How much: Catering?

jwheatie12

Hi all,

I'm new to this board and really excited : )  Thanks for all the great posts.

We are in the very beginning stages of planning, and I thought I'd ask if anyone would be so kind as to let me know what you spent for your catering per head (or just to total amount and how many guests you had, I can do the math ; )

Also, who your caterer was.

We are thinking of using a private estate/venue (Maybe Lani, Olowalu, or Haiku Mill) and would love someone 'reasonable' since that will be a bigger expense.  Good thing is we will only have 20-40 pp.

Thanks everyone!

Jen

kaesha

Welcome!!

I paid 12,000$ for our wedding reception (forget the dress, rings, etc) to rent Olowalu, food & drink, lighting, flowers, rentals (tables, chairs, linens, cutlery, sound system, bamboo arch, monstera placemats) for 31 of us.

A.a.A.

i haven't booked a caterer yet, but i'm planning on hiring one just for food/drink and getting everything else reception-related elsewhere (tables, linens, lighting). I got some ridiculous quotes, but what I think I'm going to do is say that I want a buffet, and I'd like something in the $30-45 range per person, and see if they can work with my budget. Our guest list is at 180 but of course less than that will come!

jwheatie12

Alyson & Aubrey,

Thanks for the responses.  Obviously at this stage of the game, any info is most helpful!

Alyson:  Do you remember how much of your $12K went to just food and beverage?  I'm trying to break it down into smaller chunks - so i don't pass out from shock, ha ha - , so if you recall (even roughly) let me know.

Aubrey:  Are you thinking $30 - 45 per head, then tax and service (20%?) on top of that?  From your research have you found that to be possible yet?

Thanks ladies!  (And any others wanting to chime in...)

Jen

kaesha

Before taxes, tips, etc - food (5 kinds of passed appetizers and a buffet) and non-alcoholic drinks (coffee, tea, mixes, Wailua Soda) came to 90$ p/p, and we spent less than 200$ on booze! We'd bought about 400$ worth and then returned a ton because non of our guests were drinking the wine. I think the menu is in my bio, if that helps.

You can definitely do it cheaper - food was the most important thing for me so I saved in other areas so I could splurge there.

jackcody

We're doing a three course sit-down meal and passed pu-pus (appetizers). (Also on Maui)

I got one quote for $75/head from Celebrations catering, but they also charge 20% service fee, serving rentals (plate, cup, spoon), $12.50 p/person for bar setup, and servers' wages.  Most of this is pretty competitively priced; for example, to rent serving stuff from a rental company may even be more expensive than Celebrations.  I've heard excellent reviews about their service--all of my vendors urged me to work with them.

I got another quote for $68/person from Aloha Events catering.  They charge 18% service fee (on food only), serving items are included in price, bar is $10/person, and servers wages.  Their food is great (or so I hear after my parents had a tasting without me).  They were the #2 recommended caterers on island.  

I have both proposals if you want to take a look.

Other caterers that were recommended to me while I was on island scouting were "Soup to Nuts" and "Cafe O'Lei."  I believe both of these are a little cheaper.  I've heard great things about both, but personally after trying Cafe O'Lei (the restaurant only) and looking at Soup to Nuts' menu, I didn't look further into them--I was already sold on Aloha Events.    

lwav8176

We are using Cafe O'Lei and for 3 passed appetizers and a 3-course (soup, salad, entree) sit down dinner it is $70 per person, plus a 20% fee, plus tax and plus the staff fee (servers and chefs are coming in at about $1650). Ugh sounds like so much!

BoBride28

I used Soup to Nuts and I didn't use one of their set menus -- we decided on making our own customized menu and it was great. Their level of service was really outstanding all year while we were planning. For pupus we had a french fry station, and 5 other passed items. Our dinner menu was a buffet that we customized and we had 9 different items including fish, chicken and beef. They also did a dessert buffet for us with 5 different items. I believe it was about $90/pp and 18% gratuity for staffing.

A.a.A.

Jen - I haven't done the research yet... I am going to get to it next week when I am back on Oahu. I will let you know! I'm just hoping that someone can work with our budget for what we want. When we were looking into hotels, the cheapest we could find was $65 a person, so I want something a little cheaper than that.

nbk2d9q

We selected Pokestop for our catering. We were on Oahu in December to meet with our vendors and had the opportunity to meet with Elmer and taste the food. AMAZING!! We are very happy thus far. We chose a buffet style dinner. 3 kinds of appetizers, dinner is fruit, vegiies, salad, steamed rice, garlic mashed potatoes, brocalli, island fish with blue crab caper sauce, chicken, filet mignon, king crab legs and rolls. The food, plus tax, trash removal, utensils, plates all inclusive cost $50 per person.  We are providing tables. We are also paying $400 extra for 2 cooks, 2 waiters, and 1 bartender. We're having about 25 guests.

jwheatie12

Thanks ladies!!  Incredibly busy today, but just wanted to say all these posts are so helpful!  More later... : )

lissamarie30

We are going with Cafe O Lei for a sit down dinner and 3 passed apperizers and a fruit table.. Menu i in my bio as well. And we are coming in right at $5000 for everything for 50 guests. now this is not counting alcohal which we will purchase from Costco.
Let us know if we can help further.
Welcome and happy planning!