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whew... I LOVE the IDEA of doing it myself... but I dunno... I think as the day approaches I would totally flip out. I'm thinking I may just want to pay someone to take care of most of it.... I AM tempted to make my own cake though :)

I did a large part of the food for our wedding last year myself, with help from my Mom, Aunt and Mother-in-Law. We had a few things catered in, but they were pretty supplementary to the stuff we made (and looked kind of sad next to the homemade items!) It was a Scandinavian-themed buffet lunch reception, as both of our families have Scandinavian heritage. The main feature was a selection of about 8 different types of Danish open-faced sandwiches (smørrebrød), and we made a big, awesome platter of about 14 different Scandinavian cheeses, several kinds of herring, a whole smoked salmon, crackers, breads, lefse and lingonberry jam. We also had a homemade kransekage (Scandinavian wedding cake, made of 14 almond-flavored rings, drizzled with icing and then poked full of tiny Danish and Norwegian flags), that went alongside our "American" wedding cake (which was 3 square, white layers, that we decorated with lots of fresh fruit.) We also had several varieties of Kringle from one of the best Danish-American bakeries that came via mail a couple days before the wedding.

We also did all the flowers (bought from Whole Foods 2 days before the wedding- they were absolutely beautiful, and most were local and in-season) and decorated the tables with a variety of fun vintage vases and little random pretty objects borrowed from my Aunt who is an avid antique-collector.

It was stressful the week before the wedding, but we had a beautiful party and a very tasty reception meal for quite a bargain. If I had it to do over again, I think I would just plan more carefully and do *all* the food myself, except the cake. (I also would have chosen a place other than my in-laws to have the wedding....but that's another story! haha)

Thank you for this post! This past winter my cousin got married and hosted his reception at his family home. Relatives pitched in and prepared many delicious dishes, which by the way, were sooooo much more enjoyable than the catered options in their price range. I also thank you for providing a nice contrast to the NYtimes article With This Burger, I Thee Wed, which discussed humble menus with ludicrous price tags. My dream wedding is definitely something authentically homemade. A matanza (New Mexican pig roast) in the autumn months, maybe?

I run a budget wedding website and this is one of the number one topics...and quite the budget friendly option. The reality is, your guests just want free food. They could care less if it's a burger bar or a 5-course French infused dinner - free food is the best food. So go ahead and DIY it yourself. Just remember to carefully plan and DELEGATE.

This is really wonderful and inspiring! Kudos to this couple for doing it!

However, I think at it's essence, this post speaks to simply considering humble, homegrown options for weddings on a budget. Keep in mind, for example, that in my home state (KY), we considered a BBQ company offered 2 kinds of meat (beef, pork, or chicken) and three sides (nice things like grilled corn, vinaigrette potato salad) for $10/pp, which would've met this bride's $1500 budget! This didn't include dessert (they offer cobbler for $2/pp, or we could've had family make pies) or drinks (they offered $2/pp for lemonade and iced tea), but it does include all setup, utensils, plates, and servers. In my mind, that's a better deal than the stress and hours upon hours of time it would take to self-cater!

We had a tiny budget for our wedding, but we did splurge on a BBQ catering company.

However, I did bake all the pies myself(a dozen and a half) that we used instead of wedding cake, the day before the wedding. It was surprisingly stress-free, and everyone was so impressed. I made the pie crusts ahead of time, then filled them with berries while they were still frozen and baked them 4 at a time.

I posted about it here: http://www.heythattastesgood.com/2009/06/wedding-berry-pies.html

The whole project was less than $100, and was so worth it.

I'm doing the wedding food for a family member in a month's time. 3 meals over 2 days, including a rehearsal dinner for an unknown number of people, a pre-wedding lunch and the wedding dinner.
Doing a take on the sandwich buffet for the rehearsal dinner -- a build your own taco bar.
Dinner will consist of downhome food like pulled pork sandwiches. you can cook and pre-shred the pork, and freeze it just fine. As it finishes thawing, you reheat in sauce. We do it for camping all the time!
Its not as daunting as it seems, you just have to be really organized and map everything out ahead of time.

I'm having my wedding (in a few months) catered. I do love the homemade options, especially on This Young House (http://www.thisyounghouse.com/wedding-album), but I just feel like everyone should do what's best for them. Catering isn't really an option for me since we're having a very customized menu due to severe food allergies and most of our guests are traveling from another state so bring a meal isn't really that convenient. We bargained with our caterer (so many are willing to these days) and ended up with a small price tag. That said, those sandwiches look delish!

The reality is, your guests just want free booze.

Just kidding. Sort of.

Just a quick note to say that it can be pretty hard, depending on you state, to actually get away with catering your own wedding. If you're having your reception at a rented venue, many proprietors won't allow outside catering. Also, in quite a few states it's illegal to serve food in a rented venue that hasn't been prepared in a catering-certified kitchen.

I must admit, that for weddings under 200, I don't see why not to do it yourself... This could be the fact that I have gotten accustomed to cooking portions for 50 , or just the fact that I have yet to taste good catering.

I would opt for a few good 1 pot specialties- not all frozen, but cooked say... a day or two in advance. Perhaps a good brightly colored pureed soup, a pasta or risotto (with fresh mushrooms), and a simple salad with mind blowing dressing. And good bread.

I would get my mom to bake a whole bunch of cheese cakes to be frozen ahead of time, and a blueberry brandy sauce.

I don't really see why not!

Funny- that's exactly what we did. My mom and mother in law helped me cook the day before, but I was making stuff weeks ahead. Food for $75: $350. Totally worth it. The food was awesome too! I went french provincial with my dish leanings: Ratatouille, Orzo with herbes de provence and picholine olives... it was great. In fact, yesterday was our 3 year anniversary!