Catering budget?

MrsH8172010

What are you girls budgetting for catering..? (That is if you don't mind me asking) I hate the whole budget thing because I never know how much to budget if that makes any sense at all.I am looking at 150-175 guest plated dinner chicken and beef entree optionswith a salad, breada couple appetizersalso we need bar set up and servers but we are going to bring in our own beer and wineAnd a complete place setting for a platted meal.Anyone know about how much this runs?

carrieoz_76

$50pp not including alcohol. We'll probably cover one alcoholic drink before dinner, then we'll serve our own afterwards at the party after dinner. We decided on this b/c we really can't afford more, so I looked around at 3 of the most common wedding reception restaurants and this is the lowest you can go on Maui and still do a nice dinner. If we were local, we'd have budgeted probably ~$40pp not including alcohol, and we'd have had to at least do a beer and wine open bar, so it'd go up for that, too. I just looked around at some of the local caterers to see what the average cost of their middle-level menus were and budgeted based on that.

jodyplustwinsx2

I'm not sure per person, but our total for 100 people including three tray passed hors d'ouevres, a Mediterranean hors d'ouevres display with spreads, breads, and grilled veggies, a plated salad, a plated entree (we have one fish, one chicken, one vegetarian, and one kid's entree), miniature tray passed coconut cream pies, flatware/servingware/glassware rentals, bartenders, all servers and other staff, and an estimated $18 pp for alcohol came to $11,500 with sales tax and 18% gratuity.

carrieoz_76

I should add I know the per person b/c we're doing our reception dinner at a restaurant, so it's just the per person cost plus tax and gratuity. There's no renting of stuff, no added cost for servers, etc.

Tygirljojo

As Champagne stated, it really varies from one catering company to another.  Best way to do an apples to apples comparison between companies is add up the total including food, beverages, servers, bartender (if applicable), alcohol, any rentals (plates, silverware, napkins, etc), gratuity, and tax.  For 75-80 guests quotes I got varied from $3,000-$7,500.  I tried to keep the quotes the same (i.e. 3 apps (meat, seafood, veggie), 1 salad, 2 entrees (meat + fish), starch dish, bread + butter, and fruit tray) so I could really tell which ones were worthwhile and which one were too out of our budget.

LauraLynneC

we paid for our own wedding and only cash, no credit so we were on a budget - $3k max for 150 guests. We don't drink though so there was no alcohol and we did a buffet dinner not plated. Our venue provided the catering and we came in just under $3k. And got great feedback about the food - everyone loved it!!

dbraulik

When we were getting our catering quotes they ranged from $18-$38 pp for buffet. Plated were about $22-$28 per person. Silver ware ranged from $2.50 to $3.75 per person. Linens were a couple of hundred dollars. Beverages ranged from $3.50 to $9.00 per person non alcoholic. Bar setup ranged from $60-$200. Hope that helps.

emilyasiegel

Were paying about $5000 for plated dinner for 75 people, including beverages but were not serving alcohol so the drinks are a lot cheaper.

niq24601

Tygirl: who quoted you $3000? Can I get their contact info?! .You can do a meal like that for $40/person including staff costs and not booze without trying very hard. If you cut corners here and there, maybe $35/person. No rentals will vary ... some venues have their own place settings so it may depend on where you hold the reception.

karebear219

For just food served buffet style, we are at about 30 dollars a person.

Tygirljojo

Niq: Chef Bert http://www.chefbert.com/and Brown's Catering http://www.brownscatering1972.com/were the most resonable ones.  We tasted food from both and both companies are comparable in that they're all-inclusive (includes servers, silverware, china, glasses, etc) and you can hire one of their bartenders for about $200 extra if you plan on serving alcohol and you provide the alcohol.  Warning about Bert - he is a bit salesy, but his food is good.  And reviews of him have always been good.  We ended up going with Bert.  Another company that was reasonable but not all-inclusive was Upper Crust Catering http://www.theuppercrustcatering.com/which is who Seblagg is using this Sat at DAR, but if you're having the reception at DAR, if I recall they provide the silverware, china, etc, so you should be good.  HTH!