Catering on a budget

sarahgirl2

Ladies, I have been doing reasearch and it really seems like the food can easily be the biggest expense in all this planning! I have not yet chosen a venue (leaning towards North Bank Park) but I know it will most likely be somewhere I can bring my own caterer. We have about 175 people (still trying to cut this down!!) and originally I wanted to do fun unique food stations, modern food (think different types of sliders, sushi, mediterran food etc) . I want people to be up and mingling instead of sitting around at tables, so I do not want a sit down dinner. Buffet is possible I guess.

Anyone have any caterer recommendations based on what I'm looking for? Or any great tips for cutting costs??? Thanks!

Brit12

We used Laura's Catering (lauras-catering.com / laura@lauras-catering.com). We had a tight budget (only looking to spend about $15 per plate) and she came up with great ideas on how to do that while still offering the food we wanted. We did chef stations where people chose their own pasta / toppings.

She also does not charge a service fee (most caterers charge an extra 18 - 20% automatically on top of everything, even if you're paying for servers already). The food was fabulous and her service staff were awesome.

tiffanydaniels

I am currently looking for a caterer, stations are not cheap but you could try them, we are looking into Nicole's Catering, Boardwalk catering, Sandman Gourmet, Laura's Catering and Occasions by J & K. I am not really sure what we want yet but we are meeting with everyone and getting a feel on each of them, but it is going so slow. We have only met with 2 and we have 2 more meetings lined up. 

But everyone has been very helpful and I have enjoyed working with them all and they are all doing well with my very limited budget. 

sarahgirl2

I guess I don't even know what is a reasonable catering budget......what is everyone's budgets? I've contacted a few caterers but waiting on proposals.

Brit12

I don't think you're going to find much for less than $12 - $15 per person in my experience. If you go in and give caterers you are meeting with your budget, they will be able to come up with something within that (then go with the best option).

It's harder to cut down on costs if you go in with an idea of food you want - they usually just give you the price for what you requested and don't budge much from there. But giving them a budget first seems to work well, and then tweak from there.

tiffanydaniels

We are looking to spend around 4000 on food and service, and I have recieved 2 quotes so far that are under or right around it, you just have to search, search search.