Wedding for 125, wedding reception buffet amounts

Wedding for 125
(these pages are a work-in-progress.. but you will still find lots of info!)

Thanks to Wendy, my sister-in-law for sharing all her
meticulous notes and to Trish my niece for letting me
turn her wonderful wedding into this web page.
Great Job ladies!!!

Wendy is a talented seamstress and loves to entertain,
so when Trish decided to get married, it was a natural
thing to do it all themselves. Besides saving a bundle
of $$$$, they derived great enjoyment and a huge feeling
of satisfaction from doing the wedding reception themselves.

What they did themselves:

Made the Wedding Dress and Bridesmaid Dresses (photo)
Made the Reception Hall Decorations and favors (photo and tips)
Made all the food for the Wedding Dinner Buffet
Made the Wedding Cake (photo)
Made the Invitations
Made the wine

What they purchased:

DJ with music for dancing
Photographer
Rented: table skirting, plates, cutlery, glasses,
serving bowls, chafing dishes and extra chairs
Volunteer and hired help to serve the food.

Buffet MENU for 125

Dinner was served at 7PM, everyone was hungry and ate heartily.
There was more than enough food.
The Menu was designed to allow for Vegetarian Guests.
There was lots of food left over and it came in very handy.
The leftovers were served for lunch and dinner the following day,
when their home was full of relatives and quests.
Two people worked in the kitchen at the hall for approximately 6 hours;
organizing the food, serving it and then putting it away.
These ladies suggest starting 2 hrs. prior to the meal and having,
if inexperienced, a 3rd person helping.

ITEM -- for 125 people	Amount Actually Needed - with a small allowance for extras	Amount Made or purchased	Notes for another time
Dinner Buns	10 dozen - 3 varieties	12 doz.	you don't need 1 roll for every person, although it was handy having leftovers.
Butter	1 lb. cut into pats	We cut 2 lbs. of butter into pats.	You can purchase butter pats, or you can whip the butter with with a bit of milk, or you can cut your own pats. Only one lb. was used.
Caesar Salad	15 lb. of prepared bagged romaine lettuce fed everyone with 1/2 bag left over. People were taking generous amounts. 1 1/2 qt. of dressing was all that was used, however you might need more if you wanted the salad a bit heavier dressed on the salad.	we had 20 lb. on hand with 4 qt. bottled dressing. We had 5 lbs. of salad left oven and half of the dressing.	Must be mixed at the last minute so that the salad doesn't wilt. Very popular item, would use again. Make sure there is enough dressing used (I'd estimate 1 c. for each 2 lbs. of salad.) and mix in the parmesan and croutons rather than sprinkle on top. Bowl needed to be refilled several times, be prepared to refill it quickly. A very large plastic bowl was rented for this from a party supply rental.
Marinated Vegetable Salad		approx. 4 gallons
Greek Salad	Make using a base of 8 cucumbers and 16 tomatoes	approx. 4 gallons we made using a base of 10 cucumbers and 20 tomatoes	we had an excess of this salad.
Pasta Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing	15 c. dry tiny shell pasta was the correct base for this salad	21 c. dry tiny shell pasta was actually cooked and this allowed too much left over salad	We had 25% left over of this salad. The volume we made wasn't required. It was considered a starch staple in the menu and could be replaced by any other pasta, rice or potato salad.
Sliced Ham	allow 14-16 lb. of sliced ham	200 slices were made, and there was LOTS left over	The chicken was more popular than the ham and we had too much ham left over.
Rice Pilaf	18 c. of uncooked rice was the basis for this.	Allowed 1/2 c. per person, but this was an over estimate.
Chicken In Grand Marnier	90 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut in half or several strips (approx. 12 kg. or 27 lb. purchased frozen)		This was very well received and very tender and tasty. Excellent recipe and froze well ahead of time. Would definitely use again.
Pickles	1 large jar of dills cut into 200 pieces 3 - 14 oz. cans pitted black olives		Use pickles of your choice and have the pickle pieces cut to a convenient size
Dessert	Assorted bars, cut into small pieces.	We had lots left over.	2-3 bars per person is adequate as many did not have dessert.
Wine			We made our own wine for the wedding to save money, as wine is very expensive here in Canada.
Beer	approx. 16 doz. beer	We purchased more beer just before the wedding and we were glad that we did.	Punch was not served as it would have been too labor intensive and would have taken up valuable fridge space which was needed for the food.
Other Beverages	Approx. 15 2 liter bottles of Pop	We had a mix of regular and diet pop and had purchased more than 15 bottles	The extra pop was handy to have the next day.

TIPS:

All the menu items were prepared in small batches and 'voted on' by the bride and groom and their family. Only the dishes the majority enjoyed were chosen.
As much as possible was frozen ahead of time. We used neighbors freezers too.
A full menu dinner was prepared for some family and friends and the amounts consumed were noted in an attempt to estimate the total amounts of food the would be required.
Menu items that could be frozen were frozen, then tested for reheating.
A detailed 'volunteer list' was created for the food prep day, so that volunteers helping knew exactly what to do.
This wedding was in the winter and the cold food was stored in the garage, a thermometer was kept in there to determine the correct food safe temperature. (otherwise neighbors fridges would have been used or fridge space would have tried to be rented)
Punch was not considered as it was considered too labor intensive.
There were no appetizers served, as the was also considered too labor intensive and there was no fridge space for anything extra other than the meal itself.

See more about this wedding!

[Setting up the Hall] [ The Wedding Cake ] [ The Dresses ]

Self Catering Links