How to budget for rehearsal dinner

ccandela

Hi gals, 

Quick question. I'm trying to plan our rehearsal dinner and am trying to calculate the REAL price per person including beverages, tax and gratuity.  The tax and gratuity are fixed but how would you calculating beverage cost?

Any help would be tremendous!

Thanks, 

Cat

Denise91980

Unfortunately I can't help much as the beverages (wine, beer and sangria) were included. I just added tax and 20% tip onto it.

mbcdefg

Are you just letting people order drinks as they want them, and then you'll be paying the bill at the end? evite.com might have some kind of drink calculator that you could use.

We just ordered pitchers of soda, and people ordered glasses of beer as they wanted them. We kept the meal casual and cheap (pizza and appetizers like wings, antipasta, etc.) so that it didn't get out of control.

If you haven't selected a restaurant yet, you could look into a BYOB place and bring in your own beer and wine.

altimat873

We are doing a pre-fixe menu at Il Villaggio and ordering a few bottles of white and red wine, some soda and water and anything other than that is cash bar. There's really no way to calculate unless its open bar per person as per the restaraunt/venue or you won't know until you pay the tab.

ccandela

So, I just found out through their website that Bona Vita in Summit does private plated dinners for between $30 and $45pp.  I didn't think they would because of the size of their restaurant but they do -- and they're BYOB... which will definitely help.  That and the fact that they are literally 2 minutes from the church makes it a home run.  Now I'm crossing my fingers that the night isn't already booked.... 

Thanks for the opinions ladies

PrettyGirl815

If you haven't picked the place yet, I'd suggest BYOB and you can provide whatever beer, wine, and booze would fit your budget. It can get quite pricey for you otherwise, depending on how many drinkers you have.

The other option which might help is seeing if your place will over a limited open bar package--and give you a set price p/p for house wines and beer for the duration of your party. Then your guests can pay cash for anything they might want that's not included in your drink offering.

kristen8040

We're paying $19 pp for a buffet that is BYOB, so I'm figuring with tax and grat. $25pp and then $200 in alcohol.

ccandela

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_budget-rehearsal-dinner?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:e5b0d817-b21f-4cb5-9a73-3714a7e50b81Post:863de940-e823-49f2-93ea-3981a7dd1829">Re: How to budget for rehearsal dinner</a>:
[QUOTE]We're paying $19 pp for a buffet that is BYOB, so I'm figuring with tax and grat. $25pp and then $200 in alcohol.
Posted by kristen8040[/QUOTE]

<div>OMG! $19pp? Where... </div>

kristen8040

Que Pasta in Saddle Brook, we've had parties there before and it is a really beautiful restaurant with delicious food!  It's right off of the parkway.