To Cater or Not To Cater

[Porthos]

My wife got an email from a friend of ours who is re-marrying this year. He has asked my wife and I to cater his wedding. The guest list will run between 250 and 300. They want finger food only - nothing that needs utensils. I personally think it is way beyond what two home cooks (my wife and myself) could pull off. We don't have refrigerator space for that amount of food and I seriously doubt we could pull it off with the coolers we own.

Am I being prudent or cowardly in wanting to turn down the request for such a large endeavor? Personally it scares the heck out of me just to think about it. I really need some feedback on this.

[LindaK]

If you don't think you can do it, you owe it to yourself and your friend to say no--but that you're flattered that he thinks so highly of your cooking skills. Maybe offer to cater a small private party for him as a wedding gift?

A couple of years ago I helped a caterer friend prep the food for a mutual friend's wedding of 200+ guests. Finger food and buffet dinner. It was a lot of work, and he never got to see the wedding or enjoy the reception--too busy working.

[weinoo]

Good advice from Linda. Plus, if you're a friend, wouldn't it be nice to enjoy the wedding?

[Lisa Shock]

You don't say what sort of venue is involved. Most places require that a health department certified facility provide any foods.

If it's at a private residence, it doesn't matter, but food safety will matter. You will need containers to store food as it's made, to transport the food, and to keep it safe and palatable onsite.

Then, there are the myriad of tiny details such as serving platters, tables, tableclothes, napkins, condiment containers, coffee urns, etc. Utensils will still be needed for coffee, iced tea, etc. There will also need to be people freshening the food displays and keeping up with any discarded items or accidents that wind up placed on the buffet tables.

And, there is the whole issue of layout planning, in addition to menu planning.

It's a ton of work, I say attend and enjoy the wedding. You don't need to spend 80+ hours working it.

[Darienne]

What about offering to arrange the catering with some larger professional catering firm. That is still an enormous amount of work.

[rooftop1000]

None of us here are the type to back down from a challenge, but that type of food is the most time consuming and difficult to prepare. You are talking about over the course of 3 hours needing close to 2500 individual pieces. Could you see peeling, cutting, filling and transporting half a case of eggs as a begining.

Wouldn't they much rather a nice BBQ feast

tracey

[onrushpam]

Perhaps you could do part of it and they could have part of it catered? Years ago, I helped with the wedding of a good friend's daughter. Another friend owned an antique shop/"ladies who lunch" place, with access to food wholesalers, and had fridge space in her shop. We got a couple of good hams from an excellent smoke house (it was on our route from home to the wedding). The other friend's DH smoked some turkeys. Once there, I roasted a couple of tenderloins and made a couple big bowls of shrimp/olives/grape tomatoes/cheese (I've posted the recipe here before). The other friend sourced little rolls and biscuits (I think she made the biscuits). There was a gorgeous arrangement of crudites and fruit. I made some of my friend's favorite curry dip,horseradish sauce and a few other things. The cake came from a good local cake shop. We just sat down several months in advance and planned it all out. Day before and day of the wedding, we sliced the ham and turkeys, put together the shrimp/antipasta bowls, etc. They hired people to serve and cleanup. There was somebody to oversee them, but I don't remember those arrangements. Between us, we were able to save the bride's parents a HUGE chunk of the bill for the reception, yet we were still able to enjoy the wedding and reception. This was all done in their home, so there were no worries about regulations.

[LindaK]

If you gracefully decline and your friend tries to talk you into it regardless, ask him/her to read the posts here. They only touch upon the work, management, and angst involved in such an endeavor. I'm guessing that your friend doesn't know much about this business.