281531 Tue Dec 06 20:27:47 -0800 2005 19 31 Home Cooking 0 1498153 We're getting married in September. I'm wondering how feasible it is for an amateur to feed 100 people a tasty meal. (We'll have family help, but they're all amateurs too.) Any hints, suggestions, recommended books? I'm skittish about having it professionally catered because it's so expensive and because I've never had a catered meal that was delicious. A few were good. None delicious. Any advice is welcome. Tue Dec 06 20:27:47 -0800 2005 0 Noah 1 1498157 I recommend finger food, and hire some servers to help circulate it. That's what I did for a friend's wedding of about the same size. I devised the menu (with the bride's approval), made the first batches of food, then the bride and her friends made more. Many of the items could be prepared in advance and frozen; we only had one item that had to be completely assembled that day. Here are the foods we had: mini Italian meatballs in sauce; chicken skewers; vegetable skewers, and salmon tarts. There were three servers, as I recall, at about $10/hour. I think it's feasible if you do it that way, rather than going for a sitdown dinner or even a buffet. Tue Dec 06 21:06:11 -0800 2005 1498153 0 LT from LF 2 1498190 That's brilliant, actually. Spend the money on some kids to serve and clean up afterwards. Wed Dec 07 08:32:16 -0800 2005 1498157 0 dk 1 1498167 i second the idea for finger food. or do a buffet. you can rent all the equiptment you would need to keep the food warm, serving platters, etc. 100 people is a lot to handle for a non-pro. either way, it will still be a lot of work! hors d'oeuvres are tedious depending on which you pick. try and make sure to do very simple recipes to keep your work load down. Tue Dec 06 23:01:59 -0800 2005 1498153 0 junglekitte 2 1498250 Something else to keep in mind if you do it yourself....cleanup and returning rental stuff.This is very time consuming and a head ache.Who wants to end their wedding day cleaning?If you have to budget ...cut something else.Find someone that matches your mindset and write a check. Wed Dec 07 12:53:34 -0800 2005 1498167 0 Laura 1 1498217 A wedding is NOT the time to try and cater your first event. You are on the groom? If not, ignore the rest of my post. A wedding and reception are stressful enough on their own without the bride and groom having to be in charge of the catering. Catering is stressful enough without involving your own wedding. Also, for insurance reasons, very few venues outside of a KofC or DFW will let you bring in outside food. Most will make you use their approved caterers. As a wedding gift to my mother and her new husband, my husband and I decided to throw and cater the rehearsal dinner and invite all of the out of town guests. We had it outside at our home and was attended by 100 people. We hired servers, had a buffet line, and the food was southern (pig picking, fried chicken, shrimp and grits, etc). Keep in mind my professional occupation at the time was the Director of Sales and Marketing at a large resort and the Food & Beverage department was my responsibility so I knew what I was doing. The party ended up being a total success but my husband and I were unable to fully enjoy it because of the thousands of details. While it looks like a great idea on paper, please rethink this idea. Wed Dec 07 10:18:23 -0800 2005 1498153 0 BlueHerons 1 1498219 It depends a lot on the expectations of the families and guests. A 100 person cocktail-party-like reception for 2 or 3 hours is far more doable than a 3 course sit down dinner. Champagne, passed canapes and wedding cake in the back yard sounds lovely to me but in my family anything less than a sit down dinner is not acceptable. It doesn't matter to them if the food is good or not, there has to be a dinner and thinking outside the box is not allowed when it comes to weddings. Getting those expectations in line will be very important if you decide to do something at all unusual. As an amateur who has done a cocktail party at home for 95 people, I wouldn't touch a sit down dinner for that many. But if you can go the cocktail party or buffet route AND if you really like this type of thing it could be done. Keep the food and drink menu simple - have great tasting, high quality choices but not a lot of variety. Hire or otherwise wrangle servers and other helpers. And you'll need to have someone other than you act as kitchen manager on the big day. Think carefully about space, especially refrigerated space - you and your helpers can prep lots of stuff in advance, but where will you gather it all together and keep it cool? Plus there are all of the drinks to keep cold. If you want to serve hot things you'll need to think about oven space, too. Wed Dec 07 10:24:41 -0800 2005 1498153 0 Chilanga 1 1498220 I know Martha Stewart did an episode years ago that was a wedding special. She did a segment on how to cater your own wedding. Keep in mind my memory could be foggy, but I think most of the things she did were finger foods, and a lot of stuff that could be left out at room temp. There was a shrimp tower and she showed you how to create an ice tower to keep the shrimp cold... it was really cool. The one recipe I remember specifically was the peanut noodles in cucumber cups, and I actually was able to find the recipe! I'm sure you could search her website for other ideas, especially in the wedding section. One idea that I think would be neat would be to serve a cold soup in little espresso cups, or something small like that. Link: http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=recipe4359&contentGroup=MSL&site=living Wed Dec 07 10:36:07 -0800 2005 1498153 0 Katie Nell 