Community› Local Wedding Boards› Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh
New Discussion

Average cost for reception?

eilenbergereilenberger
First Comment
in Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh
Hi!

Does anyone have a good idea of what it generally costs for receptions in Pittsburgh? Meaning including catering, cocktail hour, bar, and service fees that go along with it? We really want to have our wedding in the city, but prices are scary. Excluding gratuity, the price of all catering fees is about $115 per person for the place I really (really!) want to have the wedding. Please tell me if this is an insane amount or if it's about what is expected in Pittsburgh?

(We're planning to have a small wedding, very limited bells and whisltes, and cut costs on flowers, invites, and music, btw)
Report Reply to Post

Re: Average cost for reception?

  • pantherRNpantherRN member
    First Comment
    So, this is going to be very, very subjective. I'll describe what we're doing. I'm getting married in the suburbs, my reception is in Mt. Lebanon. We had to choose a caterer from a list, but we're able to bring our own alcohol. Here is our breakdown: Rental fee: $600 Catering: $33 pp x 215-ish guests Bar: $2000 Comes out to roughly $9700, divided by 215, we're at $45.10 pp. It's a good deal less than what you're looking at, but if you were to add things to ours, it goes up a whole lot. We aren't doing top shelf liquor (think Smirnoff, Jack, etc) and a buffet. If we were to do top shelf liquor and a sit down meal, I bet we would add a good $20 pp. What is the venue you're looking at?
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • cgyvhucgyvhu member
    Combo Breaker First Anniversary First Comment
    My reception (in the city, open bar):

    Rental Fee: 1500
    Catering + linens/tables/glassware/etc: $93pp

    but this place is more expensive than a lot of other city venues.  When I looked around the city, $80-100pp including bar/rental/catering was about the price.
    Report Reply
  • lindsayloo1212lindsayloo1212 member
    First Comment
    Shop a round as much as you can and if you want to negotiate at all make sure you do it before signing the contract. We are getting having reception just outside of Pgh. We are paying 112 per person - this includes the food, alcohol, chair covers, valet, bartenders, cake, tax, and service. We looked at a lot of venues. Some have a minimum spending amount, like The Omni has a 36,000 Saturday night minimum. The Fairmont is 30,000 for a Saturday night minimum. Our other top choice was University Club which ranged from 115-130 Per person for about the same things (no chair covers though) but this did not include the 7% sales tax and 22% service charge. HTH.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
    Report Reply
  • mookow86mookow86
    First Comment
    We're getting married in Ohio in a much cheaper city than Pittsburgh, and even there we're paying $1k for room rental, $3k for food, $2k for booze, $1 k for table/chair rental, which works out to be $53/person for 130 people.
    image
    Married! :) 5/19/12 The Domesticals

    Report Reply
  • heb557heb557 member
    First Anniversary First Comment

    Ours breaks down to this:

    Food: $39 per person (buffet 2 entrees, 5 appetizers, pasta, potato, 2 veggies, and salad)
    Bar: $20 or $22 per person (depends on length of hours)
    Rental: NONE
    Also includes chair covers, complete set up, tear down, centerpieces, linens(if we choose) all taxes and gratuties are included. We are having a 7 hr reception. We're also using them for our travel needs(they have an RV and drunk van)

    Ours however, is not in the city.

    image
    We're Married!! And I couldn't be happier!
    Report Reply
  • blondieb0912blondieb0912 member
    First Comment
    I also really wanted a Pittsburgh wedding despite growing up south of the city, and after over a year of looking I finally figured out how to make it affordable.

    Place: The Edgewood Club (not country club) in Edgewood: $1500 rental fee.
    Caterer: Strictly Business Catering: We have worked out a sit down menu with three options, two sides, and two appetizers for about $30/pp. This was wayyy lower than anything else I had found, but his food is amazing and we're really happy. He also includes basic linens and silverware, and the bartender for the bar.

    The good thing about our place is they are also letting us stock the bar so we decide what we will serve and we can just get it ourselves, which will save a lot of money.
     You can have a Pittsburgh wedding, you just have to do your homework! I was initially scared by prices too but there are affordable options out there!
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
    Report Reply
  • arf3420arf3420 member
    First Comment
    We're having ours in the city, at the Pittsburgh Opera House, paying about $40 pp total - including venue, food, open bar, tables, chairs, linens, flowers, cake etc. but that was really low compared to everywhere else I looked at in the city.  I'd say $60-80pp is probably more what you should expect to pay.   If the place you are looking at is $115pp just for the catering, that's definitely really high compared to what you could get elsewhere.
    Report Reply
  • tjs83tjs83
    First Comment
    edited March 2012
    We are not getting married in the city because it was too pricey, but the average cost I found for city locations was $80-$90 per person.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
    Report Reply
  • sheaomc7508sheaomc7508
    First Comment
    Panther and heb, what are your venues? I'm helping my sister in law find a place for their wedding. My husband and I had our reception at the Fairview sunset room, but I want to find other options for her that are reasonable and Byob!
    Report Reply
  • heb557heb557 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    Futules Harmar House, It's not BYOB though.
    image
    We're Married!! And I couldn't be happier!
    Report Reply
  • pantherRNpantherRN member
    First Comment
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_pennsylvania-pittsburgh_average-cost-for-reception?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:116Discussion:25c9de34-a336-4ffe-aea7-a2edda84b945Post:3300b0cd-b4a2-4ce0-b677-ea4bb62b9347">Re: Average cost for reception?</a>:
    [QUOTE]Panther and heb, what are your venues? I'm helping my sister in law find a place for their wedding. My husband and I had our reception at the Fairview sunset room, but I want to find other options for her that are reasonable and Byob!
    Posted by sheaomc7508[/QUOTE]

