The wedding banquet is an important part of the wedding day. The newlyweds look for a venue for the holiday, a toastmaster, decorations for the hall and think through the menu in advance. For 30 people, it’s easy to put together for a cafe, or for a celebration at home or outdoors.
At a wedding, as a rule, there are many guests of different ages. It is important that everyone is happy and full. The list of dishes should include treats for every taste in sufficient quantities.
The table should include cold appetizers, hot dishes, soft and alcoholic drinks and, of course, a wedding cake. After all, the heroes of the occasion want the holiday to leave only pleasant impressions.
How to compose
A wedding menu for 30 people in a cafe, at home or outdoors does not require large expenses - it is much more important to arrange the dishes correctly and take care of the table setting. Let's look at what a sample menu looks like for a wedding for 30 people and look at its main components.
Cold appetizers
Most of the holiday table, as a rule, consists of cold appetizers. These dishes are served at the beginning of the holiday and left on the table until the end of the banquet. When calculating the quantity of products, you can use the following standards.
- Cold cuts. It includes different types of meat and sausage - 40 grams per person.
- Sliced fish. For a small wedding, 3-4 kg of fish is enough, taking into account the fact that this product has a lot of waste.
- Sliced cheese – approximately 1 kilogram. It is advisable to purchase 2 types of cheese.
- Pickles - cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms. 40 grams per person is enough for each type.
- Sliced vegetables include tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, radishes, and herbs. In total, approximately 3 kg of vegetables are needed for cutting for the wedding table.
Cold appetizers can also include aspic, liver cake, tongue, red and black caviar. This option is suitable for those who do not want to save money on a wedding banquet.
Salads
The wedding menu includes at least 3 types of salads. They are served in special plates or tartlets. For each guest you need to prepare 150 grams of each type of salad. The most popular dishes are “Olivier”, “Caesar”, “Herring under a fur coat”.
The salads listed above cannot be called original. But for a wedding it is better to choose traditional dishes that all guests will like. The decoration of salads should be given special attention. Decorated dishes awaken the appetite and look great on the holiday table.
Main dishes
They are served approximately 3 hours after the start of the banquet. Don't limit yourself to one hot dish and side dish. The wedding menu includes several types of treats. You can serve: pancakes, julienne, Kiev cutlets, beefsteak, steaks, roasted baked fish, meat with vegetables, meat rolls with cheese and mushrooms, chops, shish kebab, cabbage rolls, meat or fish baked in dough, or other dishes.
The highlight of the banquet will be a young pig, baked goose or turkey. The choice of products depends on the preferences of the newlyweds. But the menu must include fish, meat dishes and side dishes in an amount of approximately 200 grams of finished products per person.
Beverages
For the wedding reception you need to prepare sweet and unsweetened sparkling water, juice and alcoholic drinks. Elite alcoholic drinks such as gin, martini, whiskey or Baileys are unnecessary at a wedding reception. It is better to give preference to the standard set: vodka, wine, cognac and champagne. Beer on a wedding table is bad form. It is not considered a holiday drink.
What should you consider when creating a menu in a cafe?
Administrators and waiters know how many servings need to be ordered per person. But it is much better for newlyweds to have such information. After all, they need to properly allocate their budget, not overpay and at the same time not leave their guests hungry. The perfect balance – empty plates and full stomachs of those present.
Previously, after the wedding, mothers and fathers from both sides stayed behind to pick up the uneaten food. Nowadays, almost no one does this, because it is considered bad form.
However, young couples often simply throw away large amounts of uneaten food. All this happens due to ignorance and misunderstanding of how much you need to prepare for a wedding.
After the newlyweds have precisely decided on the wedding date and location, it is worth developing a wedding menu for 30 people. It always consists of several positions, including:
- snacks;
- salads;
- hot dishes;
- dessert.
These are just the necessary components that no menu can do without. Already starting from the assortment of dishes, it is possible to create a complete list of products for guests. It can consist of one or several salads.
Everyone knows that a wedding is a fairly expensive event, on which you want to save at least a little. This can be done using the required number of dishes. There should be just enough of them to satisfy everyone present.
Consider whether the list of invited guests to the wedding includes people with special taste preferences. They could be vegetarians, meat eaters or fruit lovers. Perhaps there are people with allergies. Try to take care of such guests so that they feel as comfortable as possible at your wedding. For them, you can order a special menu for a wedding for 20 people.
Don't forget about the children at the celebration. They are usually ordered the same dishes as adults. And this is one of the main mistakes. Children do not like salads and snacks at all. They will prefer French fries, hamburgers and a wide variety of sweets.
All children can be seated at a separate table and fed the food that they like most. You can order delicious pizza and light snacks especially for them at the wedding. Children tend to eat the least at celebrations, so there is no need for them to order full meals.
This is interesting: How to bake a wedding loaf at home - recipes with photos
Cook
Care should be taken to ensure that main courses are served warm. Cold treats will spoil the overall impression of the wedding reception. Valery Nikitin
To avoid getting into an awkward situation when guests demand to “continue the banquet” and there are no strong drinks left, it is better to have a few extra bottles in reserve. For a wedding banquet for 30 people, an average of 30 bottles of vodka, 20 bottles of wine and 15 bottles of champagne are needed.
Dessert
If you have a limited budget, you can limit yourself to just a wedding cake. He must be present at the wedding table. However, everyone loves sweets. They will not be superfluous, especially if there are many children among the guests.
When calculating the weight of a wedding cake needed to ensure there is enough for everyone present, you should consider how light it is. Desserts with buttercream are very filling. And fruit cake with yoghurt filling is a light treat. You will need much more of it. The menu for a wedding for 30 people usually includes a cake weighing 5-6 kilograms. Sweets, ice cream and fruit are also served for dessert.
