What Are Budget-Friendly Recipes I Can Make for My 60-Person Wedding?

By Emma Laperruque

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My 60-person wedding is going to be a DIY affair at a small inn-turned-Airbnb. The big meals are going to be handled by professionals, but there’s a couple meals—Friday breakfast and lunch, Saturday breakfast—that we’re hoping to cobble together ourselves in the inn’s commercial kitchen. How can we (simply! not-too-expensively!) scale up and make sure everyone is well-fed? —I Do 

Congrats are in order! Thanks for writing in about your big day—I’m honored. This is a great size for a guest list. My husband and I invited a similar range (scandalous in pre-pandemic times) and the room was overflowing, bountiful, raucous at times. The funny thing about a small wedding is…it’s still a lot of people.

And you’re right, it’s an entirely different beast than your everyday dinner party. I applaud you for tapping in friends. Delegation is—begging my editor to let me keep italics here—of the utmost importance. Not just because, unless you are a Top Chef contestant, feeding 60 people should not be a one-person endeavor. But also because, ahem, you’re the one getting married! As corny as it sounds, I hope that the top item on your to-do list is: Have fun. Everything else can wait, or should be someone else’s problem.

Okay, speech over. Here’s what to cook.