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What is your food & beverage budget?

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ladypirate

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Now that we have (hopefully!) picked our venue, we are starting to look at catering. It''s looking like with tax and tip, food is going to come out to around $50 pp (for an hour of hors d''oeurves and a plated meal) and beverages (beer and wine only) around $25 pp. We''ll have about 100 people, so we''ll be spending about $7500 total. This does include all the rentals (tables, chairs, glasses, plates, flatware, etc.) and there is no additional site rental fee.

Is this reasonable? $75 a person seems high to me, but I''ve never planned a wedding before so I don''t know what is standard. Is it considered gauche to only have beer and wine (plus a champagne toast, of course)? We''re budgeting for approximately 4 drinks per person plus champagne...is that enough? That budget includes 36 bottles of white wine, 24 of red wine, 18 bottles of champagne and 100 pints of beer.

Also, our plated dinner includes dessert. Did anyone else deal with this? I''m thinking that maybe we can just do a dessert table alongside the wedding cake, but does this mean that we order a smaller cake?

Thanks in advance for the help! I''m feeling a bit lost with all of this.
 
We are paying $56pp for huge buffet + 4-hour open bar. We are also paying $3.50pp for a large appetizer spread during cocktail hour.

In my area (KC), this has been one of the less-expensive options, if you choose a venue that caters in-house. There are catering companies which offer everything from $9.99pp BBQ feasts, to very expensive plated meals. A close friend paid about $80pp for all food (4-course plated meal) and 4-hour open bar. In some of the larger hotels, its roughly $100-$125pp for food and beverage.
 
Date: 7/13/2009 6:45:07 PM
Author: laughwithme
We are paying $56pp for huge buffet + 4-hour open bar. We are also paying $3.50pp for a large appetizer spread during cocktail hour.


In my area (KC), this has been one of the less-expensive options, if you choose a venue that caters in-house. There are catering companies which offer everything from $9.99pp BBQ feasts, to very expensive plated meals. A close friend paid about $80pp for all food (4-course plated meal) and 4-hour open bar. In some of the larger hotels, its roughly $100-$125pp for food and beverage.

Thanks for your reply, laughwithme! I''d say our average wedding cost is probably higher here, so it sounds like we''re not getting too bad a deal. It just seems high to me (then again, I don''t know that I''ve ever hired a caterer before, so maybe it''s just me?)
 
It really depends on the average costs in your area. To me, $75 per person including alcohol and appetizers sounds like a bargain! Does this also include gratuity?

I'm paying about $5500 for 50 guests - this includes rentals, appetizers, dinner, an assortment of desserts (we're not having an actual wedding cake), staff, and gratuity. The caterer supplies the bartender and mixers but we need to buy the booze. We're estimating around $1000-1500 for alcohol. This is for a destination wedding at a private estate in the Florida Keys.

How much alcohol to buy is something we haven't quite tackled yet. Our group can drink! I'd guess that for a 5 hour reception, some of our guests could easily go through 6-10 drinks each. This is why we're arranging transportation between the hotel we have a room block at and the reception location. While I'd love to just have beer and wine, we have some older guests who only drink hard liquor, so I think we'll need to have all the basics covered.
 
It doesn''t sound particularly high to me, but a lot of depends on the menu/venue/location etc. But the number doesn''t make me go running for the hills or raise an eyebrow.

We decided to do our reception in a restaurant since I decided good, yummy Chinese food was a must. So our prices aren''t really useful since it''s not the classic wedding venue. But half our total wedding budget went to the reception food and alcohol.
 
It really does depend on your area and what type of food and service you are getting for that price. I would have to say it sounds quite reasonable though.

Do some research into other venues even if you are not really interested in them. It will give you an idea of what quality food etc you can expect for your money.
 
Hi LP,

We haven''t done our menu or anything but we''re looking to spend 100 AUD pp (on 3 course set menu and alcohol for a few hours.) We want the best for our guests since we are only inviting less than 50 people.

Pre-reception food and drinks are separate.

Cindy
 
Date: 7/13/2009 10:13:23 PM
Author: cindygenit
Hi LP,


We haven''t done our menu or anything but we''re looking to spend 100 AUD pp (on 3 course set menu and alcohol for a few hours.) We want the best for our guests since we are only inviting less than 50 people.


Pre-reception food and drinks are separate.


Cindy
Hi cindygenit - that seems pretty standard in Oz. I would expect to pay $100 - 125pp min based on 80-100 guests, that just seems to be the going rate here.
 
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