Feeding the Guests

Serving a buffet might mean some savings on catering. Photo courtesy of christytylerphotography.com.

One of the biggest expenses of your wedding (or any large party, really) is feeding your guests.  After you’ve asked your friends and family to travel and spend their day with you, you probably feel obligated to make sure they are well fed–and rightly so.  But that’s a big expense.  What do you do if you just can’t afford to feed everyone you want to invite?  You have several options (as well as several things that I can’t recommend).

You can invite fewer guests.  This may not be the easiest way to solve the problem, but it is the most direct.  After all, you have family obligations and friends you can’t leave out.  But one way to solve the food budget problem is to invite fewer people.  Sometimes, it is necessary to take an axe to the guest list.

You can find less expensive ways to feed your guests.  At a certain level of service, it is hard to cut costs, but one way is to have an early wedding.  Breakfast and lunch are generally less expensive than dinner.  Depending on your caterer, you might find that a buffet costs less than a plated meal.  Likewise, depending on your caterer, a buffet of heavy appetizers might give you some savings over a full meal.  And, of course, if you don’t have to serve sirloin and wild-caught salmon, you can have a good meal that doesn’t break the bank.

This next recommendation is a tough sell sometimes, but another way to cut costs drastically is not to serve alcohol.  The bar tab adds a lot to catering costs.  You might find this easier if you’re having a morning or early afternoon event, but I’ve been at plenty of dry weddings, and there’s nothing wrong with them.

I do not recommend cutting costs on service.  If you have a restaurant deliver pans of food, it is certainly inexpensive, but you will still have to find people to do all the invisible work: setting up chairs for the ceremony, moving those chairs for the reception, setting the tables, setting up the buffet, keeping water glasses filled, clearing tables, packing up rental dishes, cleaning the venue, and generally keeping your guests happy.  It generally works out better to have a full-service caterer to take care of those things and so many others.

Finally, please do not ask your guests to chip in for their meal.  You are the host of the party.  If you have invited people to be your guests, please treat them as your guests, and not as paying customers.