Self catered bris | Imamother

amother

Amethyst

Sun, Feb 17 2019, 1:08 am

I am Iyh expecting a boy a boy. I can’t bring anything homemade to shul for the bris. Would it come out significantly cheaper if I were to buy platters of fish and vegies and bagels and pastries then to hire a caterer? Did anyone do this and what was your experience? How hard was the setup and cleanup. I do not have any local family.

essie14

Sun, Feb 17 2019, 1:46 am

You do not realize how exhausted you and DH will be that first week with a newborn. Anyone I know who has tried to self cater their own brit has regretted it, especially without family to help out. Unless you have a close friend who is willing to take responsibility and do most of the work, I would suggest to hire a caterer and keep it simple.

amother

Orange

Sun, Feb 17 2019, 1:46 am

I did this. Yes it was way cheaper and came out beautiful. Prob cost about 250$ maybe 300$. One lox platter two tuna two egg and a veggie platter. Two tubs cream cheese and about 75 bagels. A couple of orange juice coffee milk water bottles. It was really pretty. Paper goods added up.

challahchallah

Sun, Feb 17 2019, 2:03 am

Another sort of in-between option is to buy platters for delivery and separately hire someone to help with the clean-up & set up. I did this (for a different occasion) and it was way cheaper than full catering but alleviated a lot of stress on me. I agree with the above poster that you'll be exhausted (and probably emotional) so you should do whatever you can to make it easier on yourself.

watergirl

Sun, Feb 17 2019, 6:37 am

essie14 wrote:

Well, meet me. I did this twice because I had no choice and I lived to tell the tale. We did very very simple because we could not afford to do more. It was fine.

OP, dh did everything himself, and then he came to pick me and the baby (and other kids) up for the bris. It was FINE.

amother

Amethyst

Sun, Feb 17 2019, 8:39 am

essie14 wrote:

This will iyh be my 4th. If all goes well with birth I will be exhausted but functional. The cheapest caterer by me will be around 1000 for shul basement and food.

cbg

Sun, Feb 17 2019, 9:08 am

First of all Beshaa Tova

If it’s just putting down the platters on a table with a tablecloth on it , it should be fine.
But still I would ask 2-3 friends or family to help out even though it’s that simple

Plus the menu ORANGE provided you with is excelent. I’d add 2 platters of rugelach or something sweet.

Do you know about how many ppl, 100, less. You don’t want tons of leftovers. I think the above menu is for about 50 ppl, maybe 75.
For that amount you really don’t need more.

Does the shul provide the hot water urns for coffee? If not you need to borrow.
If there is a table cloth gemach near you, see if it’s possible to borrow real tablecloth a few days in advance to your due date. It really adds something nice to the tables.

Remember that usually ppl are rushed in the morning. They don’t really stay long.

amother

Magenta

Sun, Feb 17 2019, 9:21 am

Do you have any friends or neighbors who are available to help with set-up and cleaning up? If so I think it's very wise and doable for anyone on a budget. Lots of people do that where I live because there is significant savings and there's always a few people happy to help out. I would buy paper goods before the birth, and also make a detailed list of which foods to order and where to order from. After the birth the only thing left to do is make some calls to put in the orders. Attending to every last detail once the baby is already here is much more overwhelming.