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I say do what works for you. Will some people think that it is "tacky?" Yeah, probably, but do you really care what they think? My husband and I had HyVee cater our wedding. I'm sure people thought we were silly for going the "cheap" route, but it was what worked into our budget and the food was good!
So if you like Fazoli's and it works with your guest list and budget, do it!
I agree! Do what works for your budget. We are going with a local bbq place to cater ours. They will have 2 choices of meat, 2 vegitables and bread or rolls. Its about $8.50/person. Totally in our budget! And the food is one of my favorite places to eat! They will come set up and clean up when we're done too! Im all about doing what works for you, you dont have to spend $15000 on food! Thats just crazy!!
I think that your quadruple exclaimation points say it all here! If you're excited about it and it makes you happy, then go for it!
Who says you have to eat yucky catering food (not all catering food is yucky, of course) just becuase it's expensive? Besides, if you plate it up, no one needs know. Or if it's a place that's special to you- like where you had your first date, or where you eat out for a treat every Friday, then it definitely should have a part in your day, even if it's just the fantastic breadsticks :).
In reality, who's going to know which caterer you're using? It's not like the reception will be at Fazoli's! If it works for you and your budget-go for it. In the end your guests will get a yummy dinner.
I think it will be great, so long as *you* are comfortable with it. If you look embarassed at the reception, then that will make your guests uncomfortable too. I would try to work with the venue taher than against it. Your color choice is great because it will match well with the existing decor. Your style is fun and whimsical rather than prim and ornate, so it won't compete with the venue. I applaud your financial responsibility!!!
Italian tacky? You know its in your budget people will understand! As long as no one goes home hungry, they won't even notice ;)
Good Luck!
Not at all, do what you want! I would reccomend checking into linen and china rentals if you're planning on using those to make sure they're not crazy expensive.
Also, did you mean the reception is at fizolis or catered by fizolis, I think either is great I'm just confused.
You have a budget. That is fixed, finite, and absolute. So you can use the caterer that's within your budget for 150 people and perhaps feel a little sheepish that it's "tacky." Or you could cut your guest list and afford a different caterer, though I think you fiance would not agree to that.
But a wedding need not feed everyone dinner either. You can have a lovely "punch and cake" affair with appetizers and a signature cocktail. Your fiance wants 150 people at your wedding. He can compromise on dinner.
I don't think it's tacky at all -- Fazoli's has good Italian food, I don't see why it would be any less appropriate than hiring a "traditional" caterer to make lasagna and pasta for your guests. If your mister has his heart set on a full meal for 150, this sounds like a great way to do it!
ALRIGHT! To clarify, NO we are not having our reception AT fazoli's lol. We are having them come and set up the buffet and everything.
This was just a good choice because we have so many vegetarian friends. Who wants to have green beans and a dinner roll at a wedding because thats all you can eat?
Our venue is actually a beautiful ballroom at a little known 1920's hotel in small town indiana. Al Capone actually spent a week there back in the day! The funny thing is, its only $300 to rent for 4 hours and it comes with plates, silverware, glasses, and white linens!! Talk about a goldmine!
Thanks again for all of your confidence-instilling advice. I Love you guys!!!
I absolutely love Fazoli's! :o) YUM! I'd encourage you to go for it; I think it's a great idea all around! If I was your guest, I would be so excited!
Since pasta is messy, though, maybe you can offer bibs...what fun pictures they'd make! My best friend had lobster at her reception and it was so fun to see everyone wearing them!
Soo go for it and let us know how it turns out!
PLUS I think everyone knows now is a time to watch what you are spending, and I am sure they will respect you guys being financially responsible, even more so since you are students. I would never want people to go into debt so I can have one slightly fancier dinner! It sounds like fun to me!!
DO IT! I love fazolis (more than the expensive italian, I might add). mmm mmm mmm! Can I come? :)
If the food is good...DO IT!! I helped my best friend plan her low budget wedding a year ago and we got it catered by a local and casual Italian restaurant. We got a great deal on the pricing because there wasn't the "wedding mark-up" and the food was delicous. The guests loved it because it was awesome food. Plus it will really make the wedding yours!
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The only thing I would add is to maybe mention that it is your wedding reception and gush about how much you love the food and need something that is low cost as well as delicious. Result = they might be willing to do something a little extra like throw in dessert!
We also have only a $5000 budget, and ~200 guests.. and we want to serve them dinner. Yes, we're crazy. My mister wants to serve pizza at our wedding reception dinner. Yep, that's right.. pizza! He really likes to point out that EVERYONE loves pizza, it's cheap, and it's delicious, and that besides, he's Italian, and pizza is Italian food so it's ok.
