Catering headache

Have You Thought Of Having A Restaurant Cater Your Food? Thats An Option If You Can't Find Another Caterer. Just Keep Looking, You'll Find What You Need

View Quoted Comment I have i just am not good at this Haha. The barbeque restaurant quoted me 5 times what we pay at work when they cater. I feel like everyone is playing games and i don't know how to play the game!!

While I didn't deal with caterers because food was included with my venue, I was very upfront when shopping for any vendors. When I would reach out, I would be pretty upfront about budget. You can absolutely counter and negotiate. We did that for everything, the venue, the DJ, the photographer. If they say no, you move on. All of our vendors negotiated their prices or provided some sort of discount, including the country club we had the wedding at.

View Quoted Comment I wasnt aware you could haggle with everyone!!!

View Quoted Comment I didn't try to haggle with the bridal salon for my dress, but yeah, just about everyone else. If they don't want to negotiate, that is absolutely their right. I was always very polite, but upfront in saying "I really like your services. However, I cannot afford to pay that rate. Is there anything I can get for x amount?" and everyone we ultimately hired was very accommodating. There was 1 DJ who was very overpriced and very snarky and rude, still emailing me multiple times after I had already said thanks, but no thanks. Otherwise, everyone was very pleasant.

Usually when you reach out to vendors and you automatically tell them it’s for a wedding they up the price (florists, caterers etc). What I did was tell them it was for an event (remained vague) and I was quoted at a lower rate than some of my friends who also used the same vendors for similar services.

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A lot of places do this the minute you say "wedding." They seem to think it's their cue to jack up the prices of everything. Sorry you're experiencing that. Try researching caterers/restaurants for an "event" and see what you get for quotes. Don't say wedding, at least when you're researching prices.

Most restaurants offer catering options. Ask your favorite place if they can put together a menu for you. If you go with a restaurant, you end up being cheaper because they don't care if it's wedding vs other types of events like a regular caterer who tries to get you to buy extra services you don't need. Also restaurant food is generally tastier.