Self Cater Your Wedding: How to DIY Your Wedding Food

Most wedding experts say that 50% of your budget should go to your food and venue. But what if your budget is smaller than average? If you’re only spending ten thousand dollars - is five thousand enough to rent a venue and pay for a caterer? What if your budget is even smaller? Maybe your budget isn’t big enough for a traditional caterer. But don’t get discouraged - there’s lots of other options. One way to stay on budget is by self catering your wedding reception.

You can cook a full dinner if you’d like. But if you’re worried about your cooking skills, there’s lots of other ways you can feed your wedding guests. You can set up a continental breakfast or prepare sandwich stations for lunch. You could plan a simple buffet or food bar. Or you can even order in.

DIY Wedding Food Ideas

Set up food stations for your guests
Cook or order food for a buffet
Order meals from a restaurant
Set up a no-cook buffet with salads and sandwiches
Plan a simple reception without a full meal
Serve only easy to prepare appetizers
Serve only make ahead desserts and cakes
Have a cake and punch reception

Make Ahead Food for Wedding Reception

Nearly all your food can be made ahead of time. Even hot dishes, like chicken or roast beef can be cooked a few days before, then reheated on the day of your wedding. Just make sure you have enough space to store it. Then make sure it’s safely heated and served on the day of your wedding.

For more about food safety, visit the USDA’s Food Safety Website

Self Catered Wedding Menu

If you’re making your own wedding food, keep it as simple as possible. Choose your menu based on how much help you have. It’ll be a lot of work to get it all set up on your wedding day, so make sure you’ll have enough people to help you pull it off.

If your helpers aren’t skilled cooks, you might choose food that can be prepared ahead and served cold on the day of your wedding. That way your helpers only need to set it up. If your helpers are good cooks, you might want to choose a hot meal instead, like roast beef or chicken.

Bread baskets
Mixed salad
Potato salad
Coleslaw
Sandwiches
Barbecue
Roast beef
Ham
Roasted chicken
Vegetable side dishes
Potatoes
Pasta dishes

Self Catering a Dessert Only Wedding Reception

If you’ve got a really small budget, this is one of the least expensive DIY menus to organize. Most desserts can be prepared ahead of time. You won’t need to cook on the day of your wedding. The desserts can be set out along with dishes and utensils and your guests can help themselves.

Self Catering an Appetizer Only Wedding Reception

If you don’t want to prepare a full meal, but you still want an evening reception with a dance party, you can plan a reception with cocktails and appetizers. Etiquette-wise, it’s perfectly acceptable to serve only appetizers at your wedding reception. As long as it either begins after dinner or ends before dinner would start.

Appetizers are great because they can be prepared ahead of time or even purchased already made. Plan a mix of cold and hot. Cold trays, like cheese boards, bread, veggies and dip are easy to set out and serve. Hot appetizers can be assembled ahead of time and frozen, then heated up when it’s time to serve them.

This couple planned a reception with dancing, cocktails and heavy hors d’oeuvres. For lots of tips on keeping it simple, read the article on Offbeat Wed: The Cheap Bastardette’s Guide to Self Catering Your Wedding

Self Catering a Buffet For Your Wedding Reception

For a wedding buffet you’ll need at least one main dish plus several side dishes. Most side dishes are easy to prepare ahead of time. If you add salads and bread, you’ll have a great buffet.

If you’re worried about cooking the main dish, you could order it, instead. For example, you could order a roasted pig, a cooked roast beef or a roasted turkey. Then prepare the side dishes yourself to save some money.

Another great way to DIY a buffet meal is by setting up a food bar. You could plan a taco bar, a pasta bar or a burger bar. For more food bar ideas, read this next: Best Food Bars For Your Wedding.

If you want to make a full meal for your wedding guests, make sure you have lots of help. For some great ideas, read this article from Practical Wedding. There’s a complete breakdown of who did what, what they rented and how much it all cost: How We Did It: The Self Catered Wedding.

Order Restaurant Food for Your Wedding

If you don’t have the skills or the space to do a full DIY, you can plan a semi-DIY menu for your wedding. You can order your food from a restaurant. The hard work of preparing it will be done and all you’ll need to do is serve it to your guests.

Ordering from a restaurant will be a lot less expensive than hiring a traditional caterer. Just remember that you’ll still need the catering tasks done. Organize your helpers ahead of time so everyone knows who will do what. Assign people to set up the food and keep the buffet clean. Then make sure someone will pack away the leftovers when the meal is done.

Order Your Wedding Meal From Your Grocery Store

I know what you’re thinking - the grocery store? Absolutely! Most grocery stores have delis and prepared food sections. You can order an entire hot meal, pick it up and set it out on your wedding day. Who doesn’t love rotisserie chicken? Add roasted potatoes, veggies and bread and you’ve got a delicious meal ready.

If you want to semi-DIY your wedding food, the grocery store has tons of options. You can order all kinds of food from sushi to sandwiches. If you need inexpensive, prepared food - be sure to check your local grocery store.