Even if we don't do pizza, we will do something inexpensive and delicious.. maybe barbeque, or a cheap local Italian place. Sure, a few people might remark on it, but I think more people will say "you know, I've never seen anyone do this at a wedding before, but it was SO scheerintraining and fiance, it just fit."
Your wedding is a reflection of you. Do what you like!
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I think it's a great idea & wish our meals cost that much! I would just make sure you know in advance how prominent their logos will be, and that you are comfortable with it. Otherwise, go for it!
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oh my goodness, let me first say that i am so very jealous. i grew up loving fazoli's, but don't have one anywhere near me now.
anyway, i say go for it. that's a fantastic price, and you say it comes with waiters? awesome. i do, however, think that you should try to get rid of as many fazoli's logos as you can. like MsUsUk said, you should look into china rentals (that's something most caterers provide - hence the higher cost).
if i was being served fazoli's at a reception, i would be thrilled. i would probably be a little put off it it came with fazoli's napkins, platic fazoli's plates, etc.
that all being said, my guy and i are seriously planning on having chick-fil-a for our recption. it is rediculously us, and it would be at a picnic style reception, so we wouldn't need to worry too much at making the yummy chicken nuggets look "elegant"
Sounds like a good idea to me. My husband & I love Fazoli's. We actually had a local italian restaurant cater our reception and it was something like $7/person. We had a ton of food leftover. We had a party that evening & served the left overs, and it was still a lot so we had a local shelter come pick it up.
I had a recent client that managed a Sonic. They were having a dry reception so I suggested they have a Sonic drink bar (love those Cherry limeades). He ended up switching jobs so they didn't do it :( But I love it when couples do something different then boring, bland hotel food.
MissZee,
It would be cool if you could have a pizza bar where guests could add their own fresh toppings. They could go through a line add toppings & give it to someone to bake for 5 minutes. Then they'd go through a salad bar & grab some drinks. By the time they sit that down, their pizza would be ready.
Thank you so much everyone! I feel so excited and confident now about our reception dinner!
Miss Zee - I love the pizza idea! It definitely sounds like you! Although my fiance and I are not italian (irish and german actually so....we aren't holding back on the microbrew beer!) but we eat pasta almost every other day!
Caliwed - Awesome idea about the dessert! Actually, Fazoli's offers single-wrapped cookies, It would be so cool to get them to throw them in so we can do a cookies and milk dessert!
Melodicsighs1 - Your wedding sounds awesome!!!! I wish we could get away with a picnic wedding in December lol!
Imagesbynneka- Amen on the Hotel Food!!
Alright, so I'm going with fine(er) china and silverware, and of course I'm going to make sure the waiters DONT show up in those sloppy fazoli's t-shirts, otherwise I think I'm golden!
You guys are so great!!!!!! Does anyone else plan on having a uniquely catered affair?
I agree! If YOU feel comfortable with it, go ahead! If any of your guests even KNOW that it's Fazoli's, I'm sure they'll appreciate it! And if anyone thinks or says that it's tacky, well, that's their problem, not yours (you can't please EVERYONE, no matter WHAT you do).
We're having a party at a public park (renting a heated/cooled building with (flushing!!!) toilets, lights, etc. Our caterer will be bringing the "cool" with an awesome Mediterranean buffet!
Yum! Fazoli's sounds fantastic. We can't afford a traditional caterer either. Right now it's between a local bbq place and a bar & grill that has a pasta buffet they can set up for us. My fiance and I used to joke that if we could, we would have McDonald's cater our wedding. But Fazoli's actually has great food, so I don't see why you can't do it. If anyone has a problem with it, then they'll just have to get over it.
There is one thing that I think a lot of brides forget - this is YOUR wedding! You do what makes you happy, and if some people don't like, oh well. But most people realize if it makes the couple happy, then their happy just being in their presence. I think its a great idea, and especially if your on a strict budget and you know they have good food, I say go for it
For anyone who comes across this on Google...
I work for Fazoli's, and I'm actually doing a wedding catering later today.
We don't have waiters in the traditional sense, but we set everything up on tables and serve people -- they still have to come up for the actual food (Although we are lenient, we do tend to wander around after the first round of servings)
Tacky? Not at all, it's good food, good price, and we take much more care than in-store to make sure it's as great as we can possibly make it. We honor dress codes -- the catering later today will be black pants, white shirt, cummerbund, and a pink bow-tie. For health regulations, we still wear a black hat and black apron with nylon gloves.
