Expert: Teri Davis Newman - 4/5/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

 I am helping my friend plan her wedding. She has 150 guests and 500 budget for food. Is making a buffet with three pasta salads an appropriate and/or afforable undertaking? What else can I make in large quantities that is cheap and appropriate for a wedding? Also, can you bake a wedding cake for 100 dollars or less?

ANSWER: A 500 budget for food for 150 works out to about $3.14 per person which is an impossibly low budget for any kind of decent food so it's going to be one really cheesy wedding. You can bake a wedding cake for less than $100 but with this kind of budget her wedding is going to be a disaster unless she's serving cake, Kool-aid and saltines spread with margarine because butter is out of her budget.  You can't serve dog food to 150 people for $500--it's going to be a total embarrassment for her unless every wedding guest is bringing a dish for a potluck!  I'm a wedding planner and I have a price point wedding for every budgest but for $500 the guest list is 50 people!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your reply. What if she lowered the guest list to 100 people?

Answer
Her absolute maximum for number of guests with a $500 food budget is 75 people--MAXIMUM.  She will have to feed them pasta as a main dish with spaghetti and sauce with a little meat in it--she can't afford meatballs or sausage as a meat side.  You can get a lovely wedding cake at Wal-mart that will feed 75 guests for about $100--go look at the pictures of what you can get at their bakery--it's one of my closely held secrets.  I can give you a recipe for the sauce and if she serves that with garlic bread, an iceberg lettuce salad with oil and vinegar Italian style dressing and iced tea/water she should be able to feed 75 people and give them each a slice of wedding cake and not embarrass herself. She also MIGHT be able to afford to put mushrooms in the sauce if she uses the cheap stems and pieces canned store brand.  Fresh parmesan as a pasta topping is out of her price range but she might be able to get a few cans of the store brand parmesan that she can shake on.  With paper plates, napkins and cups along with plastic utensils I don't know if she can afford the cheese, but she won't be able to afford to rent china on her budget. The upside is that it's a VERY good sauce recipe that the guests will love (everyone does) and it will seem gourmet rather than all she can afford if she puts the mushrooms in the sauce.  She really should think about putting off the wedding for a year so that she can save up some money to be able to afford real dishes for her guests.  She should really consider eloping--she cannot afford food for her wedding and serving from paper plates is tacky.