2 1498222 Also, Michael Chiarello catered his own wedding and he did an episode on how to do it. While I thought some of the dishes were a little much to do on your own wedding day, he might have some other suggestions that would be helpful as far as a timeline and that sort of thing. I know that people will warn you not to do this if it's your own wedding, but I also know that I, personally, would not be happy or relaxed unless I knew for sure that the food was going to be excellent. There are simple things you can do and you can balance them with a few more complicated things, but how hard is a fruit tray or a vegetable tray or a cheese selection? And still can be elegant. Link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_mo/episode/0,1976,FOOD_14518_37126,00.html Wed Dec 07 10:45:35 -0800 2005 1498220 0 Katie Nell 1 1498248 I have to admit, as a Food Professional, I say this is a bad idea, along with the others- who say this is way too much for a person to do AND get married...but there are the exceptions- so GOOD LUCK. You don't say where you are, but a good place to get help would be a culinary school- for servers and even a budding chef to help assemble and display the food. You'd be suprised at the enthusiasm and ability. At my culinary school, there was a board that ALWAYS had postings, for folks looking for a private chef/ serving helpers/ you name it- and usually they paid cash- we fought over some ads!! You can rent almost any thing these days, chafers and warmers, refridgerated carts- check that out. Do you have a fine market, purveyor in your area? They might have good referances for you. As far as a fine markets- do they provide food in bulk? For a fine September afternoon- 3 or 4 yummy salads, cheese and breads, chicken pieces and fancy sandwich set ups? A chafer full of adult mac and cheese- a bbq item or 2, the possiblities are endless. I wish you GOOD LUCK, and the ability to decide if this is too much for you- and try to please yourself- it is YOUR DAY!! Wed Dec 07 12:50:40 -0800 2005 1498153 0 JalamaMama 2 1498268 The most important thing is the company. Second for me is good dancing music [DJ or live band]. Food, gasp, I know, not so important. Heck even if only bad wine is served, I'll still have a good time. One friend arranged with a local Indian restaurant for making the food. Another friend's brother cooked the meal as his wedding present. Space was provided in the church and the brother and his wife served it cafeteria-style, using big chafers [this also was Indian food]. Another pal had his wedding in his backyard and had pizza delivered, with friends making huge bowls of veggie and fruit salads. Friends and I did the rehearsal dinner for another pal. Someone graciously offered their yard. We borrowed barbeques from friends, 5 in all. Rented propane tanks. Bought huge slabs of meat at Costco: tritip, pork, etc. Bought a huge bag of raw oysters for starters. Everyone seemed to have a great time. You can get a cheapish venue, at, say American Legion, a cultural society or a building in a municipal park. Definitely do a buffet; even the cake can be done this way. I also find buffet-style more conducive to greater mingling. Perhaps a buffalo roast would work. Wed Dec 07 13:40:34 -0800 2005 1498248 0 semmel 3 1498282 I would have to respectfully disagree with the statement about music vs the food.It depends where you are...in the South the food is much much much more important than the music. Wed Dec 07 13:59:03 -0800 2005 1498268 0 Laura 4 1498289 gosh, you must be in a different part of the South. I've long since given up on getting good food at weddings, and just get into the bad wine as soon as possible so I don't care that it's the same old squares of pepper jack cheese, crudite with dip served in a red cabbage, unrecognizable knobs of chicken and mayonaise-artichoke dip. I'm cool as long as they play some Prince :-) Wed Dec 07 14:16:19 -0800 2005 1498282 0 danna 5 1498464 Yes we must be... the only wedding reception I ever attended like you described was for some people that as we call it were "raised different". Thu Dec 08 08:57:59 -0800 2005 1498289 0 Laura 1 1498275 I agree with the others who say that this is absolutely not the time to try to host an event for 100 people. That's a lot of people. You (and your family) will want to spend time talking and mingling with your guests. How will you do that if you are in the kitchen the whole time? You don't say where you are located or if you have a venue in mind, but if you do, I'm sure that many people on this board can give you suggestions for caterers in your area that are reasonably priced. Wed Dec 07 13:49:07 -0800 2005 1498153 0 valerie 1 1498303 Something to keep in mind is that you can halfway cater something. Some friends did this by getting the meat catered (a pig roast) and then doing the sides themselves and with friends. Not to say you need to do a pig roast, but you could lighten your day-of load a bit with a division of labor. Wed Dec 07 15:41:45 -0800 2005 1498153 0 joypirate 1 1498385 Sorry to be a party pooper, but I kinda agree w/ others who are second guessing this idea. We had about 100 people at our wedding. I could easily assemble a team of family and friends that can cook and bake well, but it wouldn't be at all relaxing on a day that should be about celebrating you and your new spouse. In fact, I had assigned close friends and family small tasks here and there and that felt imposing enough. Catering an event is WORK and that shouldn't be your or your family's focus on that day. In addition, if you have to rent or buy supplies, this could end up costing nearly as much as having an outside party do