To have a small budget for your wedding means that you have to cut costs wherever you can. Cutting the costs on the wedding Catering can be done without your guests feeling that they have just been to the cheapest wedding ever. By changing small things, you can really make a significant difference in the cost of your wedding catering.

One of the most important parts of your wedding is the Reception, and a greater percentage of the success of the reception, depends on the food. It is very important to impress your guests with the presentation, the taste, the theme and the quality of the food.

To save money, doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to skimp on any one of these important factors of the food.

To save on your wedding food, you will have to do more research and comparing of prices. This means more work for the couple and those helping them, but it could well be worth it at the end. By saving money on your catering, you might end up having more money to spend on things such as the Honeymoon or starting your life together.

Consider these factors when trying to save money on your wedding catering:

1. Cater your own food: It might be that you are one of those lucky brides that have a few aunts or friends that are excellent in the kitchen. Most of the time, family and friends are very willing to help with your wedding in any way possible. Remember to give them a special thanks and acknowledgement when it is time for the speeches.

2. Hire an independent catering company: If are having your reception at a Hotel or somewhere similar, you can usually only choose from the menu they offer. By choosing a venue that allows you to use an independent catering company, you can drastically reduce the costs of your reception food and have more of a say on what you want and don’t want. For a great but affordable outdoor wedding, you can hire a marquee and a catering company and choose any location you want. If you want to save money with your reception food, try and keep the reception as informal as possible.

3. Save on Beverages: The days where the bride and groom paid for an open bar to let the guests drink alcohol into the early mornings, are long gone. There are a few things that you can do to save a lot of money on the beverages.

By placing 3-4 bottles of a selection of wine on each table, gives your guests a choice of white or red wine. You will usually see that guests don’t drink more than two glasses of wine anyway and you can always supply a bar to buy their own drinks for those who feel like having something else. Make sure that you supply endless amounts of juice and water in jugs. You can make it special by adding a slice of lime with mint leaves or you can add a few berries in a nice grape or berry juice.

Another thing you can do is to leave out the champagne and ask the guests to top up their glass with their favorite drink for the toasts. Most of the guests don’t even enjoy champagne and it only goes to waste.

4. Individual Picnic baskets for every family or couple. Another informal outdoor wedding idea is a mid morning picnic on the banks of a lovely lake with lots of shade. You could have a nice folded up blanket and picnic basket for each family. In the picnic baskets you can have the plates, crockery, nice bottle wine and juice, and a variety of finger food. For a breakfast, you might have muffins, cheese, fruit skewers and other breakfast finger food. The guests can then make themselves comfortable under a big tree on soft grass while the bride and groom might have a more comfortable couch or table and chairs. You will not only save money on the food and drinks, but save money on the reception venue, furniture, linen and much more. You can decorate the setting with drapes and ribbons with crystals and flowers hanging from the trees. You can have a few comfortable seating like couches for the older people. This can be a very relaxed and inexpensive idea, but this is only recommended with a younger and more adventurous crowd.

5. A Country themed wedding: Theme weddings can be so much more than just matching the favor and invitations to the theme. It is very important to choose the right wedding food to match your theme and personality and this can also make the choosing of the theme very fun and exciting.

For an informal outdoor country theme, you can have an old fashioned country BBQ. Although this is informal, it can still be done in a stylish way with fresh country salads garnished with herbs, corn on the cob, fresh fruits and home baked bread with butter. For the meats you can have all sorts of hand sized lamb cutlets, mini spare ribs or honey glazed chicken. You might also consider whole lambs on a spit and have the caterers carve it to perfection.

If you concentrate on your country theme and make sure that your food looks good as well as taste fabulous, you can definitely make a huge success of your wedding bbq.

6. Make an appointment to talk to your butcher about less expensive cuts of meats. Any good butcher will be more than happy to show you the differences in prices of meats and also their quality and what they can be used for. For the best prices of seafood and fresh produce, visit your local produce Market to compare prices. Substitute expensive seafood like prawns and scallops for calamari or mussels and use chicken instead of a prime beef fillet. If your food is tasty and festive, your guests will never miss the expensive cuts.

7. Serve the wedding cake as the dessert: Spend a bit more on your wedding cake and use that as the only desert. If you have a rich dark chocolate mouse cake, you can serve it with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream dusted with coco for an extra special finish. Most guests will appreciate that more than to have a dessert and then wedding cake. Most of the time, the guests doesn’t even eat the cake because they are too full and the lovely cake will just be wasted.

Make your wedding food a priority when planning your wedding. Remember that food is a big part of a celebration and should therefore add to the festiveness of the day.