A wedding can be so expensive, and the food is often one of the biggest parts of the budget. Fortunately, there are lots of ways you can cut costs while still having great food. I’m sharing 5 of the best ways I’ve found to save money on the food for your wedding.
I think it’s 100% possible to have a beautiful wedding that you love without spending a fortune. The key for us was to prioritize what’s really important and try to save on everything else.
For example, our priorities were a really good photographer and hiring a specific live band that we had seen at another wedding and loved. So we found ways to save in other areas such as the venue, my dress, decorations and food.
Here are 5 ways that you can save money on wedding food and still have a delicious menu to serve your guests.
Find a Venue That Allows Outside Catering
Many venues such as country clubs and hotels require that you use their catering service for your wedding. While you may get the room for free or a small fee, find out how much the food will cost per person.
If you are able to find a venue that allows outside catering, you can shop around for a caterer in your price range, or you could even DIY your wedding food (I’ll cover that later!).
Bonus tip: You may be able to save on the venue cost and the food cost by choosing a less popular date! We got a discount for reserving our venue for a Sunday rather than a Saturday. Weekdays would have been even cheaper but we decided against a weekday wedding. Some caterers or other wedding vendors may offer discounts if you choose a weekday or less popular time of year.
Create a Dessert Bar
Wedding cakes can be SO expensive! If you don’t have your heart set on a cake, create a dessert bar instead. This is an option that can even be free if you get friends and family to bake a dessert.
I decided to put together a dessert bar for my wedding instead of ordering a big wedding cake. I shopped around to get deals on the decorations, cake stands/cookie jars and utensils for our dessert bar.
When we were planning our wedding, several close friends or family members asked if there was any way they could help with the wedding. I asked them to bake a dessert for our dessert bar! My grandma made some pies, Andrew’s aunt baked cookies and a few other friends brought brownies and cheesecake bars.
We also ordered a small cake to cut, mostly for the sake of photos! You can read more about that below in the update I shared after our wedding.
Update: We did end up doing a DIY dessert bar for our wedding and it was a success! I asked a couple of friends and family members to make desserts such as cookies, pies, brownies and cheesecake bars.
I also ordered a small cake from Publix (my favorite flavor, Raspberry Elegance!) for us to cut into during the reception. I asked them to customize the color to our wedding colors and I created my own cake topper. The cake was only about $20, so much less than a wedding cake!
A fun idea is to make your own cake stands! These DIY Thrift Store Cake Stands from Frog Prince Paperie are perfect to display the desserts on. Having a variety of heights and sizes will add detail to the table and show off all those yummy desserts!
Just Serve Appetizers and Desserts
This post on How to have a {Simple, Tasteful, & Inexpensive} Wedding Reception from Through the Lens of Hannah Diane has lots of great advice for saving money on the reception, especially on the food.
Hannah explained that if don’t hold your reception at a meal time, people won’t expect a full meal. She has some really tasteful ways to have a great reception without serving a full meal.
Cut Back your Guest List
This can be hard to do, but remember that most caterers charge per person. Keeping the guest list smaller means a smaller bill from your caterer.
For my wedding, we were selective with the guest list but it was so important for us to have our family members there. We each come from large extended families so that really filled up the guest list quick! We didn’t have much room to cut the guest list so we found other areas to cut costs such as the dessert bar I mentioned above and bringing in our own caterer.
Do It Yourself
Do you have some friends or family members who love to cook? Get them on board to help you DIY the food for your wedding. Be sure to delegate and keep most the work off of yourself though, you don’t want to add stress to your wedding day.
I found lots of great tips and ideas for A DIY Wedding Reception for 200 in this post from The Kitchn. They go into a lot of detail!
Which of these ideas would you try? If you are already married, did one of these ideas work for you?
Brittany Bergman says
These are great tips! My husband and I used similar ideas for our wedding and it saved us hundreds of dollars! Especially the one about finding a venue that allows you to bring in your own caterer. We also cut costs by using plastic plates (the kind that look like china) rather than renting real china. No one will notice or remember that you didn’t have real china! We also did our ceremony and reception at the same place, so we were able to comfortably skip cocktail hour and passed hors d’oeuvres (though we did have a select bar during the reception). We bought all our own liquor at Binny’s, and they allowed us to return everything that was unopened.
