5 Ways To Cut Your Wedding Catering Cost On A Budget

 

wedding catering

Although your finances may be stretched, particularly when you are planning to get married, you may feel that a lavish catering service is something of an extravagance. However, your guests are likely to expect a miminum amount of refreshments. It is possible to deal with these two conflicting issues by using your imagination and working closely with your wedding caterers.


In this article we provide some tips as to how you can cater for your wedding even if you have a limited budget and, if you follow them, you will find that you and your guests have an enjoyable wedding ceremony, a perfectly acceptable catering service and a great day! These are the points you can cut your wedding catering cost on a budget.


1. DON'T Do It Yourself!

 
It may be tempting to try to cut out the costs of a professional catering company by providing your own catering. Although some families may be quite competent in cookery and food presentation they will bee the exception. Furthermore, this method may actually represent a false economy. The reason for this is that an experiences wedding caterer will have made contacts with food and beverage suppliers that are likely to result in discounts on the catering supplies.


The professional caterer will also  be able to deal with heating, storing and serving the food. If you try to do it yourself you may need to buy or rent refrigerators and/or serving dishes and pay someone to serve the food. Depending on the location of the wedding venue, you may also need to buy insurance. A professional caterer will deal with all these issues as part of the service. Finally, it can impact on the enjoyment of the wedding for those who have taken responsibility for the catering arrangements.


2. Avoid Serving a Main Meal

 
If you have a wedding in the late afternoon it is almost impossible to avoid serving your guests with a dinner, which will add to the cost of the catering. As an alternative, you should plan your wedding for the morning, or afternoon and provide a selection of cakes, coffee, hors d'oeuvres, champagne and cocktails.


3. Serve a Lunch - Not a Dinner

 
If you would like to provide your guests with the comfort and formality of a prepared meal it is likely to be cheaper to plan the timing of your wedding so that it is a lunch rather than a dinner. Not only are people likely to eat and drink less during the day than in the evening, cheaper foods such as quiches and salads can be served rather than the expensive meat, fish and poultry dishes that are expected for dinner.


4. Choose the Right Buffet

 
It is not always the case that a buffet will cost less than a prepared meal. Much depends on what is included in the buffet. Additionally, the temptation is often to over-cater as there is nothing worse than running out of buffet food before everyone has been served their meal. There are definitely some budget food choices for your wedding buffet that will keep the cost of the wedding catering down. These include barbeque foods, pasta dishes and salads, pies, patties, sausage rolls, vol aux vents and fewer items that need to be carved!


5. Choose the Right Caterer

 
There are many ways to find a wedding caterer. The most reliable is through personal recommendation from friends and family who have knowledge of a particular wedding caterer. Checking out local caterers on the internet can be effective and it is helpful to read any customer commendations that are on their site as well as any external reviews. Most experienced wedding caterers will be sympathetic to your need to keep the costs of your wedding within a budget to ensure that you have a great wedding celebration without breaking the bank!

 

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