Need ideas for a budget friendly reception!

A brunch or cocktail reception immediately following a morning reception.

There’s always ordering from a restaurant too. My favorite italian place in Ottawa Rogers Italian Bistro, do platters of lasagna, penne, and vegetarian dishes, delicious and affordable. We wanted to do that originally but we fell un love with a venue that don’t want outside food or drinks served. Someone would need to run and pick up the food possibly.

If you’re doing super budget friendly there’s always a Potluck, someone needs to be in charge or who’s bringing what and how much! VERY IMPORTANT

Have a breakfast or brunch reception to help cut back on costs!

You have so many options, having a wedding in August, you can pretty much do anything. You can do a Pot Luck, to ordering pizza, it really depends on your budget. There are really no rules anymore, you make your own wedding. So if you wanna keep it simple and cheap I would say Pot Luck, if you are willing to spend a little bit of money then I would say you can also order from a restaurant. I have a favourite restaurant that also cater if you want to order platter, It’s an Italian place so you can get Lasagna , penne dishes, or veggie lasagnas that serve 25 ppl for 120 a platter.

If you shop around there’s something perfect for you, it just depends on your surrounding businesses.

Food trucks or BBQ type catering tends to cost less! I will be having Danny's Whole Hog BBQ at my wedding and the base price is around $15/person.

I was going to order Chinese and have it delivered. It was $10-13 a person and this was based on their catering selection which included around 6 items - few meats, sides, egg rolls all that. I ended up changing it, but been to weddings where had it and soo good!

Have you thought about a brunch reception? Having brunch food would definitely keep costs lower but this only really works with a morning ceremony.

You could also start your reception later (7-7:30pm) and let guests know there will be appetizers and dancing but no dinner. As long as you give them enough time to go out and get dinner (usually 2 hours is fine) they should be fine, again as long as they have notice.

What type of reception are you hoping to have? (Ex: is it a backyard reception or will you be renting a venue?)

You may be able to have a buffet-style dinner at a reasonable price depending on the caterer you hire.