People are understanding. Times are tough, people need to save money, and really, 6.50 is a good price for food that almost everyone will love, with enough options to satisfy almost any allergy / religion / personal preference.
We don't plaster our logo everywhere, so you don't have to worry about a large FAZOLI'S CATERING! sign in the background of your guests photos. Our hat and apron both have a small (maybe 4 inch) logo, the catering vehicles have an 18 inch magnetic sign, and our CamCarriers may have a small logo (most don't, pictured below).
While our in-store efforts may be hurried to get tickets out fast, we take our time and prepare ahead to make your wedding as great as possible -- It's YOUR wedding, YOU are the center of attention, not us. We just serve food, ma'am :)
Edited to remove rich text markup, apparently the board doesn't parse everything properly.
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That's perfect (since we now know the logos aren't everywhere..I'm not into them) and I'd do a few DIY elegant arrangements on the buffet, have some nice plates and cutlery..and some nice tablelcoths..Maybe some different height candles and tealights scattered on each table?
This is good, simple, food. Too many times I've been to a party where first you have to figure out 1)WHAT THE HECK you're going to eat since it's too fancy for real life or may be unrecognizeable and 2) discover that the teeny portions served might only fill up a fly..or an anorexic supermodel.
NONE of that will happen to you! Isnt that wonderful?
This is a great financial decision and it can be made as dressy as possible!
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I'd be thrilled to be a guest at a wedding catered by Fazoli's! I've been to several weddings with terrible, yet supposedly "upscale", food... and I would have taken Fazoli's over them any day. I think many guests will just be happy to have such a tasty meal, and not be judging it otherwise. Go for it!
Mmmmmm. Fazolis! It'll be fine, just go with it. Believe me, most "catering" food isn't that terribly great anyways, so you may as well get something you know you like! I had no idea they were so cheap...i'm going to tell my friend asap who's having her catered rehearsal dinner outside =]
I think you are being incredibly wise about it, it's cheap it's good what more can you want?
I had two friends who got married when they were Ph.D students so they didn't have a big reception, thye had a very simple wedding and celebrated in a restaurant with family and close friends.
I think people forget that this is a celebration doesn't matter how you do it or how much you spend, people will be there because they are happy for you, you're the one hosting and you're the one paying so I say
go for it missie!
Back from the catering, a little more explanation.
$6.50 per person is for a single item I believe. So everybody would be getting the same thing. You CAN, however, add more items by purchasing them. Enough chicken parmesan to serve 32 people is around $27 depending on the region.... so last night's catering had Fettucine Alfredo, Chicken Parmesan, andZiti. People come up, are given a 9" plate, and they fill it up with whatever they want. If they want a portion of chicken parm, some ziti, and some fett, they can have it. If they want seconds or even thirds, that's fine. If the reception hall's staff wants food, there's plenty. Last night we served about 180 people. The total cost was $1023, and we had a LOT of food left over (so in reality they could've done closer to $600). Nobody went hungry and there were plenty of breadsticks to go around.
ahanix - Thank you! You have been a wealth of knowledge and reassurance! I had no idea how meals were actually served, I'm really excited about this now!!!
I had a friend who did thier for her wedding and it turned out great. Go for it! :)
I WISH we had a Fazoli's around Detroit. haha. I don't think it'd be tacky at all. And if you are worried about it, just don't tell them its from Fazoli's!
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Let me explain...
My fiance and I are students who are broke as a joke. I have the perfect, modest, fun and quirky wedding I have always wanted planned out (along the lines of Mrs. Lime's beautiful red and aqua affair). But Catering is taking a huge chunk out of our $5000 budget.
My mister's request was simple, he wants dinner for his humongus family. 150 people. *sigh*
I recently read a post about a couple who did Arby's for a reception dinner. Although I appreciate the uniqueness, I too agreed that it was terribly tacky. My fiance's response... "be happy they they actually got something to eat".
So when eating out at Fazoli's last night I picked up their pamphlet on full-service catering complete with waiters and salad and (of course breadsticks!) all the yummy baked goodness I love from them.
2 choices of pasta dishes: $6.50 PER PERSON! OMG THAT IS HALF THE PRICE OF A TRADITIONAL CATERER WHO WASN'T AS GOOD!!!!!
Now here comes the fear: Is full service catering from Fazoli's tacky?? OF course my fiance is excited about it, but he would have been excited about Arbys. My maid of honor said it would be "awesome" but she's just like my fiance.
HHHEEEELLLLPPPP!!!