    <div>Holy Cross Banquet Hall</div>
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
    Report Reply
  • erbear84erbear84 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    $115 for JUST the catering?

    Yes, imo, that's too much.  I'm not getting married in the city but I found plenty of nice places for around $100 that had more than just food included.
    imageWedding Countdown Ticker
    Report Reply
  • Flowerstar1023Flowerstar1023
    First Comment
    edited March 2012
    We're getting married at the Aviary and including the rental fee, linens, catering with fish and beef plus salad, veggies, and appetizers buffet style, and alcohol including paying an outside bartender, we're looking at $55 a person. If you include our flowers and cake (which is very expensive because I wanted an elaborate design), that price goes up to $64pp. We're saving by having inexpensive flowers, hiring a less expensive but well recommended DJ, doing our own invitations and other decorations, buying inexpensive linens on linentablecloth.com instead of renting at $25 a pop, and bringing in our own alcohol. 
    Married since May 12, 2012
    Report Reply
  • eddiesgirl11eddiesgirl11 member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment

    @Sheaomc- Hey just a thought for your sister in law I'm having mine at the Bigelow Conference and Reception Center right next the 20th century club. It’s amazing inside. There is a list of caterers to pick from and you can bring your own alcohol ( the selling point for me). Its only 3500 to rent the whole place and its 3 floors.



    Ju

    Report Reply
  • eilenbergereilenberger
    First Comment
    Where are you guys getting married? We live in the South Hills, so maybe we should check it out!

    We had been looking at the Heinz History Center. The $115 includes catering, bar, cocktail hour food, service fees, and taxes. Almost all of our family is coming from out of town, so I really want the venue to be interesting. Plus it helps that the history center has a hotel directly across the street. I would love to have it there but unfortunately we are not made of money! Plus I'm not a huge fan of the caterer. Aside from high prices they have been pretty awful to deal with. So the search continues...
    Report Reply
  • eilenbergereilenberger
    First Comment
    Where are you getting married? This actually sounds better than the history center, which is where we had been looking.
    Report Reply
  • eilenbergereilenberger
    First Comment
    I hadn't thought of the Opera House, but I'm definitely interested! Just checked out their website, and it looks like a cool space. Not to mention way better prices. Thank you for the suggestion! I want to check it out now :)
    Report Reply
  • eilenbergereilenberger
    First Comment
    That price includes bar, service fees, catering, cocktail hour and tax. Yeah, it's still high. I'm going to look around and try to forget about this place. Thanks!
    Report Reply
  • sarilynnepsarilynnep
    First Comment
    It also depends on the time of year- I did mine at the carnegie music hall which is one of the most expensive in town. But since I did it in March with only 100 guests, we managed to keep it at $15K. This is still very pricey though.
    imageWedding Countdown Ticker
    Report Reply
  • TaraJacobsonTaraJacobson member
    First Comment
    In Response to Re:Average cost for reception?:[QUOTE]So, this is going to be very, very subjective. I'll describe what we're doing.

    I'm getting married in the suburbs, my reception is in Mt. Lebanon. We had to choose a caterer from a list, but we're able to bring our own alcohol. Here is our breakdown:

    Rental fee: 600
    Catering: 33 pp x 215ish guests
    Bar: 2000

    Comes out to roughly 9700, divided by 215, we're at 45.10 pp. It's a good deal less than what you're looking at, but if you were to add things to ours, it goes up a whole lot. We aren't doing top shelf liquor think Smirnoff, Jack, etc and a buffet. If we were to do top shelf liquor and a sit down meal, I bet we would add a good 20 pp.


    What is the venue you're looking at? Posted by pantherRN[/QUOTE]



    Where in mount Lebanon exactly? The prices seem reasonable and i love that part of the city.
    Report Reply
  • beckyroth85beckyroth85
    First Comment
    I'm having mine at the LeMont... and it will be about 70-80 per person.  Bill is really easy to work with and will let you pick and choose pretty much everything.  Only bad thing is that the bar is per drink, like someone said up above..  which could be good if you don't have a lot of drinkers at your wedding.  Keep in mind that includes an awesome view of PGH at sunset, a cigar room and a cocktail room seperate from the dining room.  Be sure to take advantage of the free tasting!
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards