Dinner options

We had 3 entree options (chicken, fish, vegetarian) for a plated meal and spent about $135 per person for cocktail hour food, plated 3 course meal, and dessert. The general rule is 50-60% of your total budget should be food/alcohol/venue.

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Yea the alcohol,food, dessert and venue total is 20k total so Im think we just need to stretch the budget some.

Our food will be about $65 per person for a buffet dinner, plus about $15 pp for cocktail hour appetizers, plus $40-50 pp for open beer and wine for 5 hours

Sorry, forgot to add that dessert will also be around $7 pp. our buffet will have beef, chicken, and shrimp skewers plus a few salad options and bread

We're only serving one option. If they dont like tacos, that's not my problem.

Our food is buffet style. We have a served salad with 3 choices of dressing. Then a buffet of roast beef with gravy, chicken picatta, garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and rolls. Per person just for dinner is $33. We haven't figured out cocktail hour yet. Dessert is free for us because my aunt is a licensed baker and will be doing it for a wedding gift for us.

We're doing horderves, and a buffet dinner (lamb and/or chicken with rice, roasted potatoes, roated veggies, and gravy). We also have a plated vegan option for those who have food restrictions; they'll have to let us know when they RSVP. The caterer is also doing non-alcoholic drinks, cake service, flatware, dishware, cup, linens, table cloths, etc. He quoted us $60 per person which is substantially less than anything else I've been able to find. We're doing our tasting on monday so hopefully it goes well!

All the other quotes I've gotten have been closer to $100 per person.

It really depends on where you are. I live in one of the most expensive states to get married in.

Honestly I don't think $73/pp is bad. Catering is almost always your largest expensive, the venue being second. Our expenses were (from most expensive to least expensive)

- Catering ($60/pp -> $6,000, depending on final guest count)

- Venue ($5,500, including 2 venue coordinators who do all setup/decorating and cleanup)

- Photographer ($3,800, 2 photographers + engagement session, 8 hours)

- Alcohol (estimated to be between $1,000 and $2,500, depending on consumption)

- Dress ($1k, plus alterations if needed)

- DJ ($950)

We payed substantially less per item than the average rate for Maryland.

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Lol YES! This is brilliant

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Ok so this amount seems to be pretty reasonable.

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Wow thats awesome 33 per person haha! My bestfriend complained about 35 per person now she feels she got a great deal.

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Haha dont blame you!!

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Yea i mean its going to be about 116 per person with alcohol so maybe 73 is not the worst lol

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After seeing other prices on here I feel like I'm getting a good deal lol. I thought it was a lot then I realized it could be much more expensive.

We did all of our favorite foods. So we had “swanky tacos” (chicken and shrimp), edamame quinoa salad, and chips and salsa. It was unlimited, so our guests could have as much as they wanted. We paid $155 per person.

View Quoted Comment Me too girl! Our caterer, who is also doing all the linens, dishes, and helping coordinate is charging us 8k for 250 people! That includes chicken, tri tip, rice, veggies, salad, tea and lemonade!

View Quoted Comment That's not too bad we are paying 13k for 100 people

That seems like a lot to me. We're paying $81.50/person, includes soup, salad, 1 main entre, vegetables, potatoes, european dessert table, champagne toast for everyone, and open bar for 5 hours. We're having 200-250 at our wedding and also trying to stay in our $30k budget. I guess it depends on the venue, your location, and how many people you plan on inviting.

We have a local Hawaiian chain that charges $7.50/ head and they get 2 meats (Chicken, steak, and/or Kahlua pork), rice and a salad. So we're looking at around $1000 for food and basic drinks (not including alcohol equation). It's pretty decent if you ask me.

View Quoted Comment Wow that's including the open bar? that's awesome i have 100 guest and paying more

We are having Chicken marsala, Bistro fillet, and salmon. Plated meal with salad $33 PP (mainly bc we optioned to have an earlier wedding 12pm) so it cut cost down a lot with lunch pricing vs dinner. However open bar for 2 hrs $22 and stationed hors d’oeuvres (fruit and cheese) $5 PP. So $60 PP and that’s not bad for the quality of food we are having and the venue we are having it at. Normally for a evening wedding at my same venue and same food would have been about $100-$120 PP!! The only reason I’m having a early wedding to be honest lol and we are fine with that if it cuts the price in half.