Check the Costs Before You DIY

Remember, DIY isn’t free. You’ll still need to buy all the ingredients, condiments and dry goods. Depending on your menu, you might need to rent special equipment, too. If you need chafing dishes or serving pieces, take that into account when you’re planning your budget. Once you figure out the cost for your menu, call a caterer or two and get prices for a similar meal.

Why call a caterer? Depending on the meal, it could cost less to hire someone. For example, a lot of couples decide to have a barbecue burger bar. It’s low cost and easy to do. But think about how much you’ll need to spend. You’ll have to buy the burgers and buns. Plus all the toppings, lettuce, tomatoes, onions. You’ll need condiments, like mustard, ketchup, pickles and relish. Then you have to have enough equipment. Is one barbecue enough to cook for all your guests? Do you have enough plates? Do you need to rent chafing dishes to keep your food warm? If you’re having coleslaw and potato salad - do you have enough fridge space to store it?

You can definitely answer all these questions and plan a great burger barbecue. But how much will it cost to do it yourself? A lot of caterers will provide everything for you at a lower price than you’d expect. A typical price for a simple barbecue is usually $12 to $18 per person. Get a few prices and compare before you make your final decision.

DIY Your Wedding Bar

You can DIY your drinks as well as your food. The first thing to do is to check your local laws and figure out if you’ll need any special permits or insurance. Once you’ve got that covered, check with your venue to make sure you’re allowed to serve alcohol.

You can buy beer and wine to serve to your guests. Or you can choose alcohol and mixers to offer a full bar with cocktails. For more about setting up a DIY bar, read this next: How to Serve Alcohol at a Wedding: Booking a Bar Package or DIY?

DIY Your Wedding Cake

If you’re really ambitious you can save even more money by baking your own cake. If you like to bake, you can bake the layers ahead of time and freeze them. Even the pros use frozen cakes - just take them out the day before so they can thaw before you decorate them.

If you don’t want to bake, you can buy a plain white cake just about anywhere. Remember earlier, when we talked about the grocery store? Pick up a plain cake from their bakery and add a pretty cake topper, or some flowers to match your bouquet.

Make Sure You Have Enough Help

You can do a lot of the cooking yourself, ahead of time. But on your wedding day you’ll have a lot going on. As well as cooking the food, make sure you have help with the other catering chores as well. Remember to ask people for help with:

Getting your food to the venue
Setting up the tables
Setting up the buffet
Keeping the buffet clean and stocked
Clearing away the leftovers
Cleaning off the tables
Washing the dishes
Cleaning the kitchen

How to Find Venues For a Self Catered Wedding

Most traditional wedding venues and banquet halls have an in-house wedding caterer. Or they’ll have a list of approved vendors that you need to use. Finding a venue that will allow you to DIY your wedding food might take some time.

If you’re planning to self cater, make that your first question when you talk to the venue coordinator or wedding planner. You might have to look at some alternative venues in order to find one that allows you to DIY your wedding food. If you get creative, you can find some beautiful and unique wedding venues. Maybe even some that your guests have never been to before.

Start your venue search by looking for civic buildings, private property or clubhouses. Some of these places might be a good fit for your wedding:

Community center
Local park
Church hall
Legion hall
Knights of Columbus hall
Lions club
Kiwanis club
Historical home
School house
Community room in a condo building
State parks
Nature preserve
Campground
Beach
Cottage
Farm
Ranch
Barn
Pavilion
Gazebo
Apple orchard
Botanical garden
Aquarium
Library
Theater
Museum
Nightclub
Bowling alley
Coffee shop
Greenhouse

What to Look For at a Self Catering Wedding Venue

If you’re planning to order or DIY your food service, it’s important that your venue has all the space and equipment that you’ll need. If you’re planning a simple cake and punch reception, you’ll be fine with just a sink and a coffee maker. But if you need to heat up appetizers or cook a full meal, make sure the kitchen is fully equipped.

When you tour the venue, take a good look at the kitchen and make sure you can answer all these questions:

Is the kitchen big enough to prepare the food you’re planning?
Does it have all the equipment you’ll need? Is it clean and in good, working order?
Check the fridge, oven, range and microwave.
Is there running water?
If the dishes are included, what do they look like? The cutlery?
Will you be using their pots and pans? How do they look?
Is there a coffee maker? Coffee and tea urns? How many guests will they serve?
Check the route from the kitchen to the serving area. Is it easy to get dishes to the buffet or the dining tables?
Is there a built in bar or beverage stand? Where can you serve drinks from?
What are the kitchen rules?

It’s Going to be Fantastic

No matter what your skill level, if you want to self cater your wedding, you can figure out a way. You’ll have to stay organized and put in the effort. But it’ll be worth it. You’ll have a creative and unique menu with delicious food. Your wedding will be fantastic - and you’ll stay on budget!

Wedding Planning Book

When you’re trying to stick to a budget, the best place to save money is on your 2 biggest expenses: your wedding venue and your wedding menu. If you’re still searching for an inexpensive venue, check out the ebook Affordable Wedding Venues and Menus for more tips, tricks and how to’s:

Buy On Amazon