DIY Elegant Wedding Dinner for Less than 2K - 130 guests

This post is a copy, paste of what I did for my daughter’s wedding. Blessings on your upcoming day! ~Bethany

You will need tiered serving display options along with plates & bowls & charcuterie boards. Borrow stuff! Look on Facebook marketplace. Save your $$$! Make bowls with the extra ingredients such as craisins, ice cream cherries, etc. Just add them to the charcuterie table. Remember that as you purchase supplies go for unusual and unique options for a unique display and eating experience. 

I recommend displaying your food choices each on their own serving platter instead of making as spastic display that makes people’s heads spin. Just because a food display is artistic doesn’t mean people will appreciate it. Complicated displays leave people wondering if they missed something and makes for really long lines as people struggle to make choices. It also takes longer to display and makes preparation way more complicated. 

We assembled all the food the day before the wedding and wrapped everything in plastic wrap or aluminum foil. We assembled the charcuterie table the morning of the wedding with everything that didn’t need refrigerated and hired 2 people to bring out the cold food a couple hours before the wedding and uncover everything for us. 

The sausage- we took the time to cut into large bite sizes and seer on the stove perfectly, then we froze them. This was done several months before the wedding. We thawed them the day before the wedding and put them in crock pots on warm the morning of the wedding with some extra water. We purchased the highest quality sausage links from GFS.

The chicken was GFS pre-grilled chicken skewers. We thawed them the day before the wedding and put them in crock pots on warm the morning of the wedding with some extra water. We struggled to get enough power for all the crock pots, so really think that through!

We had 2 tabasco flavors for meat dipping sauce and a medium crock pot full of GFS Kentucky Bourbon flavored BBQ sauce warmed for the mashed potatoes and meat.

The mashed potatoes were pre-made and came frozen in bags from GFS and we added a stick of butter, a block of cream cheese and some onion powder to each crock pot of mashed potatoes. We gave the mashed potato job to a wedding guest to bring those prepared and warm right before the wedding.

The bride's name was Isabelle and the groom's name was Drew so we served a mocktail named after each of them and one named after their combined names. Each mocktail was a simplified recipe of actual mixed drinks. We had the ‘Jalapeno Isa-rita’ the ‘Drew-lagoon’ and ‘The Drisabelle,’ We made the recipes such that no measuring was required. Here are the recipes…

It took 2 staff to keep the hot food hot, cold food cold, ice and drink ready and tidy up. Plus, cleaning up took about 10 people a couple hours. Have ziplock bags, plastic containers ready and keep as many of the original food containers as you can to put the food back into the containers they came in.

Lastly, the bride and groom had a cheesecake at their table for the cake cutting. We purchased one regular cheesecake and one small cheesecake (from the frozen section at Kroger) and stacked them. We placed them on a cake stand and added fresh roses to match the wedding. Be sure to include a knife, 2 forks and a plate close by.

Put black flat bed sheet fabric on the tables, add candles, fresh greenery & herbs.