecue, while it may  be a little  unorthodox for  a wedding, is  always  tasty.

you  could  even  approach  a  street  vender (that  you've  tried  yourself)  to  do it  for  you.  im  sure  a  nice  arrangement  can  be  reached since  three hundred  pounds  is  probably a decent  4  hours  pay and  it  would  probably  be  after  his  regular  hours  anyway a little  kitchy even.

there  is  no  way  they  won't  know  it  was  cheap  whatever  you  do,  but they  will be  enjoying  the  food so  much  they  just  wont  care. you  just  have  to  make  up for  the  budget  by  putting  in  some  extra  effort.  guests  always  appreciate  effort  over  $ per  plate ratios

Its really the  best  bang for  your  buck (quid?)

you  can do  shrimp  skewers, souvlaki, burgers  sausages, all of  which  can  be  made  up from  fresh , marinated, and  frozen well ahead  of  time  and  thawed  out in the  fridge  the  day  before.

you  can buy tubs of ready  made  salads  from  the  deli with  good  results.

email me  and  ill  send  you  a recipe  for  tasty  burgers.

much  more  value as  far  as  your  guests are  concerned  than  cold  meat

Answer 3

Theres this place near saxilby its a cafe in a garden centre they do buffes for £5 they have little homemade cakes and sausage roles.........They do realy cheap cakes to. I think it's called the lemon tree cafe. x

Answer 4

What about having a hog roast?  That covers the meat part and you could provide salads, pasta, rice too.  I went to a wedding with that once and it was fabulous.  Look in the yellow pages or online to get numbers and check out the cost.  I'm sure it will be a lot cheaper than a sit down meal.  Most importantly, have a good day!

Answer 5

Bill, you and your fiancee need to sit down and have a serious heart to heart talk about more than the caterer.  You have financial issues that need to be cleared BEFORE you get married.

Did you know that the number one thing that married couples argue about is MONEY?  With one out of two marriages ending in divorce, you simply can't afford (no pun intended) to go into marriage with financial issues already on the table.  Period!

I have been married for thirty two years now - most of it quite happy.  Though we are quite comfortable now, we were broke when we got married.  On our "big day" all our family and friends, who obviously knew our circumstances, actually brought food.  It sounds so corny, but it was a great wedding and meal - and it did not make us even poorer in starting out our own household.  I look back on it and I don't feel cheap or cheated.  Over the years I've have lots of family and friends say how nice it was - if someone had a complaint, I haven't heard it.  Remember, those invited are supposed to be your family and friends - the people who lift you up when you need it.

Best of luck - but get your problems resolved BEFORE you say, "I do."

Answer 6

You could always make it yourself, ask your mum or something to do it.

Answer 7

I got married in June and had a hog roast for the reception.  We had Lamb for during the day and Pork for the evening.  The roasts came with beautiful unusual salads.

It wasn't to expensive, it was delicious and went down a treat with all of our guests.

Answer 8

Have a dessert and champagne reception.  You obviously do not have the cash for the type of reception you want.  Many couples make the mistake of letting their vision guide their checkbook...when it should be the other way around.  Don't add yet more fiscal burdens upon yourself by having a wedding you really can't afford.  No one should start their marriage off that way.

Answer 9

Hot deli sandwiches and cold beer

Answer 10

Well, firstly think u have 2 years to save for this.

Try and get your partner to clear as many debts as she can in this time, and then u can use credit cards again - if thats the only way through it.

Why dont u put away about £50 a month up to the day, and put off buying stuff that u dont really need. be more economical with petrol etc.

If the worst comes to the worst, why not wait untill u have the money?

x

Answer 11

for my wedding, I am going to cut out the caterer. I am going to have a potluck. every one can bring what they like best, and all you will need to bring is the dishes (paper or plastic disposable ones will be used at my wedding). It might seem tacky, but it is going to save me hundreds of $$. In the USA, the price of everything doubles when you even think the word "wedding".

Answer 12

we fed 260 people at our wedding on £300 we chucked loads there was so much.we had rolls and sandwiches,chicken legs,sausage rolls cheese and onion rolls all types of things on sticks.chicken nuggets quiches pork pies volu vonts and gateau and cheesecakes and loads of chocolate biscuits etc.and that was all from iceland.all the family chipped in to help.and people were asking what caterers we used because the food was superb.i read once about a couple who had 60 guests and they pre ordered fish and chips for everyone i thought that was a nice idea,you can do it cheaply if you set a budget of £2.00 a head.

Answer 13

Outdoor hog roast, with a nicely laid out buffett food beside it

Its one hot meat, and its not sandwiches

I googled the price and found this:

http://www.piggybank-farm.co.uk/piggyban... so it'd be roughly £8/head

Near the bottom it shows you rough pricing, and they offer a lot in there service... so try local farms etc and just get a simple package instead of the full works so its cheap!

Answer 14

Hog roasts or catered BBQ's are great ideas. They're not too expensive and are great fun and really tasty. Food is generally dropped off and then taked away again and you can pay extra to have people serve it but if its too expensive then do it yourself.....and if your OH doesn't like it then tell her you don't like ehr 5K debt.!!

Answer 15

hi..you could have a carvery..lots of places do it for £10 p.h or have a theme which is english and high tea and do finger sandwhiches scones and mini cakes  and hire silver cake stands and tea trays.  its very in at the moment. your lucky your venue lets you do your own...im having to fork out over a grand for just 60-70 ppl cos we are not allowed to bring our own caterers in...i could have done the whole lot fotr £150 myself...soooo annoying!

my friend went to a wedding recently where they had pie, peas and chips delivered...apparently the were delicious and made a change.

Answer 16

A cold buffet, consisting of the normal buffet food, you can easily posh things up with salads and laying the trays nicely, you could have 2 hot dishes, maybe something like a chili and rice and another maybe a family favourite meal. If you arrange the food yourselves with a bit of help you easily cover 60 people for around £300 or even less with shopping around, Or depending on where you live or who's helping with the wedding, pay someone to do it for you, Plus with a buffet you don't need to employ lots of waiters but just a person to set it out and keep on-track of empty platters,

Try asking a local catering school to borrow a couple of Students.

Answer 17

I would ask those attending to bring something to the buffet  / high tea table and be honest.  I went to a wedding once like this and I saw so many home made quiches (I think it was on the TV the days before) it was funny

Answer 18

You are probably gonna think this is a stupid idea but here goes;

Charge 5 pounds a ticket to get into the buffet, that gives you help with the costs and its fun. My sister did that because she couldn´t afford it. She got 500 pounds and she had a roast and she got it from a whole slors to save money. If your girlfriends/fiancee wants a big wedding, she should appreciate money more. Why do you have to have a hot meal, what is wrong with little snacks, posh and cheap, it gives the wedding class without costing the earth.