Self-catering or caterer?

I cook everyday at work for multiple residents with strict diets and allergies and no way would I want that responsibility on myself for my own wedding and be responsible if someone gets sick!! I also wouldn't want all the added stress of cooking right before the wedding when I will likely have several other stressful things going on at the time! A caterer will make my life easier!

I would have a caterer for our wedding especially for health and safety reasons.

Self catering for us!!

Yup exactly!

Everything Melissa said! If I was doing a backyard party with only about 20 people I would consider doing pot luck but for my wedding I am going to be crazy enough without having to worry about making food for 120 people (or having my much more qualified FH (with 20 years of food service experience) worrying about it!) It could be done and much love and awe for those who have done or are planning to do it but it is not for me!

This... all of this

I'm pretty against the self catering idea. I think for a small (think- 10-15 people) wedding, it can work, and that group would be very close family, it might be nice.

But when a group is larger than that I think it is best left to the pros... you don't want to spend your wedding day trying to cook, and serve people! Too much stress for me! And I would want my family and freinds to relax and enjoy the festivities, rather than worry about trying to help me serve the other guests.

The liability with self catering is also a bit terrifying. I'm a licensed trainer for food safety, and even I don't want to take on catering for a crowd witthout a professional team!

The quality and consistency from a professional are also quite important. I'm not serving a full meal, but I want to know that the apps and late night foods I am serving at my wedding are top notch! I think with 100 other things to worry about on my wedding day quality would fall to the side in cooking. And home cooks might be great, but large meals are hard to do without experience and a professional kitchen.

Besides, a wedding is a special occasion, and a pretty big milestone, I want to celebrate it as such!

We did catering! Even if it wasn't a destination wedding, there's no way we would have self-catered. We don't have any experience in it and it was one of our priorities so we went with a great restaurant that was able to provide a wonderful meal for us and our guests!