Bride orders £1,500 worth of Chili’s takeaway for wedding meal

A bride has sparked debate after forgoing the formalities of a traditional wedding breakfast and instead ordering everyone a takeaway.

Yup, you might be of the mind that the food you serve your guests on your big day is meant to be something seriously special, but over on TikTok, one newly-wed revealed that she’d instead opted for a Chili’s – which is a popular American restaurant chain.

The TikToker, named Madison Mulkey (who goes by @brideisapersonality on the app) said that she’d spent $1950 (£1,560) in total on the delivery spread, which was enough to feed the 99 guests at her venue in Savannah, Georgia.

You can watch her TikTok below. 

@brideisapersonality

So happy we did this!! #greenscreen #bride #bridetok #weddingtok #bridal #wedding #2023bride #2024bride #2023wedding #weddingwardrobe #weddingideas #weddingplanning #bridalcontentcreator #brideisapersonality #chilis #weddingfood #weddingcaterer #budgetbride

♬ original sound – Madison Mulkey

“So let’s talk about what went into serving Chili’s at our wedding,” she says in a vid. “First of all, we loved the price point, I mean, really can’t beat that price point. … It’s insane that we only spent that much money for our wedding food.”

The bride added that whilst she saved cash, it was quite an ordeal to order the takeout to her venue and ensure it was all set up and cooked properly for her guests.

Someone from her wedding party picked up the food at 11 am even though the reception wasn’t until 6pm, because it was St Patrick’s Day and deliveries were particularly costly.

“Normally, when you order from Chili’s, they deliver it … they bring it, set it all up. It’s already made, people can just serve,” she said.

The bride ordered Chili’s for her wedding guests (Credit: Chili’s)

“We had to have our hired servers who were really supposed to be cleaning, serving, preparing, really do a lot of the cooking, and my coordinator kind of had to show them what to do and take on a role that she wasn’t really supposed to do and they weren’t supposed to do either,” she explained.

“But everyone made it work, thank goodness.”

The bride acknowledged that it wasn’t the norm to order from a casual dining restaurant to your wedding venue, but added that she had no regrets about the decision.

“I mean, it was the perfect meal for our wedding. I’m so happy we chose Chili’s,” she said.

“The food was amazing and other people said so, too…but they could have been lying to us.”

The bride didn’t opt for a traditional wedding (Credit: Unsplash)

 “I would be so hype to find out the wedding food was Chili’s,” said someone in the comments after they came across the TikTok. 

Whilst another said they’d actually served Chipotle but “put it in fancier containers and people thought we got a custom taco bar.” GENIUS. 

Another penned: “Normalise this! Weddings are so out of control. Such a great idea!”

“I’m not gonna lie, I would’ve been SO excited for this menu as a guest,” concurred a fourth.

Not everyone was so enthused, though. 

@brideisapersonality

It was 🤌🏼 #bride #bridetok #weddingtok #bridal #wedding #2023bride #2024bride #2023wedding #weddingwardrobe #weddingideas #weddingplanning #bridalcontentcreator #brideisapersonality #chilis #weddingfood #greenscreen

♬ original sound – Madison Mulkey

“As a wedding planner, my pet peeve is when people do all this DIY stuff but then everyone else has to do it for you,” said one person in the comments.

Whilst another wrote: “How was everything not soggy after reheating it?”

“Chili’s at a wedding is wild, especially reheated Chili’s,” someone else chimed in.

As a fellow critic said: “All I can think abt is how stressful this must have been for the staff (sic).”

We’re all for saving the pennies on a wedding – and all for Chili’s for that matter – but it looks like the crowds are divided on this one.