Do you count babies in the final count for caterer/drinks?

I think my caterer said kids 4 and under they don't charge for. I would check with them to be sure but kids that age really aren't going to eat much and probably just pick off their parents plates. Less than a year old they are probably still on a bottle and limited baby foods that their parents would pack for them.

At our venue if they need a seat they count towards headcount, but not cost age 5 and under = free...they just need to know how many chairs to have set. Also anyone under 21 we don't pay the open bar fee, just a $5 soda fee....vs $17 for open bar...of course we only 5 under 21...but a savings is a saving....

No, they will not count in your catering fee. I would, however, tell your caterer about the two kids, just in case they need to provide a seat (booster seat, high chair) or such.

I don't think they would count a 9 month old in the catering cost but as others have said you should let them know so that they can have a chair/booster on hand. For our own wedding we only had 3 kids (ages 3, 8 and 9) and were charged $35/child.

Might depend on if you have to rent chairs and place settings.....and do they need actual meals? We had to rent every chair and place setting so we were charged for those but food-wise, they only charged us if we ordered a special kids' meal. Otherwise our meal was family style, so the caterer didn't charge us for kids under 5.

They definitely shouldn't be counted in your bar package - make sure you subtract any guests under 21 from that. I almost forgot which would have caused us to overpay by a couple hundred bucks but our DOC caught it, thankfully. It sounds like a really stupid/brainless thing but for some reason it was confusing to me that I had 2 different headcounts for different vendors....

I would definitely check with your caterer. Ours charges half price for children ages 2-10 and under 2 would be free.

Thanks ladies. I will check on this stuff tomorrow. Good thinking about the booster seats/high chairs. I will be sure to check on those also. We don't have to pay for alcohol for guests under 21. Which is good because we have 15 guests under 21. I will have to see about soda/water/etc. for the little ones.

At first my caterer said that everyone is included in the per person beer and wine price but when I told him that we'd be having over 20 under 21 and pointed out that I thought it was illegal to serve or charge minors for alcohol the invoice changed from $15 per person to also including $9 for anyone under 21.

It does help that I made sure to hire a caterer that allowed us to stock our own bar.

The kids meal is 15$ and I think I will have about 10kids. Maybe less.