Jenna Brussee says
Thank you so much for sharing all this helpful information! I decided to go with plastic plates as well. We found a really good deal at Sam’s Club. You can get the plasticware that looks like silver there, too. It saves you from having to have someone (or pay someone) to wash the china afterward, too.
Anna @ The Beauty Section says
These are great tips! I definitely believe you can have a really beautiful wedding without breaking the bank! When my sister got married she ditched the wedding cake and did a dessert bar. Some people missed the traditional cake, but most were really excited about the other desserts.
Jenna Brussee says
I am really excited about doing a dessert bar! Overall I think it will please more people since a lot of people don’t eat cake! We will probably have one or two small cakes and then have cookies, brownies, cupcakes, pies, etc.
Daisy @ Simplicity Relished says
Your points are excellent Jenna!! We splurged on food for our wedding and we loved our caterers, but we did cut back in some ways! We only served wine and beer (and champagne) instead of cocktails, and we also had a dessert bar instead of commissioning a wedding cake. Both of these things helped us save thousands, to be honest. 🙂
Jenna Brussee says
Thanks for sharing what worked for you! I’ve found that the best practice is to decide what is important to you and allow yourself to spend more on that. And once you have those things figured out, you can find ways to save on the things that aren’t important to you.
Steph @Sustaining the Powers says
Saving the money on the food is always such a smart choice!! I bet your dessert bar will be beautiful. 🙂
After catering friends weddings, organizing all the food for a summer camp for a few summers, organizing food for many, many different conferences and dance event weekends, and taking the lead on cooking for a few summer-long mission trips for 50+ people on the world’s smallest budget, I decided that we didn’t want to try to organize any food ourselves for our wedding day. It can save so much money, but I knew I’d get so stressed out about it (even if I delegated it all- I’m horrible at letting that type of thing go, and I didn’t know anyone who had enough experience to just take over for me.) So, for us it was worth the money to have the venue cater it. We had the reception at our university ballrooms, so we got a bit of a discount there for being students, and we had the wedding on Monday, January 3, which is a super slow, off-season date. (Most guests had the date free due to new years being over the weekend.) Because of the date we chose, so many things were reduced in cost (venue, photography, flights, catering, etc). We set a budget aside for food, and then went to the university catering staff and negotiated a price first and then he filled in the menu based on our budget. He had more flexibility to change packages for us since it wasn’t a busy time of year. (And he and I had worked together previously, so I’m sure that helped too.) So I think there’s always room to negotiate even if you don’t diy!
Jenna Brussee says
Wow, thank you for sharing all these helpful ideas! I would get wayyyy to stressed out trying to DIY The food, too. We are going to have that one catered, but since our venue allows outside catering we were able to find a vendor will a good deal.
The day of the week can really make a difference! We are saving $800 on our venue because our wedding will be on Sunday instead of a Saturday.
Steph @Sustaining the Powers says
Yeah, trying to DIY anything on the day of your wedding just seems so crazy. (Doing things ahead of time is totally fine, but the day-of should be really relaxed.) I had so many (single) friends who were suprised I wasn’t catering our wedding (for 400 people). I kind of just told them they were crazy. We managed a 400 guest wedding on $6,000, so I think it worked out just fine. 🙂
Jenna Brussee says
I feel ya! I want the day of to be as relaxed and stress-free as possible. And I’m very impressed that you managed to have $400 guests for $6000!
