DIY Wedding Catering
Doing your own wedding catering is by far the most cost-effective way to feed your guests. It’s certainly not a simple task, but with some careful planning and forethought, you can easily achieve success.Before you start planning, here are some essentials that you should think about so that you create the perfect catered wedding.
Keep it simple
The best advice I could give anyone thinking about doing their own wedding catering is to keep your ideas simple. Be sure not to overstretch yourself. Consider your abilities and timescales - work within these.
Choose menus that can be prepared in advance, are simple to make and easy to store. If you use complicated recipes then you increase the difficulty and the possibility of the dishes not turning out right. Go simple and you’ll reduce your stress.Choose dishes that can be served cold as cooking on the day will be a nightmare. You'll end up needing extra staff, facilities and money! It will also reduce the possibility of things going wrong at the last minute.
Spread the work
We all have relatives who are a dab hand in the kitchen. If you ask nicely I’m sure they’ll be willing to help you out with a couple of dishes and possibly the cost for those dishes too.
At one of my friend's weddings all the close friends of the bride bought something for the buffet table, whether sandwiches, sausages, cakes or crisps. It spread the cost, the work and stress but needed a just little co-ordination.
Hygiene should be a top priority
If you’re preparing your wedding food yourself, make sure you think carefully about
health and hygiene.
It’s essential that this is a top priority as the last thing you need is a number of your guests getting food poisoning!
Follow the basic principles of wash your hands, clear up as you go, prevent cross-contamination of foods, cook thoroughly and chill correctly. For more food hygiene information, visit the
Food Standards Agency.
For summer weddings, having enough fridge space to keep all your foods cold is
very important. You can hire fridges from catering supplies and plant hire shops. The rule of thumb here is have too much space, rather than too little. We had three small fridges (the ones that fit in kitchen units) and two large, upright fridges for 100 guests. We could have done with more to chill the booze too!
Don’t forget about crockery, cutlery and tablecloths
f you’re doing the wedding catering, don’t forget to think about how you’re going to eat it! You will need plates, knives, forks, spoons, glasses, serving dishes, serving spoons, ice buckets, tablecloths and napkins.
Get help to serve the drinks and food
On your wedding day, the last thing you want to think about serving the food or drinks, who’s going to clear the plates away or do the washing up. Make sure you get some reliable help to do these little jobs for you.
Depending on the numbers at your wedding, two to five helpers will go a long way. It will be money well spent to take the stress away.
To find little helpers, try your local pub as they’ll know of young girls that are reliable waitresses. You could use your sister’s or cousin’s friends or perhaps try the local catering college.
You’ll need one waitress per 20 guests as a minimum. On the run up to the wedding, show them the venue and explain clearly what you want them to do. On the day, make sure you brief them thoroughly again, both verbally and with a written list of things they need to do.
Plan carefully
When doing the wedding catering yourself, you will need to plan very carefully.
Make sure you think about all the following points:
- Your choice of menus and dishes
- Make a shopping list
- Timing of when you can make the dishes before the event
- How to store the dishes
- How long the dishes will store for
- How do you want to garnish the dishes
- When do you want the dishes to be served
- How do you want the food laid out or presented
- Timing of what happens when and what the waitresses will need to do
Your serving staff will need a timeline specifically for the catering and serving of drinks that corresponds to your reception timeline. You can give this to them during the briefing session.
Be as specific as possible with all of the points above, so you leave less room for errors. It will ensure a stress free day!
Don’t forget the small stuff
When doing your own wedding catering, it’s easy to forget the small things.
Items such as sugar, butter, salt and pepper, ashtrays, ice, ice buckets, bottle openers, banqueting roll, storage boxes, table water, jugs, serving dishes, serving spoons and condiments can easily get forgotten.
Think thoroughly about all the things that you need, speak to your mum, aunt or sister to brainstorm any things that might be needed. This will help ensure that you don’t forget any essential items!
Spread the cost
If you’re catering yourself, you can build up your stock up over time. Look for the special offers in the supermarkets so you get the best prices. By spreading the cost, you’ll make it easier on your wallet.
Just don’t forget to keep receipts and keep track of everything you spend!
Go local
Try and source your produce locally. You will get better quality and better prices – and best of all, you may even get your food at cost price and delivered free.
Post by:
http://www.cheap-wedding-success.co.uk
Other sites you might be interested in:
http://www.wedding-film.co.uk
http://www.markammonphotography.co.uk
I always recommend that you should start with the bridal bouquet and bridesmaid’s flowers as you begin to plan your wedding flowers.
When buying or designing your silk wedding centerpieces, you just need to think carefully about the design of them. The most successful artificial centrepieces are those with a minimal but stunning flower design.
They come in a wide variety of colours including bright red, green, pink and white. One of my favourites is called 'safari' and is burgundy with pale stripes. The photo shows pink anthuriums which we arranged into a 'thank you' bouquet.
Anthuriums can work well in bouquets, but be careful which flowers you put them with. Their size and unusual shape shout 'look at me' and they easily overpower other flowers. Let them be the star of the show with other flowers as secondary.
Orchids have long been a favourite with brides. There are a number of different varieties including Moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) and Cymbidium orchids.
Heliconia is a beautiful architectural plant. For this reason you'll find it in the receptions of quality hotels and corporate offices around the world.
In addition to the colourful flowers, tropical foliage (leaves) can make a huge difference to your arrangements.
Other tropical flowers are also available now. You can see in the photo that I have used red tropical anthuriums together with branches of ilex berries (holly).
Peonies also put in their seasonal appearance. This flower is available to florists from wholesalers during winter but it's real season is Spring.
There's something about roses that always says summer to me. I'm not sure what it is, maybe because I always remember seeing roses in parents garden when I was growing up.
You can see these colors in the bouquet in the photo to the right. This bouquet was made in Autumn and is created from ranunculus, which had just started appearing at our wholesalers.