Tell me about low cost catering options

[MistyKoala]

Hi all,

I wonder what advice people have about low cost catering? Getting married next summer in the south east, UK and am stunned by the cost of some caterers!

I was hoping to get food for 100 people for about £2-3k or cheaper if poss. Canapés and main meal only, no desserts (have cake) or drinks. How can I get costs down?! Even BBQs which I thought would be cheaper are coming up as 50£ per head and we just can’t afford that.

I’ve thought about catering myself but it’s too many guests and we don’t have a lot of family near enough to help. Would like hot food as people will be around all day and be wanting a fairly substantial meal I’d imagine.

So which low cost caterers in the south east do you know of? Or what other advice can you give me to hunt out more affordable options?!

Bring and share a dish each? I have a good friend who is a Quaker and they often do events this way. Absolutely brilliant food guaranteed, you provide drinks. You have to be prepared to forego other gifts and allocate who brings mains, salads, pudding.

Id love to do that @TemporaryPermanent but quite a few of our guests live away/abroad and others are already helping out with various aspects. Unfortunately I therefore don’t think it will be practical and certainly not easy for people. I do love that kind of casual, community vibe though so it’s a shame!

Why Popperty Topperty

you can’t have amazing and also cheap

My sister (former chef) achieved both of the above - it was a really simple menu but everything tasted superb - but she slaved for days and weeks in advance planning and sourcing ingreds, then doing all the cooking etc. And she was fortunate to have three siblings to do front of house etc.

Meant to add earlier that I second the fish and chip van idea. (Or equivalent.). Or you could maybe source a street food caterer at your local farmers market or agricultural show. I attended a wedding where the couple had Vietnamese take out on offer from a catering van (bowls of spring rolls, chicken noodle soups, salads etc) and it was really good.

My cousin got their local Indian restaurant to provide a curry buffet. A couple of meat curries, and lots of veggie ones, plus rice, poppadoms, onion Bhajis and samosas. It was a buffet, so they just came and set it all up with heaters to keep everything hot. It wasn’t expensive and made a nice change.

Indian / Sri Lankan caterers in the SE often cater for smaller weddings by making shared menus across parties - eg if there’s a larger wedding nearby (which there usually is!) then they will charge you a discount rate to have some of the same menu. Some caterers will even give you some ‘basic’ shared items (usually vegetarian stuff like dahls / samosas / rice etc) for free.

Fish and chip van can usually cater for £10-15 a head. A friend of mine hired a pizza van and everyone chose their toppings and it was made to order.

My dd used a mobile caterer who usually does festivals, they had sharing boards for starters, cheese, olives, crostini etc, then arancuni with tomato sauce and kale for mains. Paid £1500 all in. Then had an ice cream cart for dessert, they normally charge £500 but it was the best mans mum who did it for cost. It was an fabulous meal!

Oh and we had pastie and peas delivered from a local bakery in the evening for £250 for 120 people

My niece had picnic baskets at her wedding filled with loads of yummy picnic food. They got huge bowls of salads from a local deli and decanted it’s into little jars for each basket

^"When you make the enquiry don't mention the word 'wedding'.

You can often get exactly the same package for half the price if it's for a 'function' or 'party'.

I went to a wedding near Brighton recently where they hired a fish & chip van - it was actually really tasty!"^

A seaside wedding with fresh fish and chips - how wonderful - just beware of the pesky seagulls!

From www.poptop.uk.com/westsussex-county/suppliers/catering/fishandchipvan/

My friend did a bring and share which was brilliant. Another did afternoon tea which I think we will do too. We’re also having street food type stuff because we know someone who smokes meat and hoping it’ll come in a bit cheaper that way