cost of catering for those that went outside the venue?

hols0326

our venue doesn't offer catering, but gives a suggested list. i got a quote from a place for 100 people, tax & gratuity...for $1480. thats pretty reasonable, right? i'm just not sure. granted, the base prices without taxes and stuff is pretty darn true to what they charge at the restaurant. this also includes 2 servers for one hour, and all utensils, cups, plates, and napkins.

if you went outside of your venue for catering, what was the charge if you don't mind sharing? i know it will be different depending on where you went and what kind of food you chose. we're having fried chicken, chicken fried steak, and a bunch of sides (think: home cooking). thanks!

rcpm44

That quote you got is amazing! I'm not 100% sure you'll find much better. Are the cups, plates, etc plastic or glass?

MarieSD

From what I was looking at, that is a very good price. The lowest of the caterers I looked into was around $11 per person, but didn't include tax, gratuity, servers, or plates/utensils! The average I was looking at was closer to $20 per person, and again, that was just for the food - not tax, etc.

hols0326

i looked at the knot's budgeter and our quote is waaaayyyy below what it says we should spend...so awesome. i'm not sure what the plates and utensils are yet, i emailed the catering manager back today to ask. they may be plastic (the nicer, shiny plastic) which is fine with me. we want this really casual & i couldn't imagine having china. haha. FI's parents offered to pay for the food (which i am SO grateful for). i just wanted to see what was the norm before we presented that price to them.

Jay+Marissa

That is good--just make sure they are including everything you will actually need in that initial quote.

We are paying $4000 for a full dinner on real dishes for 175 guests (adult and kid buffets), coffee, tea, and lemonade, floor-length linens, all the service, bar service (we provide alcohol), and they will cut the cake and set up a dessert table with cookies we provide.

We were pretty happy with that.

MarieSD

Jay+Marissa had a bunch of good points. The basic table linens I'm looking at range from $13-18 per table, so that can add up quick if it's not included. Most of the caterers I contacted charged extra for linens, though, and their rate was the same as the rental companies I was looking at anyway. But maybe you can ask if they'll throw that in, at least for any buffet/serving tables.

The cake cutting is a good thing to ask the caterer about. Some places will throw that in for free (I think it was mostly the restaurants I contacted that would waive the cake cutting fee, even if I got the cake from a different vendor). I think my planner said a lot of places charge about $1 per guest/slice if they cut it for you, so that'd save you $100 right there.

Jeff and Deepthi

The girls are right you want to check about all the extras and make sure the contract states they are added. It's a great price. Our place was going to charge us $30 a person just to have outside catering. It was just so you would go with their catering options.

hols0326

Thanks for all the input ladies! Our venue is providing our linens, and we’re doing a cupcake tower so no cake cutting is needed. We really just needed the food, utensils, and a couple servers to monitor the buffet, and the quote I got included all of that. You guys gave me tons of reassurance though, so thanks!!

linzcw04

That's a wonderful price!!!!!!! We are paying $4000 for ours also - 150 guests buffet style with all the accessories.
Great job!

danac2010

Our's will be about $2500 for 175.  Our venue provided the linens and the caterer provided all the rest including cake cutting!  We are doing a buffet but the price also includes our liquor and 4 servers/clean up crew for 2 hours.