Post # 1
Member
1168 posts
Bumble bee
We are doing all the food ourselves for the wedding. To make it easier, we are serving cold, picnic style foods. The main dishes will be turkey and ham (haven’t decided how we will prepare them). Now we just need to decide on side dishes. We will have around 100 guests. How many side dishes should we offer?? And does anyone have any ideas for side dish options that can be prepared a day or so in advance and served cold. So far ideas I’ve gotten are: macaroni or pasta salad, potato salad, coleslaw, corn salad, green bean salad, and baked beans. It’s all a lot of salads!
Post # 2
Member
5870 posts
Bee Keeper
taraelisabeth: I think the idea of lots of salads on the side is a good one. I’d consider a green salad as well.
Also, what about corn muffins/corn bread or some nice rolls?
I’d offer a minimum of 6 different side dishes.
Post # 3
Member
1168 posts
Bumble bee
cbgg: oh I forgot about a bread option! Thanks! And I agree on a green salad.
Post # 4
Member
269 posts
Helper bee
taraelisabeth: What about cold, roasted veggie platters?
Post # 5
Member
1328 posts
Bumble bee
I would say 3-4 sides. Maybe a pasta or potato salad, fruit salad or other fruit dish, a green salad or green bean salad, and bread. Basically one from each category, starch/carb, fruit, veggie, bread.
Post # 6
Member
455 posts
Helper bee
taraelisabeth: Corn bread, regular rolls, fuit salad, cut up veggies with dip, cheese tray, deli meat ‘pinwheels’, different kinds of pickles, cold noodle salad, caprese salad. Those are all make ahead and delicious!
Post # 7
Member
718 posts
Busy bee
VossinatorsButterfly: I would say anything roasted or fried does not end up as yummy cold as it does warm. But hey, you could always use crockpots to keep it warm?
I would say 3-4 sides as well of different categories (a starch, green salad, less green salad like a succotash maybe), selection of breads, maybe selection of antipasto veggies (pickles, olives, etc), cheeses, veggies with dip and/or hummus.
Post # 8
Member
91 posts
Worker bee
taraelisabeth:
I kinda considered catering my weddding during a brief moment of overly ambitiousness… then I realized we are way too unorganized to pull it off 
. But I did find this site that has some really great recipes scaled for catering for a crowd when I was searching. There are tons of recipes, and it also has a formula to figure out the amount of food/beverage/desserts/liquor you need to feed a crowd. There are also experiences of and tips from people who have catered their own weddings and what they would do differently. Lots of info.
http://lotsofinfo.tripod.com/weddinghelp.html
This is their example of a cold buffet for 100
http://www.angelfire.com/bc/incredible/coldbuffet100.htm