Are You Brave Enough to Cater Your Own Wedding? Try These Recipes Meant for a Crowd

Between the cost of your dream wedding dress and the expense of the venue, your wedding budget can get eaten up quickly. You may have a little bit leftover, but figuring out how to stretch it to cover the costs of flowers, a caterer, a DJ, the honeymoon, and any other expenses you have left to cover can be difficult to do. Luckily, there are several ways you can cut costs and save money from ditching the DJ and using a playlist on your phone to catering your wedding with the help of family and friends.

Catering your wedding is not a decision to make lightly. Although it can save a lot of money, it does take a lot of effort and time and can add a lot of extra stress. If you’re brave enough to do it, though, you could be very glad you did. With the help of family and friends to prep, serve, and clean up food, you will still be able to have the wedding you’ve dreamed of with delicious food while saving yourself a lot of money. 

If you want to cater your wedding and need some dish ideas, here are some of the best meals to add to your menu that will feed a crowd and keep everyone satisfied:

Drinks

Catering drinks is fairly easy to do. While you may not have the option to offer an open bar with a bartender, you can purchase a few bottles of your favorite wine and a few packs of your favorite beer and have someone keep an eye on it to make sure that only age-appropriate drinkers grab a cup or bottle. Otherwise, all you have to do is take a quick trip to Costco, fill your cart with water bottles and your favorite sodas, then leave them in icy tubs and let guests serve themselves. You’ll end up saving a lot of money offering just a few options instead of having an open bar.

Appetizers

Salad – Whether you want to serve Caesar salad, a garden salad, or a spinach salad, there are a number of options, and you can even offer a couple of different options to your guests. Bags of salad are easy to find and affordable, and if you provide a few of your favorite dressings and a couple of toppings like croutons and cheese, guests can put their own together so that they can enjoy their salad exactly how they like it. If you’re going to offer more than one salad option, serving it buffet style is the best way to go.

Meatballs – Like salad, there are a lot of different meatball options that you can choose from if you want to serve them as an appetizer at your wedding. From marinara to barbeque and sweet and sour to buffalo, meatballs are a great appetizer option because they can be skewered onto a toothpick and served on platters or guests can dish them up on their own. They’re also so easy to make that it won’t be too difficult to serve up a few different kinds if you can’t decide on just one.

Pinwheels – Pinwheels make a great appetizer since they’re easy to put together, can make a lot, and come in all different kinds and flavors. Whether you want to serve your guests a classic pinwheel with cream cheese and turkey or want to add a little flare and serve up a buffalo and ranch pinwheel, you can customize it to your tastes and keep guests happy until the main course is served.

Main Dishes

Lasagna – Almost everybody loves lasagna, and it can go a long way. If you and your family members work together and cook up a few lasagnas each, you’ll have more than enough to go around on the big day. You can buy frozen lasagnas at the store, or you can go all out and make something homemade. When you make lasagna homemade, you have more control and can choose something traditional, can make them vegetarian, or can go with a unique flavor not many have tried.

Kabobs – Simple, easy, and fast to put together, kabobs are a great main dish option and are also easy to clean up. You can choose your favorite veggies, then put them on a stick with chicken, beef, or both, and serve them up fresh off the grill. Although they’re delicious any time of year, kabobs are especially perfect for a casual summer wedding.

Tacos – The most important part of the tacos is the meat, but once you have that figured out, all you’ll have to do is put out some cheese, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, tortillas, and any other topping you might like, then let guests serve themselves. Tacos are cheap to make and go a long way, keeping your guests full and happy.

Desserts

Sheet Cake – As beautiful as wedding cakes are, they cost a lot of money and don’t go very far. Instead, you might consider making a few sheet cakes for you and your guests. Everyone will get to enjoy the treat, and you’ll still have some cake to smash in each other’s faces.

Cupcakes – Like sheet cake, cupcakes go a lot further than wedding cake typically does. You can make them yourself and even freeze them ahead of time, making them easy to serve up on your big day. Whether you want chocolate, vanilla, banana, or something else, you can serve it all and let your guests choose their favorite.

Cookies – Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a cake, you could opt for a few different kinds of cookies. Having family and friends make a couple dozen each will take the bulk of the responsibility off of you and ensure that you have enough cookies to go around. It will also help you get a lot of variety, and guests won’t be able to get enough.

Final Thoughts

Catering your wedding can be stressful and can be a lot of work, but with the help of family and friends, you’ll be able to make it through. As stressful as it can be, if you’re on a budget or want to save money, catering your wedding yourself can be worth it and may not be as bad as it seems in the end. Do you think you’re brave enough to cater your wedding?