Mandy says
I’m going to learn so much from you preparing for your wedding! And I love the idea of doing something beside the traditional wedding cake. I’m a fan of the ice cream bar idea =D
Jenna Brussee says
I’ll be happy to share everything I learned! The other day I saw a bunch of really cute “dessert station” ideas on Pinterest, like the ice cream bar you suggested or a s’mores bar or candy bar. Those ideas are so fun and much more memorable than a traditional cake.
gradybird says
Love, love, LOVE this post – especially since I am in the middle of wedding planning myself! We actually did get an outside caterer for our venue and that has been really helpful, but I’m glad to have these other tips as well! 🙂
Jenna Brussee says
I am glad so many Peony Project girls are engaged so we can share ideas! I just read your post this morning. I’m glad these tips were helpful to you. Getting an outside caterer makes a big difference, doesn’t it?
gradybird says
Seriously! And for us it’s awesome that our caterer is willing to let us bring our own additions if we’d like to, which is super great AND had lots of money-saving potential. 🙂
Monica says
Such good advice! My husband and I wanted to make sure that the food we served at our wedding was delicious – and it was! Just as you mentioned, we made sure that the venue we chose didn’t lock us in to a specific caterer. It was so nice having complete freedom to choose what we wanted (in the right price range). I also REALLY enjoyed doing taste tests to decide who would cater 😀 If I could do it all over again, though, I’d be all up on that dessert bar idea!!
Jenna Brussee says
Thanks for sharing your experience! You had a great point, being able to choose an outside caterer not only saves you money, but allows you to choose any type of food you want.
Gennie says
All of these suggestions on how to cut back are so smart! We weren’t really able to cut back much because the catering had to be done at our venue, and I would have liked to get away from that, but unfortunately, my dad had a connection to the venue, so it was the place we needed to use. I loved it, though! And dessert bar instead of cake is a smart idea!
Jenna Brussee says
It can be tough when the venue requires you to use their food! We wanted to avoid that if possible, and fortunately we are able to. I’m glad your wedding still turned out beautifully, though!
Ash and Crafts says
Hi Jenna! Thank you for sharing these great tips. We splurged on some parts of our wedding but we still saved some money here and there, like providing our own alcohol to the caterer for the open bar and going with a smaller cake and having an extra sheet cake to be served but not displayed.
Jenna Brussee says
I’m really enjoying all the comments from people like you who have been here before. It’s nice to hear what worked for you or get some ideas I hadn’t thought of. The smaller cake with a sheet cake to be served is really smart! That would save so much.
Tayler says
My wedding was on a $5,500 budget (I’m Mormon, so our ceremonies and ceremony venues are free in our temples, but not the reception venue)…so, we bought a ton of Costco fruit, pink lemonade, and variety cheescakes. We only spent about $400 on food and plates, cups, etc.! Then my mom hired 3 young teen girls in our congregation to be “servers”. It looked and felt like a catering company!
Jenna Brussee says
Thank you for sharing your experience! Buying in bulk can save so much when you decide to do the food yourself. I’m using a caterer, but we already went to Sam’s and got the plates and silverware for a great deal. They are plastic but look nicer.
Christie says
For my wedding we purchased lots of food at Sams Club (crab cakes, desserts, fruit, etc.) and some ladies volunteered to take care of it for me. It turned out great, but we had a very small wedding with an intimate reception at the church afterwards. It was easy and simple, which I liked since I was planning it from halfway across the country! 🙂 Thank you for sharing this wonderful post with us at the Bloggers Brags Weekly Pinterest Party! I am pinning to our Bloggers Brag board on Pinterest. We hope to see you again next week!
Jenna Brussee says
Sam’s Club is great for big events like a wedding! They have some really yummy desserts, too. I’ll probably be having friends and family make the dessert for my dessert bar, but I might pick up a cheesecake platter or something like that from Sam’s.
Tammy Doiel says
We just did appetizers and cake, and did it all ourselves (with my mom’s friends!) Some we did buy at Sams too. Your post tied for the second highest amount of clicks last week at the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party and will be featured this coming Monday! Thanks for linking up!
Jenna Brussee says
Thanks for sharing what worked for you! I love hearing everyone else’s experience. And I am so excited to be featured at next week’s party. Yay!
Lauren says
These are amazing tips that are so helpful! I saved money with my dessert bar by having a friend make my one tier wedding cake. Then instead of serving cake to all of my guests, I served a plethora of different desserts like cupcakes, raspberry cheesecake bars, and buckeye balls.
Jenna Brussee says
Thanks, Lauren! We are planning to have a dessert bar as well. We already have a few people who have volunteered to make something.
