Catering: How to Feed Your Guests for Less Than $1000
- Gabby Roush
- Feb 27, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 16, 2019
When it comes to wedding budgeting, you can almost count on your venue and catering to be two of the most expensive components. Depending on your venue, catering can be done on a modest budget; However, take note that there are several downsides to cutting corners. Like the old saying goes, "You get what you pay for." ....BUT, with proper planning and preparation, you can pull it off! Here's how I fed 150 guests for less than $1000 and still had a ton of food leftover...
First of all, before even talking about food, I will quickly tell you that I chose to use disposable plates and cutlery over the real deal. In reality, who wouldn't prefer to have beautiful antique china and freshly polished silverware, but down here in the real world, where both things and time cost money, the decision was a no brainer for me. Knowing that I would only have a three person catering staff, (you'll read more about that later in this article), I knew that they would not have enough time to be in the kitchen washing dishes. I wanted everything to be THROWN AWAY! This saved so much time, money and work. I highly doubt that any of my guests left the wedding talking about the fact that they used a gold plastic fork to transport lasagna from their plate to their mouth. With that being said, we also lucked out because Brad's parent's own tons of table linens from events they themselves catered in the past. We saved a bunch of money by not having to purchase or rent linens.
Now that the table setting rant is over, we can jump into food! Before you choose a menu or even a caterer, you have to check with your venue to see if you MUST use one of their listed caterers, or if you can select one of your choosing. If you are able to use your own, you are in the clear! Luckily, Rockfield Manor allowed us to use a caterer of our choice outside of their recommended list. We opted to go with Olive Tree in Aberdeen, Maryland. They have great Italian food at an even better cost! Catering is something that many get wrapped up in. Many brides have expectations of crab cakes and filet mignons, but if you take time to think about it, do you even remember what kind of food your cousin had at their wedding last year? My guess is no. You simply remember the beautiful union of a new husband and wife, as well as whether or not you had a good time. Likely, you remember having some drinks and dancing the night away, without even the slightest recollection of what you ate earlier that evening. With that being said, Italian food was a no brainer! We knew that at least 80% of our 150 guests would have 3+ drinks, so carbs were the way to go. My goal was to get our guests fed and fill their bellies, so they could drink and have a great time.
We decided to order five full pans of their four cheese lasagna. Each full pan is $175, but also comes with a full pan of breadsticks, a full pan of salad, a huge bag of croutons and two huge containers of salad dressings. A full pan is estimated to feed 20-25 people.
(Total: $875 + tax = $927.00 )
We also wanted to add other options for those who either A, do not eat meat, or B, do not eat red sauce, so we decided to add penne chicken alfredo as well as a meatless baked ziti. We went to Amrein in Joppa, Maryland to purchase the penne pasta, chicken, red sauce and alfredo sauce in bulk. Our total was about $70, and we had more than enough ingredients to make three half pans of penne chicken alfredo, and three half pans of the baked ziti. Each half pan should feed 10-15 people. We made both of these pasta dishes ahead of time, froze them, and then had our catering staff heat them the day of in Rockfield Manor's kitchen. (Brad's parents have catered many events, so they have the proper licensing to cook food for guests.)
(Total: $927 + $70 = GRAND TOTAL $997.00)
Moving along, I must tell you that Olive Tree DOES NOT provide catering staff. They simply cook the food and pass it along to you. This left me in need of a three person catering staff. (Ideally, more people would be better, but we made it work with only three and the help of family!) Everyone that I trusted were attending the wedding as a guest, so it took me quite a while to finally think of my little sister's friend, Spencer! He is such an amazing kid and just so happens to work at Mountain Branch as a server/busser. He was PERFECT! I called him up, he was elated to take the job, and he assembled a team of two more friends to come work. They agreed to be paid $100 each for the night, so that added $300 to my budget. (Once the night was over, I of course tipped them generously!)
Their duties included setting up and breaking down tables, chairs, table settings, working the buffet lines, manning the trash cans and more. If you all are interested in the checklist, (more like 20 page doctrine), that I gave the catering staff, I would be happy to attach it in a separate article! It comes with detailed tasks on a strict timeline, which helps keep everything running smoothly.
Now that the wedding is over, I've had time to reflect and evaluate the several pros and cons of how we went about catering our event:
Pros
The catering cost kept my budget down tremendously
The staff I hired were people I knew and trusted
Ultimately, it went smooth and we had a beautiful wedding!
We had more than enough food and were able to take home leftovers
Cons
The staff was inexperienced in wedding catering, so they needed some behind the scenes help
Hiring only three workers left them a little short staffed. Five would have been perfect, but more costly
Brad, our parents and I all had to help clean up at the end of the night. (We were prepared for this as it helped save us a lot of money, but it was still dreadful.)
In conclusion, it's safe to say that I cut A LOT of corners when it came to catering, but looking back, it went pretty smooth with all things considered. The one thing that I would change about the ENTIRE wedding would be so that Brad, our parents and I would not have had to help clean up at the end. Typically, caterers are in charge of breaking down tables & chairs, removal of trash, and usually cleaning the venue. Since we did not elect to go with an actual catering company, we were left to do a lot of the work ourselves, but in the end, it came together! My recommendation to you if you are looking to cater your wedding this way, would be to hire a larger catering staff and have a designated clean up crew. Anything can be done on a budget, but keep in mind, the extra time and stress it may cause you. No matter what, I know you will find the perfect catering option for you!
xoxo
Gabby
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