that's an adventure you'll remember for life and the people you invite also. We did the same with the help of brothers and sisters on his side, father inlaw had a alimentari shop and prepared the antipasti beautifully layed and rolled and arranged, kept i fridge and transported with a van at the last moment while we were already in the church, the feast was at my nonna's old house, food inside and tables acattered around the garden, what I remember were an aunt's of mine vegs frittate I tasted, me "la sposa" only when there was a tiny slice left and it was 11 p.m

good luck and let's know

(I first thought Venice in Italy )    

Food for how many?
Are there kitchen facilities at the venue in the price?
What kind of a 'meal' do you want? Cold Buffet? Finger food? 'Sit down'? Full meal?
What time of day?

Lots of questions will hopefully provide enough answers to limit your options to a more managable number.

Congratulations!  I hope the party is wonderful!

Jamie did a show on catering a friend's wedding.  I can't remember which series it was.  I think he makes a whole stuffed fish, an antipasti platter and the dessert was a mix of berries with champagne and whipped cream over store bought meringues.  I may be making some of this up . . . anyway I doubt that episode's recipes were published in any of the recipe books.  But, the berry idea was great - no slicing or peeling - I always remembered that and of course, setting out an antipasti platter is always good - some of the work should be simple like assembly, that way you can have untrained, inexperienced people helping at the last minute.

I remember my daughter's wedding dessert: a woden tray like for polenta but huge and covered by fresh fuit, a heap of fruits like a fruit macedonia with blackberries running around, which made everybody so happy and finished immediately

many congratulations martinspencer and mrs-to -be-martinspencer


What time of year will the wedding be ?
How many people ?
Formal or informal ?
Hot meal or buffet ?

Have you thought f contacting the local catering college to see if there are any students who are willing to help or cook for this wedding party  ? There may be some students who do this srt f thing for a bit of money to help their way through college.
( thinking this as we had students cater for our wedding !)

could it be a 'do it yourself ' party  where by you give manybe one type of salad or taskto each member f the family ... so for example someone is in charge of getting enough green salad and bread rolls for how ever many people ..... someone else cooks a salmon ... somene else cooks sausage rolls... someone else makes another salad ... well not exactly thise things but you get the picture .

We just had a big birthday party for my sister , we all took huge bowls of things over to share the responsibility of the food.
I was travling down and I decided to make the watermelon and feta salad that I made and was so popular at freinds jubilee party , my sister bought in the water melon as it was heavy to carry and we bought with us feta ready chopped into cubes and mint ready chopped , at my sisters I cubed the water melon and mixed in the cubes of feta and chopped mint ,, simple , tasty and loks pretty , but needs to be made shortly before its to be eaten as the salt in the feta cheese gets the water melon to let out its juices and so the salad makes its own dressing !

another sister made a salad of quinola , with some roasted veg and sunflower seeds added.and there were others.

Things need not be fancy as log as they are tasty and go well together.

I you are doing things youself, keep it simple, choose 2 or 3 nice salads and a green salad
maybe some cooked meats and fish .... but dont forget the vegetarians
Bread rolls or chunks of fresh bread

A few tasty deserts including some fruit ( big bowl of mixed berries or fruit salad goes down well ) and a cheese platter

Just a nice fresh meal that is simple to put together