Catering No Alcohol

There are so many factors that come in play. It depends on where your wedding is (state), and whether they allow outside caterers or only vendor approved caterers. Do you already have a venue in mind? If they allow outside caterers, you should be fine. I’d endure with some caterers of your choice to get quotes. That will give you a better idea. But the venue would be your first place to check IMO

I think the best way to figure this out is figuring out the average cost of catering in your area. Possibly get quotes from potential catering companies that you’re interested in.

Do you have a venue picked out already? If not, maybe look into possible venues and see what their policy is when it comes to catering (do you have to use their catering, one of their preferred vendors or can you bring in your own?).

Cost is going to vary so much on location, type of food being served, etc.
For reference— I had my wedding in Southern California (HCOL area) and my food alone was over $150/pp.

Food costs vary a lot by area and by package. $40 per person is an unheard of price for food here, and alcohol would never be included. Alcohol alone is usually around that price. I should add that here, food and alcohol costs tend to be separate unless the venue is all inclusive. So much depends on your location!


If you don’t have a venue yet, wait until you have one. A lot of them have requirements for who can cater the wedding. If you do have a venue, ask them for recommendations and then call around. You won’t know unless you ask.

Agreed with PP. Completely depends on where you live, what kind of food you're having, and whether you're doing in house or outside catering.

Most of the venues around my area are all inclusive which included alcohol in their packages and you had to pay for the full package no matter if you use the bar or not. My in house catering cost with basic open bar (not top shelf) is $100 per person. If you can get BBQ or something more casual from an outside caterer, it will be a lot less. $40 with alcohol would an absolute steal in Virginia!

Price depends on location. In a major city, that would be a rare find. Best thing to do is find a venue that allows outside catering. They will not have the expensive minimums that an all inclusive does and alcohol prices are cheaper.

We’re doing BBQ, and it’s going to come out to about $25/pp (no beverages or alcohol included). And that includes a ton of food and onsite cooking of everything on a giant smoker, so that should be pretty cool. Going casual, outside caterer or restaurant seems to be the most budget-friendly option if your venue allows it.

As others said, this completely depends on your location, catering options, wedding size, formality, so many variables. We paid about $200/person for a formal, plated and served meal in a major city.

At my venue you must use their food and beverage services, and minimum for a Summer wedding on Saturday is $13,000. We plan on having about 200 guest. So if we stuck to that it would come out to $65 per person. The food packages start at $49, $59, and $69 per person, not including alcohol.

So in my opinion $40 per person is a great deal just for food! If your venue allows outside catering you can definitely save on cost.

The catering fee per person at my wedding without alcohol is $23 for a two-course buffet dinner. There will also be gratuity and tax added, so that brings it to about $29/$30 per person. This is also not including a cake-cutting and serving fee. Hope that helps!

My venue in Louisiana is charging $42pp will all non-alcoholic beverages. There is no minimum. We are paying for 150 people. Total is just over $9,000, including the ceremony fee.
$40 seems like a fair price

I never heard of the alcohol being added to the head count. This is new to me. Where I live at least most of the catering companies and venues I've seen its like $40 per person for food and then a separate $16 per person for alcohol or its like $40 per person for food and let's say $400 for four hours bar services. Those aren't exacted numbers just examples.

Where are you located? I'd start reaching out to venues/caterers to get a sense of the standard cost in your area. In mine, $40 is unheard of. My venue's catering is $75-95 per person plus an additional $60 per person for alcohol.

I have honestly never heard of catering as cheap as $40pp. Ours was $150pp with alcohol. Without the open bar, I think it would have gone down to maybe $100pp, give or take some. It is all going to depend on what foods your choose to serve.

I would say they $30-$40 per person for dinner is normal without alcohol.

$40 is a very suspect price I have never known a caterer to include alcohol at that price and I’ve been doing weddings for over 10 years. I would say food only you’re probably looking at $30-$75 a head depending on what type of food you’re serving. Like if you’re doing barbecue Buffet for instance then you’re probably gonna be on the low end of the spectrum but if you wanted to offer things like crabcakes or flank steak carving station you’re probably going to be closer to the 75. I wouldn’t trust a caterer who does food and beverage for that price $40 is way too cheap and as the saying goes you get what you pay for...