Organize a separate small table with a variety of desserts. When it's time for tea, you won't have to waste time handing out sweet treats.
Wedding Venue
The fewer guests invited to the wedding, the greater the choice of venue for the event, from traditional to unusual:
- cafe, restaurant - banquet hall - standard solution. When choosing a room, you need to take into account the style, design, and size of the room. It should be designed for the number of guests the newlyweds need, and not more (including tables and space for dancing and entertainment). If this is a wedding for 40 people, then you will need a room with an area of 50 to 100 sq.m.;
- nature - this can be the backyard of a private house, a plot in a botanical garden, a beach or any clearing that attracts the newlyweds, where you can organize a place for a banquet and ensure a comfortable stay for guests;
- unusual places – there are many such places that can accommodate 30 to 40 people: a greenhouse, a yacht/ferry, a railway dining car, on board an exhibition aircraft, etc. But such an unconventional approach to choosing a wedding location can be costly for a couple.
How the choice of dishes depends on the place of celebration
Different dishes are served at home, in restaurants and outdoors. To make it easier to decide on their choice, we have provided several menu options.
For a restaurant or other establishment
By ordering a wedding menu for 30 people in a restaurant or cafe, newlyweds get rid of the problem of calculating the number of necessary products. Their task is only to select dishes. Professional chefs take care of the rest.
To save money, you can try to negotiate with the establishment’s staff and bring your own alcoholic drinks. In restaurants they are usually overpriced.
If the menu for a wedding for 30 people in a cafe does not suit the newlyweds and they want to add certain dishes, the establishment’s employees usually accommodate them and allow them to bring their own treats.
Before renting a cafe or restaurant, you should not only inspect the interior, but also read reviews about the establishment to make sure that the food here is really tasty.
For home
Creating a menu for a wedding for 30 people at home is quite possible. A small celebration has its advantages. And this is not only a great opportunity to save money. For a home banquet there is no need to choose treats from a specific list of dishes.
The menu can include everything that the newlyweds want to see on their table. These can be not only traditional dishes, but also original treats. However, organizing a banquet for 30 people on your own is not so easy.
You'll have to ask your relatives for help. After all, it is necessary not only to calculate and purchase products, but also to prepare treats and present them beautifully to the table. Some dishes can be ordered from the restaurant and delivered to your home.
For a holiday in nature
When creating a menu for a wedding for 30 people in the summer, you usually don’t choose perishable food. For an outdoor celebration, steak and grilled vegetables are suitable as the main course. As a rule, sandwiches and lavash rolls are served as a snack. It is better to exclude salads with mayonnaise or prepare them in small quantities.
Attention! Drinks heat up quickly in the heat, so it's important to have a mini-refrigerator to add ice cubes to them. Read more about choosing a menu for a summer celebration.
It is not easy to choose a cake for a wedding reception in nature. It is served at the end of the banquet. Over the course of the entire day, in the absence of a refrigerator, it will float and lose its appearance or even deteriorate. The ideal option is to negotiate with the delivery service and order the cake directly to the table. Otherwise, it is better to give preference to a wedding cake made from sweets or an eco-cake with a small amount of cream.
When choosing drinks for a menu for an outdoor wedding for 30 people, keep in mind that on a hot day, guests will be thirsty. Therefore, you will have to increase the amount of unsweetened soft drinks.
Wedding for 30 people: asking price
The cost of organizing a wedding, even one designed for such a small number of guests, becomes a stumbling block for many newlyweds. Clearly forming and voicing the cost of a wedding is not as easy as it seems at first glance. The financial cost of a special event depends on many factors. The main points that influence the formation of the cost of a wedding:
- venue - catering establishments, nature or unusual places
- transport services - delivery of newlyweds and guests from home to the registry office, then to the restaurant, etc.
- presenter/toastmaster services - you can easily afford to invite a presenter
- wedding day coordinator - designed for those newlyweds who want to relax at their own wedding
- invitation and accommodation of out-of-town guests - both the groom and the bride may have relatives who live in other cities or even countries, so they also need to be accommodated somewhere
- menu - the number of different dishes and delicacies.
We have listed only the main financial expenses for a wedding for 30 guests. However, there are also a huge number of additional factors that also affect the amount of financial investments. In fact, it is not so important how many guests are invited to the wedding and how it is organized. It is important that the gala event takes place in a light and relaxed atmosphere.
Additional recommendations
A few simple recommendations will help you create a menu for a wedding banquet for 30 people.
- The holiday usually lasts 6-8 hours. During this time, guests will eat no more than 1 kg of food per person. This is how portion sizes are calculated.
- Particular emphasis should be placed on cold appetizers. They make the table more varied.
- When creating a menu, keep in mind that guests may include vegetarians, Muslims and people watching their figure. You should not serve large quantities of pork treats or too fatty dishes. If necessary, the menu includes vegetarian dishes.
- It is worth paying attention to table setting. Even if the newlyweds create a wedding menu for 30 people in the summer and the celebration will be outdoors, the decorations will look advantageous in photo and video shooting.
- If you have limited financial resources, you can replace expensive treats with cheaper ones: turkey for chicken, sandwiches with red caviar for canapés with red fish.
Pros and cons of small weddings
The main advantage of a small wedding is the atmosphere of comfort and intimacy, which cannot be achieved at any large event. Some sites write about budget savings, but we would argue with this. If you pay a lot of attention to the menu and decor, you will save little. And if you also decide to take your guests to another country, then the costs will be impressive.
The disadvantage of such a wedding is the difficulty in creating a festive atmosphere. In a narrow circle of loved ones, it is difficult to feel the solemnity of the moment and not slip into an ordinary family dinner.
Autumn Nicole Photo
