Catering Your Own Wedding to Save Money, Part 3 - Salads

You're getting married and you are looking for ways to cut costs for your wedding. Catering your wedding is an excellent way to save some money. For all the details including items you'll need to rent, borrow or buy, look for that in a separate article. It also gives suggestions on "hiring" people (not your family or close friends) to "work" your event. That article offers full menu suggestions and other ideas that might work for your reception. And "part 2" offers ideas on creating and serving your appetizers.

Here is one of my favorite green salad suggestions. I usually only do an oil and vinegar (olive oil only, please) dressing but for a larger crowd, I would offer ranch and one other dressing as well. For the salad, you'll need several heads of lettuce, well washed and torn into bite-size pieces. Let them dry well - use a salad spinner or spread them out on paper towels to dry. You can then store them in plastic bags - loosely, so the leaves won't crush. I would suggest using at least three different types of lettuce. When ready to serve, add tomatoes - the little grape or cherry tomatoes would be terrific because they're small and you won't have to cut them up - that means your salad greens won't wilt from the liquid. You might add the croutons at his point also. Then add salt, pepper and garlic to taste and toss. Then I would have several similar sized bowls surrounding the salad serving bowl(s) and fill them with crumbled bleu cheese, sliced olives, sliced mushrooms, red onion slices, diced ham (or salami), grated egg (best not to do in the summer unless you can keep this cold), zucchini slices, and any other items you would like to included. A nice touch would be a pepper mill next to the bowls of dressings. (No dressings still in the bottle, please!) Next are the dressings and you might want to offer rolls and butter here also. For a large crowd, make at least two bowls of salads and another area of "extras" and a second "dressing station" to make the serving go more quickly.

You might want to offer a potato salad or a macaroni salad (or a pasta salad). One of my favorite pasta salads is one made with two or three pasta shapes and/or colors and I add thinly sliced strips of salami, boiled ham and mortadella. You could add small cubes of one or two types of cheeses also. I use red onions - for both the color and taste - chopped fairly small. Then you can add sliced olives - green or black, mushrooms and other items you like. Your dressing here would be an oil (olive oil, please) and vinegar base with salt, pepper and garlic to taste. I also add a dash of Worcestershire Sauce. This particular pasta salad would look good in a clear glass bowl so you could see all the different colors mixed together.

Your potato salad might be a little more than the "usual" variety. There are so many different ones to make so why not offer two or three types, especially if you have a pretty large crowd. I really like the sour cream potato salad one of my grocery store's deli makes and at another local store I like the baked potato salad - one of them is made with the little red potatoes which would be visually appealing. My mother always garnishes her potato salad with paprika over the top and lines the rim of the bowl with small pimento stuffed green olives.

With the green salad and the "extras" described above, and one or two potato and/or macaroni/pasta salads that just round off your salads for your gathering. Again, you might want rolls, sliced French breads or breadsticks to serve with the salads. You might even add a platter of cold cuts for a variety.

Look for another article giving you main dish and side dishes.