So you want to self-cater your wedding. You’ve already read the first post and decided that this is actually something you want to do, and now you just need to know HOW to cater your own wedding for cheap. Good for you! We did it, and our food was amazing! We fed this menu to over 300 guests with leftovers for under $1000. If you’ve looked into having your wedding catered, you know that the absolute cheapest options are over $7 per person which would have cost us over $2100 (and the food would not have been as good). Now, our entire wedding only cost us $2000, so that was out of the question, but what could we feed people that wouldn’t break the bank?

Later, I’ll get around to giving you the obnoxious shopping lists (Spoiler Alert: It’s a lot of food…) and simple recipes, but for now, let’s just talk about the menu. I come from St. Louis, so mostaccioli is an absolute necessity. If you aren’t from St. Louis, mostaccioli is basically spaghetti with penne instead of spaghetti noodles. I am sure that a chef on the hill will want to kill me for simplifying it that much, but I’m the queen of simplicity… so whatever.

Self-Catered Wedding Menu

Salad
Rolls
Green Beans
Mashed Potatoes
Mostaccioli
Fried chicken

The menu is pretty simple, but it contains two complete meal options. Your guests can choose to have mashed potatoes, chicken, and green beans OR pasta, salad and a roll. Of course, it’s buffet style, so most people will just grab a little bit of everything.

I spent the entire duration of my engagement (admittedly, a short 3 months) crafting this menu to provide plenty of options, simple preparation, and amazing taste. We had so many compliments on our food, and nobody could even tell that we had catered the meal ourselves. Most importantly, a lot of the food is prepared ahead of time and the most difficult part of the meal (fried chicken) is outsourced. Check back later for specific directions on how we saved money on each part of the meal along with recipes and shopping lists. Self-catering takes a lot of planning, but you and your guests will be grateful you took the time to do it.

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2 Comments

Theresa Beauteeful Living on October 14, 2014 at 1:05 pm

Kudos to you for doing this endeavor! What great bragging rights to say you’ve catered your own wedding. Love the menu too 🙂
Miranda Gonzalez on October 14, 2014 at 5:41 am

Great post. I used to be a caterer so I know how crazy expensive they can be. I’m already married but with 5 children I’m sure I’ll be looking for ways to save money on weddings in the future. Can’t wait to read the other posts in this series.