make ahead wedding ideas

[wallingjan1]

Hi everyone,

I've been gone from the board for a while as I regrouped my life. Now I'm starting over and getting married in June. As I've gone back to school and we're buying a house I can't stand the thought of paying for a caterer. I've decided to be super organized and prepare dishes that can be made ahead, ideally frozen. I've got a great kitchen crew lined up for the day of the wedding. I wanted to do beef fillet because it could be served at room temp but my budget is leaning toward a buffet instead. I've tried a chicken and grand marnier sauce that is easy and can by frozen. I would kind of like a fish dish but I'm stumped on the do ahead part that will work on a buffet. Any suggestions or ideas at all would be helpful.

Thanks,
Pam

[Aubergine]

Pam, congrats on your impending nuptials!

however, my dear girl, i must take you somewhat to task. do you not want, at all, to be able to relax and ENJOY your wedding day? do you have a person to whom you can fully entrust the food/cooking/serving details?

if it were me, i'd look around for a person wanting to start a personal-chef type of thing, and take some of the burden off myself. i think the fee paid to that person, relative to what it would free me to worry about and not have to micro-manage, would go a long way towards my own ability to truly enjoy what should be the beginning of a new life.

surely, one could negotiate fees and food purchases.

regardless, esp. if you're bound and determined to do this yourself, i'd certainly start with MS's earliest books, b/c that's where she began.

[Kingwell]

I second the congrats, and the request to reconsider.

I was the wedding planner; hotel reservations for 80 (of the 150 attending), invites, bridesmaid dresses, programs, maps, city guides, gosh, I think I've blocked the rest out...but it was hard. Consuming. Tiring. Work. Knowing someone else I trusted handled my hair, makeup, and food, made it survivable and even enjoyable. I can't imagine handling the food; and I love food. It's my hobby, passion, pastime. Still, that day...someone else's worry.

I'm not trying to be a downer; my wedding day was lovely. But I fretted enough about it without taking on food.

All that said, if you doing something really small with about 20 people, it's perhaps a much different undertaking. But still, stressful.

Some affordable alternatives I've heard...tea-type receptions (cheaper), brunch (also cheaper), or hire a crew from a church (some churches in our area put on complete meals, so would be experienced and affordable).

[SusanMac]

How many people are you feeding? You can still do beef & serve it on a buffet, btw. I'd recommend either slicing ahead, or having a mini-sandwhich type of thing.

For seafood, either boiled shrimp or a big salmon filet would be great. I've been to many buffets with salmon filet, and everyone just uses a fork to flake off however much they want.

Even though it's a lot of work, I think it's a great idea. Will make your wedding really fun and personal!

[rosen]

First, congrats!

Second, please supply more details about the wedding! Inside/outside, formal/informal, few close friends & family/hundreds of people.

We all have lots of advice for you... but it would help to understand more of what you expect the day (& therefor the work getting ready for the day) to be.

[wallingjan1]

OK, slight revision in plans.

We've decided to reduce stress and costs by moving the wedding earlier in the day and having something with a kind of picnic theme. We have about 120 people, but all fun loving. This does not need to be formal. That said, We are using a great boathouse with round tables that seat eight. Maybe picnic baskets on each table? I just need to plan and organize. All the actual packing would be done by my crew.

Oh, and we're having pies for dessert.

Thanks, Pam

[foodlady]

First of all, congratulations!! It sounds like life is looking up for you, and that's awesome!

We had a pretty tight budget for our wedding--well, tight by today's standards. We had about 150 guests and did an afternoon wedding, and a formal tea reception. It took some looking, but I found a fabulous caterer that totally got behind the idea and took off with it. For $12 per person, we had a fabulous selection of finger sandwiches, scones with cream and lemon curd, chocolate dipped strawberries and other fruits, and little "puffy" kinds of things. It all tasted wonderful, and the day was a blast. We hired a small quartet to play classical music, and everyone went on about how much they enjoyed the afternoon. Plus, the $12 per person included a waitstaff to serve everybody, dish rentals, and all the set-up/take-down. THAT was a deal!!!

