Today seemed like a great time to continue the ongoing Team Practical discussion of self-catered weddings. For those of you new to the discussion, a review. First, food safety. I'm absolutely sure that you can serve food to all your wedding guests without causing a, um, barf-fest, but I'm telling you now - it's your job to concentrate on it. Capish? Second, choose your battles. I was not a DIY food kind of girl, no way. But I was a DIY flower kind of girl, and I made that a PRO-JECT. So, you might want to stay away from overloading yourself with too many last-few-days projects, unless you are stronger than I. Third, GET HELP. Family, family, family, and friends. You can not do your wedding food alone. I know it sounds good in the inside of your wedding blurred mind maybe, but trust me, BAD IDEA. And finally, please ignore all of the things the wedding industry has to say on the subject. Is your family the cooking kind? Can you throw a big dinner party? Yeah, then I'm pretty sure you'll survive, enjoy your wedding, and not kill your guests.

So. With that pre-amble, I bring you the amazing Cara, and her kebab and cupcake fest wedding.

Andy and I were married on August 22, 2009. Here's a quick account of our DIY/DITogether wedding food preparations. After mulling over different catering options and hitting more than one roadblock (money, availability, & quality), and taking heed to the many offers for assistance in preparation, we decided to DIY everything food-wise. We knew this would be a huge endeavor, but knew we would have the support and control over we needed and wanted. About two months before the wedding, we gathered for a meal with our parents and a few wedding party attendants to discuss meal planning and delegating jobs. Our overall theme was summer foods (kebabs, salads, cupcakes, kids food, and local beer), and we were able to decide on a wide range of options for all.

We had a team of 12 people preparing food, which included skewering kebabs, preparing cold salads, baking cupcakes, fetching kegs of beer, and assembling food for the kids table. The cupcakes were made a few weeks in advance, frozen, and then thawed and decorated the day before. Andy and I even got our hands into the mix, working on a few salads and kebabs in the days prior. I was told more than once that I shouldn't be cooking, working, or lifting a finger the week of the wedding. To me, food and service go hand in hand and have been big components of my life, so making food for our guests seemed like a great gift in return. Plus, it was fun trying out new recipes which provided for a little stress relief.

Chaffing dishes were rented from a local party supply company to keep the hot foods hot, and we used family dishware for salads and kids food. The cupcakes were placed on vintage china plates borrowed from Andy's grandma. Drinks were stored in kegs, coolers, and bottles. The napkins, plates, cups and silverware came from Ikea and Party City. Set up took place by the wedding party and friends of the family prior to the reception, while we were off having photos taken. Tear down took place after the band quit playing by family, friends, and the wedding party. Continue reading Cara & Andy’s Do-It-Together Self-Catered Wedding

When the ever-fantastic Marie Eve (how *do* I get an accent grave over my E?) offered to write a post about self catering her wedding she told me, "But if you think APW has had enough of me, I totally understand." Since, as a sensible person, I find it impossible to have too much of Marie-Eve on the blog, I insisted that she write the post immediately. Again, let me say, you should not EVER EVER EVER feel indie-pressure to self cater your wedding (because I felt that pressure when it wasn't right for us, and it made me NUTS). But, when Marie-Eve was writing this, I asked her to use her special brand of magic to make any of you who were interested in self catering feel like it was totally possible. Do-able. Not scary. And that's what Marie-Eve does, always:

I didn't envision self-catering our wedding from the start. It was more of a last-minute impulse, actually. When we visited the place that ended up being our venue (an ice cider orchard), they told us they were set up to serve alcohol, but not food. They were fine with us bringing in a caterer and even suggested a few, but they wanted us to let them know it wouldn't be an easy job: there was no equipment on the premises, so everything would need to be brought in (including serving tables and trays, burners, possibly ovens), and very little space for them to work.

Realistically, that meant a full sit-down meal was out of the window. We were fine with and even charmed by the idea of a cocktail party, and it seemed well suited for the place, which during the reception would offer a tasting of all their products. They were really passionate and enthusiastic about their cider, and had already come with a number of perfect food pairings and recipe ideas. So the next logical step was to serve different platters or finger foods and hors d'oeuvres that went along with our tasting, both to complement the cider and to keep things simple logistically, given their limitations.

During the ride back home, I called my mom: "Do you think we could handle this ourselves?" She hesitated for a second, probably thinking "you and your crazy ideas"... All through our planning process, I could sense that my doing-things-differently was always taking her aback for a second, but then she always accepted it and started thinking that it made sense. This was no different. "Of course we can. We've done it before!" Continue reading Self Catering Your Wedding: The Cocktail Party Edition