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I'm wondering how much other receptions are costing brides/families. How much—per person—is your food costing? We've shopped around and the place I like the best is about $34 a head; I'm just curious to see if we're paying around the average.
About $33 / head (including appetizers and bar setup (we provide the alcohol))... Thats a pre-tax and tip number...
@jesstagirl: can you be more specific? Are you including the whole package or just dinner? A caterer or your venue providing food? What style of dinner (buffet, family style, plated)? Does that include tax and tip?
Our venue is providing the food and it is going to be about $42/person with family style dinner, and only wine for alchohol. That doesn't include dessert, but it does include tax and tip. Hope that helps!
Wow - mine was way more expensive. I think it was $80/person, which is pretty much the average I found looking at places. That included beer and wine (plus champagne toast), passed hors d'oevres plus fruit/veggie tray and dips at cocktail hour, 3 station dinner, and cake buffet for desserts. It also included tables, chiviari chairs, and linens.
We haven't really figured cost yet, but I'm expecting it to be fairly reasonable, as we are planning to do it ourselves with the help of very talented and generous family and friends. I'm hoping things go well, as we haven't budgeted for a caterer!
My venue provides the food because they don't allow outside caterers. After tax and price for open bar (beer/wine/premium liquor), the price is $28/pp. I am in the Michigan area and the place is fantastic but about 25 min outside of Detroit so reduced cost due to it not being in the city. But, my ceremony and reception will be held there so it's no big deal. Every other place I researched was at least $38/pp or more.
Our wedding is in PA, and we chose a caterer who we feel is doing something pretty fabulous for our budget. We're paying $39/per person for food (no cake no beverages). We could have gone a bit cheaper, I think we saw some prices in the 20's but the food didn't appeal to us as much, think 3 different kinds of meatballs as appetizers. I think your price is pretty close to average depending on your location.
That sounds pretty inexpensive to me! Every wedding I've personally known the costs of have been at least $40 and up to over $100 per head.
@Latte, sorry about that! I'm talking without alcohol, but including tax and tip!
My dad is just freaking out that it's a lot of money (which it is!), but I'm trying to explain to him that it's the norm these days! Thanks for your input so far, ladies!
Our's was $60 (including tax and gratuity) this included an appetizer (soup) a choice of 5 entrees (chicken, beef, pork, fish, veggie) and dessert (mini cakes).
I could definitly have done it cheaper, but I really wanted the location for the location itself and the quality of the food. If these factors were not important to me I certainly would have chosen a cheaper option.
It comes down to what matters to you. If it's food, you may have to pay a little more :)
Ours is $31 a head, which includes the cocktail hour appetizers, the dinner, gratuity and tax.
Our is $55 per head for drink mixers (we'll provide the alcohol), soft drinks, tea, coffee, four passed appetizers, and four stations (shrimp, beef tenderloin, veggies/fruit/cheese, and mashed potatoes).
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I paid $40/ head which did not include tax or tip. This included appetizers for coctail hour, a plated salad. a buffet with 2 meats, 2 starches and a vegtable, a childrens buffet with mac and cheese and chicken fingers, and coffee, tea and water. The buffet was served and plated were cleared by wait staff.
Ours will be around $40/head not including gratuity in Western MA. That also does not include drinks of any sort.
I have been quoted $56-$62 per person. This is for all the food, but we are buying our own alcohol. I know it could be cheaper, but it's very important to me to have great food (more so than other areas) and I'm including special stuff like spicy tuna rolls, a scallop salad, lemon sorbet between dishes, etc.
I live in canada. I kinda feel that everything here is overpriced! My menu (5 course meal) plus open bar plus seafood buffet is going to cost me $70/person for food alone (that's the discounted price after the venue made 2 major mistakes; booking me in the wrong room and having to relocate my ceremony). But the hall rental is $9000. So with 200 guests, it's gonna cost me $115 per person to have my dinner reception.
Ours looks like it will be about $44/head (which includes cake, service & gratuity, as well as tax). Thats not too bad. But when you consider our guest list is 570 and growing---it scares me to think what the actual cost for food will be!! ahha
@boogerette: Wow! Five seventy is A LOT of people! (I personally think that'd be a blast, but my introverted FI would be scared to death with that many people!). How exciting. Thanks for letting me know your costs, everyone; I really appreciate it.
Ours is between $65 & $71 per person and that includes all of the rentals, service and our cake, but not taxes. I'd love to do it cheaper but our venue requires that we use their caterer. We could have picked cheaper stuff/done only hors devours/cut out an option but I really don't want to sacrifice on food (especially since it was SO yumy!). We'll make it work somehow! :D
I nearly cried this morning when I did the math LOL!
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Ours is about $51/person, including tax and service fee. We are doing a cocktail and and hors d'oeurves style reception so the majority of the cost is related to open bar.
Our actual food costs are $8-14 a head...factor in cake, alcohol, tax, tip, linens and tableware and it rounded out to about $25/pp. If your dad is really stressing, you might want to try asking your favorite restaurant or something if they cater instead of going to a catering place (if your vendor allows outside catering)...a lot of times they are willing and it's a lot less...
@andreaandchinelo,no can do, but thanks for the tip! We're having it at a hotel. We got it down by $5 a person by not having things like chocolate covered strawberries and an ice sculpture, so my dad is much happier paying less than $40.
Mine was in the midwest (way cheaper than most parts of the country it seams) and was only $19 a head (not including drink service and/or alcohol) and there was a 15% gratuity added on to the total. It was a buffet and the food was amazing and the set up was done very tastefully.
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mine was about $125 a head including the bar.
dinner was $62 per person
the bar was $27 per person
the cake was $12 per person
plus 19% gratuity
this didn't include rentals - that was about $20-$25 per person on top of that.