So...if you've got your heart set on something, look around! Caterers aren't all the same, and their prices vary so much depending on the time of year you're getting married and the time of your wedding. Call people up and pitch your idea of a "picnic" theme, and see what they come up with! It might be more affordable than you think....

[PattiA]

Congratulations Pam,

I love your idea of a picnic theme! We had an informal wedding with about 80 guests in our backyard. Our vision was that we would host a great party that started with a wedding ceremony. We did not want anything that resembled a traditional wedding/reception because it is just not our style.

The ceremony started at 11am. The meal was lunch. Seating was under a tent. The tables were decorated with primary color table cloths. We did hire a caterer for the meal. The food was grilled chicken, beef, and swordfish with a pineapple salsa, sides of cumin-roasted potatoes, salad, and some other things that I don't remember. I gave the caterer my recipes for the swordfish and salsa, they modified them to include the chicken and beef. Also gave them the cumin roasted potato recipe. There were some appetizers for the guests while we took some photos. Our wedding cake was a make your own sundae bar. We also had volleyball nets, bubbles, squirt guns, and other games set up in the yard. We rented large coolers and bought beer, wine, soda and juice. Also made quite a few gallons of ice tea. Nothing was fancy and formal. It was all just like we are.

Our tables were decorated with bird feeders that my dad made. We also put inexpensive bright colored sun glasses at each place setting.

We spent a lot of time writing and then memorizing the ceremony. One of our dearest friends became a JP and officiated.

Go with your fun plans. It will make the day very special for everyone.

[Laurielee]

how about this, make shrimp and crab salad sandwiches, you can even do this with imitation crab meat to save costs, I would say, lobster rolls, but that would get very expensive with that many people.

CL has good make ahead sandwich recipes like brick chicken sanwiches, and roast beef and blue cheese wraps. (you can sub the cheese) or any ohter type of wrap. and these are all individually wrapped. Make them smaller servings so each person if they want to can try one. and then for salads, do something like boston baked beans, and colesaw, again these are in individual plastic containers and you can put thesea picnic basket on each table and have enough so each person can try whats in the basket, wrap up the silverwear in the napkins and add that to the basket. And then have clam chowder over on a main table and people can serve themselves the soup buffet style.

Laurie

[Laurielee]

how about this, make shrimp and crab salad sandwiches, you can even do this with imitation crab meat to save costs, I would say, lobster rolls, but that would get very expensive with that many people.

CL has good make ahead sandwich recipes like brick chicken sanwiches, and roast beef and blue cheese wraps. (you can sub the cheese) or any ohter type of wrap. and these are all individually wrapped. Make them smaller servings so each person if they want to can try one. and then for salads, do something like boston baked beans, and colesaw, again these are in individual plastic containers and you can put thesea picnic basket on each table and have enough so each person can try whats in the basket, wrap up the silverwear in the napkins and add that to the basket. And then have clam chowder over on a main table and people can serve themselves the soup buffet style.

Laurie

[rosen]

BBQ! Doesn't get more informal & fun than that!

Check out if your favorite place does catering. Lots of them do. Some just supply all the food & you do your own set up & serving. You could then add lots & lots of salads & baked beans & assorted breads & rolls. Beer, wine, lemonade, whatever you want. The pies would go great w/ this!

I have organized several parties where we did the BBQ route. I've fed close to 200 once on pulled pork & pulled chicken for around $200. That left tons of $$ leftover in the budget for different sides that I got from various places (+ made a lot of them myself). This may sound like a hokey idea to some... but good BBQ is not something that everyone expects, nor do they think to do this themselves.

[wallingjan1]

These are great picnic ideas. What I really like is the enthusiasm. We really want to keep it fun and getting too formal is not for us. Now I just need to convince my future mother-in-law :D

Thanks, Pam