Wedding menu ideas?

Question

Does anyone have any ideas for a "different" wedding menu, we are working on quite a tight budget but don't want to ask them to bring food as we are getting married away from our home town and guests will be staying in a hotel so would not be able to cook. We can't do BBQ as the venue does not allow this. I was thinking of having an early morning wedding and serving proper breakfast, waffles, pancakes, smoked salmon with scrambled eggs etc, but what do the guests do for the rest of the day if we get married that early in the day?

I have not set a time for the wedding yet, we just have a date and 40 guests attending. I am sorry I do not wish to post exactly how much money I have to spend on food, but any suggestions on what to serve would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

My brother-in-law married his wife early in the day and they served brunch type foods and the only alcohol they had were mimosas. I didn't know him back then, so I wasn't at the wedding, but I do know they saved a lot of money doing this. Food and alcohol really add up. I think you have a good idea. And I think guests will be able to find something to after the wedding. You could include some tourist info in a welcome basket and have it placed in their hotel room. That will give them some ideas of what to do with the rest of their time.

Answer 2

Plan 1....Would'nt it be better to have the wedding "later" in the day ? That way the guests can fend for themselves until the reception. At the reception, lay on a meal you can affoard. Presuming the guests are also your "family" and "friends", they will appreciate that you provided the best affoardable and be satisfied with that.

Plan 2...Of course. Getting married does not have to incur the expense your so obviously worried about. Just you and your partner go to somewhere nice. Get married. Have a day or two honeymoon, and return home as Mr and Mrs ? (whoever), with some money to start a marrage without financial worries because of a wedding reception. Once you have set up home, throw a massive party and tell everyone to bring their own bottle. Once again, family and friends should respect your decision and everyone will be happy. Good Luck.

Answer 3

We also had a tight budget but i think whatever you do it will work out a little expensive. We chose to have our wedding at 2pm and after the ceremony and photos we were back at venue for 3.30 and had an all day buffet. It worked out at around £5.50 per head which we thought was reasonable. Also we made our own favours to put on the tables for the guests, some coloured netting ribbon and mini eggs (long gone are the days when people do sugared almonds as they are too hard to eat)..

And we had a seperate table for the childrens food and decorated it accordingly. We opted out of a sit down meal as our familys are very fussy eaters!! so there u go-- a running buffet that kept our guests happy right up until the d.j started the disco

Answer 4

I think a good option is Italian food. I am getting married in April and that is what we are going with. We chose Italian because it is our favorite but when we got down to look at the numbers it is a whole lot cheaper than the typical chicken/steak/fish. It is also nice because you can have a lot of options for people such as lasagna, spaghetti, linguine with maybe alfredo and pesto... you could even add some chicken in with a dish or have chicken parmesean to add meat to the meal. I am really happy that this is what we picked. It is different and I know all my friends love this food so they will be happy too! Congratulations and Good Luck!

I think the breakfast sounds good too, but if you are worried about providing a day of meals for the guests you could always have fresh fruit bagels and cereal as a light breakfast and then an afternoon Italian thing.

Answer 5

You can do an early day "Wedding Brunch." You can have your ceremony around 9 a.m. and the brunch can start around 11:00-11:30. You can serve alot of fruit, breakfast items, cold hor'douerves (sp) and mimosa or shower punch. This will save alot of money, and you could serve it as a buffet. You can also have the waffles, pancakes, smoked salmon and items like that. But, you could also incorporate seasonal or regional items (i.e. if you're from a coastal town, you could have salmon croquettes, crab cakes, etc.).

Answer 6

You could do a light reception right after the ceremony and serve appetizers as food and maybe a signature cocktail. In order to do this, your ceremony would need to be either morning or early afternoon. The breakfast idea is a very good suggestion as well.

Answer 7

gO TO bURGER kING OR SOMTHING, AND USE ALL THE MONEY YOU SAVE ON A HOUSE, OR SAVINGS FOR THE FUTURE. gOODNESS ITS ONLY ONE DAY,Why do people feel the necesity to proove to others how much they can spend on a one off day. I was a guest once at anyone wedding, and they told me the reception was to be a Kentucky Fried Chicken, and that in the process they had saved over £27.000 pounds, and used it on a downpayment on a second house, and that was going to provide a third income. I was well impressed with the sense in that, and KFC really pulled their finger lickin fingers out and put on a great spread. It was all a bit kitche, but we all had a great laugh that day.
15 years later on, and they now own 12 properties in the UK, 1 in florida and one in Spain and an apartment in Hong Hong. Also have had a second wedding, and honeymoon in Barbados. Thos ewho could not afford to go gort a proffesional DVD of the whole day and taken out for a slap up meal on their return.

Answer 8

I think a late morning ceremony, followed by brunch and dancing is a great idea. Even though this would be a very speical brunch for a very special occasion, your guests do whatever they would normally do after having a fancy brunch -- probably go home.

Answer 9

depends on where u are having your reception. If u can find someplace that offers the reception hall for free and u just pay for the catering problem solved and u have a little of extra money to spend on food

Answer 10

There alot of inexpensive options. It would help too have some idea as too your budget,and guest list.If you really want some help e-mail me or IM and we'll talk. I do this for a living, so I might be able too help,