Well, the dinner alone is $7/person and then appetizers and the chocolate fountain are about $3/person but we're not doing that for all 220 heads because not everyone will eat those. However, the big expense comes with alcohol. We are having an open-ish bar. We are debating about having a signature drink/cocktail but we are for sure having beer, champagne, vodka, whiskey and some other stuff. I'm pretty sure that's going to make our price per head rise dramatically.
BTW our caterer is just starting out but her food tastes like homemade and that's why she's only $7/person.
I am so glad I did not see this before I budgeted. I am in the South and things are much cheaper here.
We are doing a buffet with 2 appetizers before and it will be $15 per person without alcohol. This includes my cake as well. We are providing the mixers and alcohol and hiring to bartender to serve.
Ours was $69/head, but that included cocktail hour, buffet style dinner, cake cutting, linens, china, plates, room rental, champagne. It was all inclusive, really.
$34 a head sounds like a dream (at least it would be in my neck of the woods)! All the places I've talked to so far were at least $80 per person (pre-tax/gratuity) for the typical Saturday night deal--open bar, passed hor dourves, sit down dinner, and cake.
Ours will be about $42 a head. This includes all food and drink expenses + 18% gratuity and 5% tax:
Cocktail hour appetizers: mini meatballs, bruschetta, shrimp cocktail, stuffed mushrooms
Dinner: I haven't decided between an Italian Pasta menu (penne, linguine, tortellini noodles - marinara, fettuccine, pesto sauces - italian sausage and chicken breast, caesar salad, garlic bread) or "Wisconsin" Wedding menu (roasted chicken or beef tip with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, cooked veggies, salad, and dinner rolls) the Italian option is $17/each and the other is $18/each. I am leaning more towards the Italian because it is what we would prefer but I know the other option is more expecting of people.
Dessert table: cake, cupcakes, cookies, candy bar
Alcohol: free beer, wine, and champagne... and since it is probably within the budget we may offer a free signature cocktail martini for the hour long cocktail hour
Late night snack: pizzas
Mine is roughly $100 per head. This is for a reception in downtown Milwaukee on the lakefront, with everything included (room rental with set-up, linens, and clean-up included, appetizers, dinner, cake cutting costs, open bar, etc). Reading some others I felt like mine was high, but we had a $10,000 minimum on the room, but like I said that includes everything!
I have a $6000 minimum to hit. So we are keeping it at $30 per person then there is 20% gratuity and 4.7% tip so it will end up close to $40 in all. This is for a lunch at an amazing hotel with linens, candles, mirror table piece and huge media screens.
3 starters-sushi, salad, fruit, 2 entrees, 2 starches and 1 veggie side, 2 cake choices, tea/coffee
I felt like it was a great deal but everything else in my budget was on a shoestring or friends providing. This is my only 'splurge'.
We are in NJ, which sometimes seems as expensive as New York and Philly. On average, the places we looked at were around $70 per person. That included butlered appetizers, open bar for 5 hours, dinner, dessert and cake cutting (but not the cake), set-up, linens, and clean-up. $70/head was the average but I definately saw some packages out there that went up to $150/head!
Our first quote from a caterer we are looking at came in at $75 pp + $25 pp for beer & liquor. This price includes food for 5 hrs which consists of : hospitality hour (to greet guests prior to ceremon), butlered cocktail hour, dinner we are doing stations style (which is kinda like buffet except three different stations that will be attended by servers). 3 stations, a asian station, a grill/meat station and fish station. It would've include cake but we opted to bring our own cake in and it will include a ice cream station with toppings and coffee, tea, etc. Beer & Liquor includes a signature cocktail and all mixers, etc for 5 hours.This is NYC Tristate Area so I really do not think this is a bad price considering the type of food we will be serving ... steak, bacon wrapped scallops, sushi, etc. And also includes all cooks, servers, bartenders, rentals like tent, table, chairs, etc, set up and breakdown, cooking equipment.
$65 pp. Includes hors doerves, seated meal (with 3 entree options), open bar, wine service and champagne toast.
About $35 a plate. Plus cake, $1.50 each. We got a military discount because my FI is military. All of our booze is about $500 total (we buy ourselves)....so....$5 each for all you can drink, ha. Probably about $45 each if you include everything. Total, our bill is like 11K for food at our venue including grats and taxes.
I know we're paying about $26 a plate for dinner and plan on adding in some appetizers, I guess it'll probably get around $32. With liquor added in, I have no idea yet bc my FI's parents are offering to take care of hosted beer and wine. No rentals etc to include.
YIKES!! I am glad my fiance doesn't read this!!! Ours is $95 pp just for food, NOT including alcohol, rentals OR the venue itself.
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Ours is about $80 a person pre-tax and pre-alcohol (we're buying our own). That includes rentals, staff, three-course meal, coffee, and dessert. This is fairly reasonable in the Chicago area, as a nice hotel reception downtown can start at $100 a head and increase exponentially.
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Wow, so many of you got great deals!
Our food is costing us $51 per person, and I was very happy to get that - almost all of the other quotes we got were almost double that! That number includes hors d'oeuvres (2 passed and 2 stations), a pasta station (different pastas and toppings plus a salad and rolls), a carving station, some fruit for the dessert table, all our linens and tableware, mixers, and tax and gratuity. That does not include the venue rental, alcohol, or the cake.
We are having a buffet for $29.99 pp for adults and $15 pp for kids. That is without tax or gratuity. We are actually looking to customize our buffet for a cheaper price. We will see how that goes. I was impressed since they didn't charge for rental of the venue. Instead the cost of the food includes venue rental. Oh and it includes tables, chairs, linens, toasting glasses, server set, butlered staff, bartender, and some more stuff I can't think of. I felt it was reasonably priced because many other places were well over 100 pp for just food and we could not afford that.
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