Everyone loves a fancy wedding reception followed by lunch or dinner. It is something that people look forward to, and it can even cost you a lot depending on the number of guests, the chosen menu, and the location. Some people do not believe in spending too much on wedding lunches and dinners and prioritize decor. It is essential to understand that wedding food is something the guests will remember for a long time. Most importantly, it becomes the talk at every discussion as well.
Recently, people have become warier of spending because of pandemics and the world being hit by COVID-19. As a result, minimal weddings with a small guest list forced by lockdowns have become the norm as people have adapted to the new rules and situations and believe it is an excellent way to save and spend on practical things in married life. For this, people are now adapting to customizing their wedding menus and garnering delicious yet cost-effective food for their parties.
How to Save On Catering For a Wedding?
The best way to save on catering for a wedding is to create a grazing table and serve in family style. The cheapest food to cater is any rice or noodle-based cultural cuisines such as Mexican, Indian, and Thai dishes. Additionally, you can create a Mediterranean graze table.
Cheap Wedding Food Ideas
A grazing table is a cheap solution if you are trying to find a way to cater your wedding. For example, the most affordable food is based on potato salad, rice and beans, and various vegetables. Additionally, you can serve meat from local food restaurants.
This article will let you know how to plan your wedding menu and keep it within your budget. Here are some valuable things to remember:
- Hosting the party afterward: An excellent way to reduce the cost of the food is to ensure that fewer guests come in. While this can put you in a bit of a fix, the situation can be eased by providing that a celebratory lunch or dinner is arranged as a thank you to the guests days after the wedding. There will be no need to make it formal or very high class. It could be a simple potluck or a barbeque as well. You can also strictly limit the guests to family and close friends to reduce strength.
- Choose a venue that encourages food from outside: Venues that only permit in-house catering tend to upscale things and make it a bit more costly than usual. Therefore, you should ask the venue people about the food position and cut off those who do not allow the food from outside.
- Ask a friend for hosting: Close friends or family encourage the bride and groom to hold a reception or a celebratory lunch at their place. This will ensure that a one-dish or potluck can be held in business or that a nominal catering can be done with drinks and desserts. The guest list for a house is usually smaller because of fewer space issues than in a proper wedding venue.
- Comfort food: While looking at menus, it is essential to choose menus with less costly ingredients and more sustainable items, such as looking at comfort food typically at homes but just a bit decked up. You can select items from barbeque and grills, such as grilled fish, chicken, and vegetables.
- Add-ons: They usually appear attractive at first but are usually costly options as well. For example, many people pay the servers to cut the cake and serve it to the guests separately. Such things increase the cost of the food, and, therefore, they should not be added if you want a cost-effective dinner.
- Champagne: Champagne toasts have generally been deemed a tradition. However, they are pretty costly, depending upon the brand of the champagne. To avoid this, you can toast to whatever the crowd is drinking. It can be juice, a cocktail, or even water!
- Cutlery: Many catering companies charge separately for the cutlery and crockery. To avoid this, you can use a much more sustainable option and serve reusable cutlery and crockery, such as disposable plates and glass, to prevent any added cash. In addition, they are an excellent option to use in times of COVID-19 and come with a perfect recyclable choice.
- Free for children: Normally, children do not eat as much, and food is wasted. While looking for a place, you should ensure that children will not be charged at a full per head, and children under six are usually not charged. Children under 12 are also generally set for half the price.
- Daytime v/s Nightime: Daytime weddings are usually much cheaper than evening and nighttime weddings. Outdoor locations such as parks are ideal for weddings, especially during the spring and autumn months. You can serve finger food such as mini club sandwiches, a profiterole at the grill, bacon bites, and afternoon tea at the wedding.
- Ending the wedding on time: When the wedding lasts a long time, the guests usually become hungry and require a lot of cocktails and food. So, ending the marriage early or on time will reduce the cost of some items and double food consumption.
- Buffets and bars: If you go to a traditional buffet and bar, such as making your own choice of burgers and salads, then it will be much more cost-effective. It will also ensure that the guests are complete. It also adds to the menu rather than going the conventional ways of hosting parties.
- Desserts: Normally, cakes are served as desserts, but you can go a different route and serve up naturally made fruit cups with cheese boards and crackers. For children, you can add cookies and brownies, which will be made in bulk or a batch and would also feed more at a lower cost.
- Ask home chefs and bakers: Catering done by large-scale businesses is very costly, and there are many good-quality home chefs and bakers who can do the job at a much lower cost. In this way, it is a win-win situation for both, as the price is reduced for you, and, as for the home bakers, they get a good push start, which would attract more opportunities for them in the future.
As an avid reader of cookbooks and professional chef blog posts, I will try to create helpful articles.
I enjoy researching different food industry topics such as sustainability in farming practices, health benefits of certain ingredients, food marketing tactics used by large companies, etc. This helps him stay informed on the latest nutrition news and develop a deeper understanding of how our food choices can directly impact our overall health and well-being.
As someone who truly values good quality food combined with nutritional awareness, I hope to inspire others by highlighting healthy food and offering the best deals from stores and restaurants.
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