DIY Wedding: How to Cater Your Own Hors De Oeuvres Reception

Wedding receptions can easily be self-catered, especially if you have chosen not to serve a full meal. Food costs are a great place to save money if your wedding is on a tight budget, and with a little bit of chopping help, you can have a great reception with cheese and crackers, fruit, and vegetable platters, along with cake of course!

Cater Your Own Wedding Reception: Initial Considerations

Before diving into the process of catering your wedding reception, you should first think about whether this is really the best option for you. Although self-catering is far less expensive than hiring a caterer, you will need to think about things such as how you will be presenting the food (purchasing or borrowing large platters), who will spend the time preparing the food, and how you will keep the food chilled during the wedding.

If you can figure out how to arrange the above elements, then you should be able to successfully cater your wedding reception.

Cater Your Own Wedding Reception: Cheese and Crackers Platter

To make a cheese and crackers platter, you will only need two things: cheese and crackers. Crackers can be purchased by the box, and make sure that you have a good variety of fancy crackers, and plenty because they will be a popular item.

For the cheese, you will have to decide between serving cubes or slices of more basic cheeses, or a platter of fancy cheeses in larger blocks that people can then cut and serve themselves. Either way, make sure you have a selection of both stronger and milder cheeses. For basic cheeses, consider cheddar, swiss, pepper jack, and mozzarella. If you are opting for fancy cheeses, brie is always a good choice, as are baby swiss, blue cheese, and gouda.

Cater Your Own Wedding Reception: Fruit Platter

Fruit platters can be simple or difficult to prepare, depending on what fruits you choose to have. Fruits that are already in bite-size portions are much easier, like grapes, cherries, and berries. You can also have fruit such as pineapple, watermelon, and apples, but you will need to slice them beforehand.

To serve alongside your fruit platter, consider putting out a bowl of caramel sauce for apples, or a cream cheese and brown sugar dip that goes great with berries and most other fruits.

Cater Your Own Wedding Reception: Vegetable Platter

Vegetable platters can also vary in preparation time, but there are a number of good vegetables that can be purchased pre-cut for a decent price, or that don't need cutting at all. For example, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, and snap peas are all delicious vegetables that don't require preparation, and broccoli can be purchased pre-cut. Other good vegetables are bell pepper strips and cucumber strips or slices.

A dip such as a sour cream and dill sauce or a bowl of ranch dressing will go well with a vegetable platter, and maybe even help those who don't typically enjoy raw vegetables to take a few and enjoy them.