the Cost of Wedding Caterers

Small wedding reception held at a restaurant-and-banquet hall that supplied the venue/location, decor, food, beverages, serving staff, and everything that would go with making the event a success, not to mention free parking! This cost fifteen dollars a head, everything included - food, banquet hall, servers, parking, gratuity. It was 38 guests and the two of us, making a total of 40 people.

$15 x 40 people = $600

The restaurant only asked us what we wanted for the menu on our special day. There were four entrees, four side dishes, three kinds of dessert, and as many soft drinks as one would want. There were enough of their staff on hand so that no one had to wait for anything for more than a couple of minutes. All we had to do was give them half the agreed upon amount as a deposit beforehand. Then, we called them before leaving the wedding venue so they could have the food ready. The decoration was agreed upon in a prior visit. The restaurant also blocked off parking spaces for us so we wouldn't have to deal with people that were not in our party. That helped keep the festive mood going.

This is about the best decision we could have made on what to do about our wedding reception. The number of hours one would spend trying to look for a community center that would rent a banquet hall, having the food catered, cleaning up afterward, etc. were saved. We bargained about the decor since we wanted an underpronounced look, stating that it wouldn't cost them that much time and effort since they were going to decorate less compared to other wedding receptions they held. Also, since no one in the party drinks alcohol, they agreed to a cut-rate deal!