In this series of articles I am going to give you a lot of ideas and tips to cater for your wedding reception. In this first article I will give you five ideas to consider when having your reception catered in a reception hall that offers food service as part of the package.

As food can take a large chunk of your budget it is important to know exactly how much you want to allocate to the catering and of course how many guests will be attending on the day.

Choosing the type of food you want to serve your guests - taking into consideration their different diets - it is not unusual to have a large percentage of your guests as vegetarians and or vegans.

There is nothing wrong with an elegantly prepared chicken breast for your wedding meal with possibly a vegetarian or fish dish as an alternative. Remember beef tends to be more expensive than fish and poultry.

Consider the following general tips when planning your reception dinner:

1. Buffet meals are not necessarily cheaper than served meals. In reality buffets require more food and more labor so the cost is usually higher. This may not be the case if the reception hall specializes in buffet-style meals.
2. Consider other main entrees besides beef and chicken. Chefs can do a lot of very tasty dishes with pasta and prices are usually very reasonable.
3. If you have a small number of guests - say up to 100 - consider piggy backing with another smaller group and having the same menu. This allows the caterer to buy in bulk and obtain discounts.
4. Whenever possible order in bulk yourself. And if you have any connections in the food industry that will give you discounts let the caterer know that there are certain items that you can get at a reduced price.
5. Negotiate house wine prices with dinner versus a specialty wine.
6. Bonus tip: Don't offer too wide a choice. Keep things simple with generally accepted good quality food. Nobody is going to expect a full "a la carte" menu.

Keeping your food options small will allow for greater discounts. It is far easier for a chef to plan for and cook 75 of one dish than it is to have four dishes available and maybe have to cook 43 of one, 20 of another, 7 of a third and none of the fourth.

I've seen wedding invitations that include the menu asking people to select their choice (either chicken or beef or vegetarian - or whatever else is on the menu, including starter and dessert) and return it with the RSVP. This also gives the guests an indication of the standard of reception and what they can expect - which is always a good idea.

It works fine but means that on the day the guests have to stay with what they originally selected.

I trust these five tips on planning food for a wedding reception have given you food for thought (pun intended) and that they will help you when planning your menu.