food budget

cassandran

hello everyone
i am talking with my caterer for the wedding who is also my cousin and she asked me what my budget was for food. i am thinking that i want to just do apps and no dinner. what is your budget for your wedding food? I really have no idea what is a good range for 150 people.

Blueyed228

You should really figure out your venue first.  My food minimum is 25K at my venue. You could do a whole wedding for less than half of that.  I do agree with PP's that you need to figure out your entire budget, then break it down into parts.  Your food and beverage budget will probably take up most of it. 

Also, if you are skipping dinner, you are going to need to go very heavy on the app's.  Especially if your reception is during dinner hours.  Some posters on here have had appetizer receptions that were awesome.  They can tell you how much food to plan on for your amount of people.

Definatly check on your local board and see what the girls are doing there.  They may be able to give you a better idea.

Good luck!

mbcdefg

The reception takes up about half of my overall budget.

However, I'm also using an all-inclusive venue, where the cost of tables and chairs, china, waitstaff, bartenders, linens, food and drinks and dessert, etc., is all rolled into one overall cost. So we looked at our entire budget, split it in half, divided it by the number of people that we were inviting, and that became our per-person price (don't forget that you will need to include taxes and tip in that figure).

If you are using a venue where you just pay a rental fee to use the building, then you have to hire a separate caterer and rent other things yourself, then start off with about 50% of your budget for the whole reception, and then divide it accordingly ... rental fee for the building, rentals (tables, chairs, linens, waitstaff if your caterer doesn't provide it, food, beverages/alcohol, cake, taxes, tips and service charges, etc.).

Also remember that guests will most remember the food and the drinks. So don't skimp TOO much on this stuff, especially if you have the choice of spending more money on food vs. spending it on decor or little details that might not be noticed if they weren't there.

It's fine to just serve appetizers, but make suer it's not during a mealtime. If you did a 2-5 p.m. reception, or 8-10/11 p.m., this would work fine since people can eat a meal beforehand and then treat your reception as a cocktail party where they can snack.

MeaghanandMichael

You absolutely need to post this on your local board.
I also think you need to judge how much food is acceptable by the time of day. Just apps and no dinner at a reception starting at 6pm is simply not enough food.