Lets hear what the budget savvy brides are doing for catering! Are you doing a buffet, serving something fancy, doing dessert only, cake only, cooking it yourself, have a family friend helping out, coffee, alcohol, etc?

Since it will most likely be crazy hot and humid at the time of our ceremony (outside ceremony) we were going to provide bottled water during the ceremony but the venue doesn't allow that since it's not environmentally friendly. However, they do provide us w/a huge cooler so we'll just set it up outside (: . We are thrilled that our venue allows outside catering- leaving us to do whatever we want! My fi and I both LOVE barbecue so we decided on a "4th of july style bbq" (our wedding is July 3). We considered diy'ing the meat, beans, potato salad,etc and just buying buns, etc but I chose to shop around anyways. After looking at all the little bbq stands in the area (and tasting ofcourse!) none of them were under $10 p.person (60 people) and it was one meat and chips. Then, Saturday I went to a wedding show and out of all restaurants... Golden Corral was there! Ofcourse I just grabbed the info and went on but I read through it at home and it seems like a great deal! (and their food is good) At first I thought it would either be a crappy menu or overpriced..but I was pleasantly surprised! :D

We're doing the "Home Style Bbq Picnic Meal" for our guests. It includes: BBQ chicken leg quarters, pulled bbq pork, bbq baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, cookies and yeast rolls at... $8.50 a person! And they have TONS of catering options (there's a bourbon street chicken one for $7 p.p) so if you're in search of someone affordable with good food I would def check them out! Oh yeah.. then I'll have my mom make tons of sweet tea and pink lemonade. And we'll have a couple kegs (the kegs come w/the venue we just have to pay to fill them) and we're thinking about renting a margarita machine!! (:

We are also doing BBQ buffet.  Three meats, slaw, potato sals, salad, beans, and rolls.  They are letting us bring our own drinks to cut down on costs but we are still at $10 person.  We found them on TLC's BBQ Pit Masters http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/bbq-pitmasters/pitmasters/tuffy-stone.html

Awesome!

We are doing DIY catering (not a lot of quests coming and it will be a lunch time reception)

So we are doing sandwiches (its cool cause I found sandwich cutters @ Dollar Tree to use YAY!) :)

My family likes soul food so no prime rib smothered in wine sauce here (lucky me!!)

Actually we were gonna go with Church's Chicken, I mean fried chicken is fried chicken, right?! Best part is it's only $2.99 a person and that includes 2 sides and biscuits. I know, I know it sounds ghetto but I LOVE Church's lol.

@ronica..I had no idea that Golden Corral did catering, I may have to look into this for my other entree (apparently not everyone eats chicken lol) and a vegetarian dish.

We also have a small guest list, so I think that should do it. But to be honest I just want to have more money for the BAR!!  =)

SandyCheecks- That's awesome! If I weren't having my ceremony outside in hot, humid missouri than i would def have had mine in the day so i could do sandwiches instead!

TheFutureMrsT- I was worried about Golden Corral sounding ghetto but my family loves their food! And i had no clue they did catering until I got the information from that wedding show! (I don't think they all do catering yet but they're starting too) Mmm church's chicken sounds good! I don't think it sounds ghetto (makes a lot mores sense than spending $12+ per person on mini cheeseburgers,etc! lol) But you def should check out golden corral and ask for their Catering Specialist. On my paper, you can even build your own meal starting with $2.50 for 1 meat, $4 for 2 meats, etc.

And yes, I'm trying to save money for the drinks too!!

We're self-catering by ordering BBQ and fried chicken (probably KFC because we don't have other fried chicken restaurants in my small town).  We're having mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and fresh fruit.  And we're having iced tea (sweet and unsweetened), lemonade, and bottled water to drink (no alcohol).  For the kids' room, we're having pizza (cheese and pepperoni), PB&J Uncrustables, fruit kabobs, cupcakes, and lemonade/water/juice boxes.  I calculated our costs to come out around $6 per person for adults and $2 per person for the kids.

We're having a small traditional wedding cake as the centerpiece of a big dessert table like this:

I set asside about $2000 out of my budget to go towards catering.  We found a restaurant which also has a banquet room upstairs. We rented the room for $150 and they will cater a buffet for about $25 per person. So for our guest list of 70 it will be about $1750. Leaving room for our cake!

My catering is costing us about 3,500.  We're having appetizers passed during cocktail hour - black bean cakes, Thai chicken spring rolls, fruit skewers, cheese platter w/crackers, bruchetta, and teriyaki skewers. Then for dinner having two carving stations w/chefs carving (mojito leg of pork and berb roasted turkey) mashed potatoes, fire-grilled veggies, and bisquits.  Also a fruit punch bowl (to spike of course)... two salad stations (asian noodle and basic garden).  My caterer also takes care of chair rentals, decorating the tables, AND also will provide bartenders to serve the alcohol we buy.  They also provide the plates, table linen, etc. It also includes a on-site over see-er for the entire duration of the event.  These people even package your leftovers for you!

We're having about 50 ppl so it's kind of expensive for 50 ppl but they are really worth it cause the food is delish and they are very attentive!

... as for the cake, we are having a vendor that was voted into the top five vendors in the country! KB Kake Creations and they are awesome as well.  Having a yellow cake w/folded in white chocolate... guava and coconut filling on one tier, chocolate ganache and raspberry in another tier and just plain guava on the top tier. MmmmMmmm :)