50th party - does anyone really care about the food?

[mileysorearse]

I am having my 50th in August and have hired a great place and I'm spending quite a lot on entertainment as I hope to get a really good local band but that means less money to spend on food. Any suggestions for good, low cost but high volume stuff that I can do beforehand that won't make me look like a cheaparse? Is it worth buying a Costco membership?

At 50 I care of little else!

Seriously though - could you go the simple route and just do cheese?

I thought about getting loads of cakes and trying to make out I was being hip and ironic!

It's various ages so I am not sure that cheese would go down that well. I am probably going to end up making loads of platters of sandwiches but I really don't want to if I can help it and storing them will be a bugger in the fridge. I may end up ordering some platters from Sainsburys and collecting them last minute but I need to bulk it up a bit with easy things.

French bread and rolls, cheese, salad and large park roasts.

And a few cakes in different flavours, depending on numbers. A vanilla, a lemon and a chocolate sponge.

I wouldn't make sandwiches, but provide the means for others to. Fresher that way too.

What is your budget? We have a local company that will do a pig roast with rolls and stuffing for £150, but you have to carve it yourself.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I so don't want to make sandwiches so these are great. The pig roast sounds really good, I will look into that. DS1's school do one after their sponsored walk each year so I will ask them who they use. I didn't think of it before!