$70-$100 A PLATE?! I'M PAYING $25 max!

@CarlyH, $1.50 per person? Umm NOT! I call Troll, or, perhaps naive.

Carly- I think you put a decimal in the wrong place and meant $15.00 per person. I can't even make fried chicken in my own home for $1.50 a person without sides.

@ Celia, that's exactly what I was thinking!

CarlyH you can keep your $1.50 fried chicken... fried chicken is hangover take-out food, and for a wedding? No thanks!

My wedding venue is going to end up being $75 per person... that includes, the hall, food, floral centerpieces, cake, open bar for cocktail hour, the chair covers and bows, passed hors d'oeuvres, champagne toast, wine with dinner for everyone, all the table linens/servingware, a choice of 6 different meals, all cake cutting and server fees too! It ends up being a really good deal once you break it down and figure out how much you would have spent on each thing by itself!

What I know that we are spending the following (so far)

$800 for the hall rental

$13 per adult (plus additional $3 for the cocktail hour) and $5 per child for the drinks.

Caterer is charging roughly (for now, haven't talked about adding the appetizers yet so it will go up) about $8 a person which includes ham and baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean, salad and rolls.

Mind you, my catering cost is low because I know the caterer because she catered at my old job and I know she can handle the amount of people (since our call center easily held 200+ per day) and she was always good to us when she catered there so I am very confident in her.

We are paying 13.95 per plate but that includes nothing other than tables and chairs... We will have to rent everything else. Now we lucked out and the hall was only 150. Trust me not my choice, but it was given to us and to cut costs FH really wanted this place. I haven't even checked into what it's going to cost us for linens.

I guess I feel pretty lucky myself. I looked at a few place in the Chicago NW suburbs ( I live by O'hare airport) and some plates were $45-$80 a plate and probably more. I am doing it at a newly renovated park district. We're using the outside gazebo for the ceremony and the reception will be inside (wish I had pictures)

We are only paying $30/plate - that is a buffet with two meets, a veggie, and a few other things. Open bar for those 6 hours (6-12) and I can even do the ceremony before hand with no extra charge.

The $30 a person also includes the table linens (not chair covers), and tax and gratuity which helped win me over!

And... they have a speaker system if we decided to do an ipod (still looking into dj prices).

I feel we got a really good idea, and i'm so excited!

ONLY food costs, we will be paying around $7-$10/plate. We're doing a BBQ buffet. This will have 2-3 meats and at least 3 sides.

We're paying $19.95 a person includes hall, special order (any color we want) linens, center pieces (we're not using them) and the food will be buffet style with two entrees. We're paying an extra $600 for a package that includes a limo for 2 hours, cake cutting, the dance floor...hmm and something else but I can't remember what lol.

Mine is around $145 a head. That includes, table, linens, chairs, napkins, plates, glasses, etc - cocktail hour with 10 stations, open bar top shelf bar all night, 3 course dinner, champagne for toasting, wedding cake, and 10 dessert stations Also the place Im having it is just amazing looking - most venues in my area (Philadelphia, PA) are around $100-$200 a head.