You’re on a tight budget, but you still want your wedding reception to be perfect. One of the ways to lower your expenses for your reception is to have a great menu for less. Here are four ways to save on your reception menu:

 

 

 

Some dishes can still taste great even if slightly modified. Ask your caterer if they can use less expensive ingredients to make the same dish. If you want fish as a part of your reception menu and the kind they use for a particular dish is expensive—like maya-maya or lapu-lapu—ask them to use labahita or dalagang bukid instead. Your food will still be made in the same way, but you won’t have to spend as much.

 

 

 

Consider holding your reception at a time that doesn’t coincide with lunch or dinner—for instance, brunch in between breakfast and lunch, and merienda-cena in between merienda and dinner. Since these options happen at odd times, your guests might expect lighter fare. You don’t have to stick to a meal with several courses, and you have a wider range of the kinds of dishes you can serve, which, cumulatively, can cost less than dinner or lunch.