everything. Caterers have connections and can get better rates than you can. This doesn't mean that you can't have delicious food or imbue your personal touches. My advice is to find a caterer that will work w/ your needs and budget concerns. We found a caterer who was willing to let us bring in our own appetizers from a favorite Vietnamese restaurant, as well as our own selection of cakes (we didn't do the traditional big cake). We also handled our own alcohol and stocked up at BevMo. This helped to keep catering costs manageable. Many caterers aren't as flexible, but flexible ones are out there if you seek them. Any good caterer will design a menu w/ you and allow you and your partner to come in for a tasting and rework anything. Someone mentioned the couple who brought in their own roast pig. We actually planned on getting suckling pigs on our own (surprised the caterer was ok to lose profit on the main dish), but in the end things got so hectic that I was SO HAPPY to let the caterer take care of the main. They didn't bat an eye when we asked two days before the wedding. Maybe they knew it was coming. :-) If you are truly wanting delicious food, then doing it yourself isn't the answer for a wedding IMO. Group of 25, doable. But group of 100 is just too much. I say budget more $ for catered food and conserve in other areas (music, photos, etc) then. Another option is to have it at a restaurant. Chinese banquets are often more affordable than mainstream "wedding" places. If you pare down your guest list, you will have more options too. Good luck and best wishes! Wed Dec 07 20:25:03 -0800 2005 1498153 0 Carb Lover 1 1498547 I had a 75 person wedding last summer (me & hubby included) and it would have been a nightmare to do what you're proposing. My initial game plan was that having secured a locale that let us bring in anyone we want - and even self-cater - that we'd get delivery from Whole Foods and hire people to serve. After I did the #s for all the rentals and workers we needed, we realized even Whole Foods would cost as much as many caterers that sounded good (and close to double the cost of the cheap ones). (FWIW, this was in northern NJ - i.e., all prices are inflated by proximity to NYC.) In the end I found a caterer and they served spectacular food. It truly was one of the most delicious meals I've eaten in recent years. And, it has gotten numerous compliments from friends - even months later. I too urge you to reconsider a caterer. We found that it saved money, time and sanity. Mostly sanity. No matter how much you plan in advance, the last few days will be hectic and you need some downtime. Thu Dec 08 13:25:17 -0800 2005 1498153 0 AH 1 1498552 Some additional thoughts... I've recently been to two self-catered weddings. One was a super-casual affair for about 40 where the bride and groom made all the food themselves. They made big bowls of salad, garlic bread, and lasagnes using those disposable foil trays. They also rented all the necessary equipment. I think the reception hall arranged for a handful of servers to handle the food, dishes, and drinks during the event. The other was a backyard wedding for my sister-in-law where the family did a potluck. In this case, one of the cousins acted as coordinator and arranged for several very enthusiastic home chefs in the family to bring various dishes. They rented the equipment for a buffet and hired about 4 people to handle the food during the event. But about half of the guests were also given small tasks to manage (I was responsible for setting up the bar and training the hired bartender, who didn't even know how to use a corkscrew, in addition to making one of the main dishes). This was about 100 people. This worked well, but only because those of us helping were extremely self-motived to help. You'd have to think hard to decide if your family is up to it. I would never try this with my own blood relatives, for example. Anyway, the food in both cases was simple and filling, but not especially delicious. If you decide to get it catered, which is what I did for my own wedding, here are some tips. Well, first the bad news. At least where I live, September is the #1 month for weddings, and most vendors are in high demand and book well in advance. I got married in April with about 4 months to plan, so I was in a pretty good position to negotiate with caterers, DJs, and photographers who wanted the work. I went with a professional, full-service caterer that was relatively new and run by a rather young husband and wife team. They did an awesome job, I suspect better and cheaper than if I had gone with one of the long established, well known caterers in the area. But after meeting with them and tasting their food, I knew they were the right ones for us. Ask around for recommendations and call as many caterers as you can, and go meet and taste the food of any that may be of interest to you. If your budget doesn't allow that level of service, take a look at less obvious caterers: taquerias and middle eastern restaurants often do cheap catering and can hire staff and rent equipment if needed. You won't get the same level of service, but it'll be much cheaper than a straight-up caterer. Good luck, Nick Thu Dec 08 13:32:29 -0800 2005 1498153 0 nja 1 1498693 OK, so I think y'all have successfully scared me half to death. And I think that makes me want to go with the 'half-catered' idea - I may get competent friends and family (and very excellent greengrocers - I'm in Seattle) to arrange the salads, cheese trays, etc - and a pro to handle everything else. And thank you all for the judicious warnings and assorted advice. Fri Dec 09 00:24:23 -0800 2005 1498153 0 Noah