Breanna ♥ More than Love says
This is a great list with great advice – you are so right in saying that the food can be a huge budget breaker. We did our own cookies which really helped! 🙂 Great list!
Jenna Brussee says
I’m planning to have someone make cookies since a lot of people don’t like cake. There are so many cute ways to serve them, too.
Tara says
Those desserts look delicious. We had a family member who is a professional caterer do our cakes – they turned out gorgeous!
Jenna Brussee says
It’s awesome when you know someone! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Rachel G says
This is a really practical list! We used two of the strategies you mentioned–we had our wedding at 2 pm and our reception at 3 pm so that it wasn’t during a standard mealtime so that people wouldn’t expect a meal. We had a make-your-own nachos bar with all the trimmings, a crackers/cheese/meats table, a chocolate fountain with everything we could think of to dip in it, and a wedding cake, and then coffee/tea/and punch for drinks (alcohol wasn’t a factor since I was 19 when we got married and the church where we were married didn’t allow alcohol, haha!). All the food was actually pretty easy to prepare, so we DIY’d the catering. My grandma headed up the effort for food prep, and aunts, cousins, and MIL pitched in to help us set up and take down. Even though it wasn’t a meal, it still felt like there was plenty of food–Angel and I didn’t eat again till we went out for breakfast the next morning!
I wanted to have lots more people more than I wanted a really fancy dinner, so for us, doing simple, fun appetizers was definitely the better option, because cutting the guest list wouldn’t have been fun.
Jenna Brussee says
I love how you said that having more people was more important than having a fancy dinner. It’s so important to talk about what is important to you and prioritize accordingly!
Annie @ Annie's Noms says
This is a wonderful post! I just got engaged a month ago and whilst we know we want a small wedding, the cost of food is still a worry!
Jenna Brussee says
I remember seeing your ring on Instagram. Congrats! It’s such an exciting time, isn’t it? I hope some of these ideas will help ease your worry about the cost of food. There are lots of options to keep it within your budget!
corisbigmouth says
I love these tips, I’ll save them for my future wedding 🙂 TFS!
Jenna Brussee says
Thanks for stopping by! I hope these tips come in handy someday.
Amanda Marie says
WOW great ideas shared in this post! The dessert bar looks just amazing! I really love the DIY idea for the cake stand, they looks so awesome! Thanks for sharing these tips, they are all very useful!
Jenna Brussee says
I am really excited about the dessert bar idea! We are going to be doing that for our wedding. I need to get started on some DIY cake stands.
Simply Sheard says
Yes! We chose a venue who allowed us to either bring in our own food or choose our own caterer. We had a good family friend who was a caterer at the time and asked him if he would cater our wedding. It worked out splendidly and we saved tons of money that way. Also we bought our cake at Costco. Huge budget saver. AND people still talk about our wedding food TODAY! yay!
Jenna Brussee says
That’s awesome! It really saves so much money when you have the flexibility to shop around or have a family friend help out. Thanks for sharing how these tips worked for you!
Julie Graff Dehner says
If I may ask, what was the menu for your wedding? An email would be appreciated! tupperdehner@gmail.com
Thank you in advance.
Kayty | Simply Sheard says
Hi we had picnic food. Ham or turkey sandwiches. Potato salad & Macaroni salad. Fruit & vegetable trays. Hope that helps!
Jenna Owens (@aSavoryFeast) says
That is a great idea! Easy to make and affordable.
Sharon Erickson says
Great tips Jenna! I love the idea of a dessert bar. I always think people enjoy all the sweets for any party/event/wedding they go to. At least I always do!
Jenna Brussee says
I love how dessert bars look in pictures, too! I’m planning to make or buy a variety of cake stands, cookie jars and serving trays to display everything.
Jaelan @ Making Mrs. M says
These are awesome tips.
To save money on our wedding food, we kept it in-house. Our venue did everything. We actually got a package for our wedding. We didn’t get to choose the food, but we were fine with that. We had lasagna, salad, bread, and green beans. I think everyone was happy with it–it was delicious!