Hawaii

Affordable Maui Catering for Olowalu Wedding

Hi everyone!  I'm new to the forums but have been looking through many posts and getting some wonderful ideas from all of you creative brides!  We are planning our wedding at Olowalu this fall and will likely have a wedding coordinator for the ceremony but I'm looking for ways to cut costs on the reception while still ensuring that everyone has a good time. 

There is an all-inclusive catering company called Food for the Soul that I'm looking into but I'm wondering if anyone else has heard of them/recommends them?  They charge from $60 to $80 for catered dinners and this includes tables, linens, chairs, plates, service staff fees, and gratuity.  It seems pretty reasonable but I don't know about the taste and quality except from the reviews I've read on their site. 

Does anyone have any ideas/recommendations for staying within a budget of under $80 per person once all the line items are added up for other catering companies?  Thanks for your help!  And Olowalu brides, I'd love to hear about any advice you might have for making a wedding and reception go smoothly at this location :) 


Re: Affordable Maui Catering for Olowalu Wedding

  • ETweetETweet member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011

    Wow! $60-80 per person and including tables, linens, chairs, etc. seems out of this world. I didn't know these prices even existed. We could barely get FOOD for $90 per person. I personally haven't heard of Food for the Soul but maybe others here have. Booking a wedding at Olowalu can be costly due to all of the outside vendors that you have to bring in and this sounds almost too good to be true. I'd love to hear what other brides have possibly experienced with this particular vendor.
    As for tips on how to have a good time at Olowalu... It's kind of hard not to. If you're trying to cut back I would elimiate renting a dance floor. I thought that the one provided was great and did the job. I don't know how many people you're having but we had 34 and eliminated having a band or DJ. Instead we used the speaker system from our ceremony musician and hooked an iPod up to it. It worked out wonderfully!
    Good Luck and let me know if I can be of anymore help!

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  • edited December 2011
    Ipod receptions are da bomb. I've never heard of the caterer either, but that is definitely a good price!
  • edited December 2011
    Thanks ETweet and Kaesha!  We're planning on around 45 people for our wedding and I want to stick to a budget of 15K- less if possible :)  We're definitely thinking about having an iPod set-up and that's a great idea to use the sound system from the ceremony for the reception too.  My wedding coordinator, Lori with Tropical Maui Weddings, suggested we have dance floor lighting- what type of lighting would you ladies recommend?  She also said the dance floor would work just fine so it's good to hear you agree!
  • edited December 2011
    Oh yeah, you definitely don't need a floor. We had lanterns over the dance floor and uplit the trees in different colours.
  • weikyweiky member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    We have been talking with Tina from Food for the Soul. I am not sure where you got your pricing from but the cheapest per person is about $88 and that is very basic meal and it goes up from there. She is all inclusive which is nice but a tasting will cost about $95 per person but you do get 50% back if you book with her. Good Luck!
  • ETweetETweet member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I also had Lori. I felt that she was very honest and had cost saving advise around the lighting. I would trust her judgement on this one.
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