Woman ordered Chili's takeout for her wedding meal to save money, sparks debate

Wedding planning is often a tedious and specific task as people try to get every detail right. Madison Mulkey—who goes by @brideisapersonality on TikTok— had a clear idea of what she wanted for meals at her wedding. She discussed how she could keep her wedding on a budget by opting for a checkout from Chili's.

"We loved the price point, I mean you really can't beat that price point — you just can't," she said in a TikTok video on May 14. "It's insane that we only spent that much money for our wedding food."

In the viral video, she reveals how they just spent $1,950 on their wedding that took place in March. However, this choice required a lot more preparation before their big day, reports PEOPLE.

"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. As the ceremony took place on St. Patrick's Day, the restaurant was really busy and the couple had to make their arrangement according to it. She got the food picked up 7 hours before the event and her aunt who works in food service helped organize the meal and keep it warm when it was served to the guests.

"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," Mulvey said. "But everyone made it work, thank goodness our situation was rare. I'm sure if you order from Chili's in any other regard they would serve it and it would all be like so hassle-free."

"The food was amazing and other people said so, too," she added, "But they could have been lying to us." The menu had chicken tender sliders, egg rolls, pasta and salad. "I mean, it was the perfect meal for our wedding. I'm so happy we chose Chili's."

TikTok users had interesting comments on her choice of meal for the wedding. @User2278592649 commented, "I would be so hyped to find out the wedding food was Chili’s." While @dilly said, "I would be so hyped to find out the wedding food was Chili's." @KK commented, "My sister got married in March and spent like $10,000 on the food and it s**ked lmao should’ve gotten chilis."@Jo even shared her own experience in the comments section, "We did Chipotle for about 200 people, put it in fancier containers and people thought we got a custom taco bar."

However, some did not like this idea. @KandiceHomeHosting commented, "Yeah as a wedding planner that is so unfair to the planner and servers. If ppl do this. Hire a delivery pick-up driver and a specific food prep cook." @bbluesmith commented, "All I can think abt is how stressful this must have been for the staff." Whereas, @MegPascoe wrote, “A lot more work than we anticipated.” This is why us caterers cost a lot, it’s a ton of work that most people don’t understand."