Catering HELP!

The way I cut the cost of food was going through a restaurant and not a caterer. DS and I have a favorite restaurant and they did the food. For enough food for 100 (but feeding only 80 since it was buffet), I spent less than $700 after tax. If I had gone with a caterer, it would have been easily double that. Also, we hired one of my sister's server friends to help serve the entrees (sides were self-serve) and we paid him $200 because he worked his butt off (did a lot more than just serve food).

Does your venue allow for outside catering?

Yes it does. Is it normally cheaper through restaurants or did they give you a specific deal? Thanks for your help!

We discussed the possibility of doing our own food- if we had, we were going to order pans of panda express and hire a couple of people to serve it....just call around your favorite restaurants and get quotes.

I don't know if it is always cheaper with restaurants, I just know it was cheaper through this particular one. You would really just need to ask around and take a look at their catering menus. I didn't get any deals.

Many restaurants will have meals starting at around 9.95 a person ( at least where I am) some even lower if you order during lunch hours. But typically this is for pickup only. They may delivery for an additional charge . So that means you would basically have to orchestrate a crew to handle the food. Check online for local restaurants that cater and see what there prices are?

What's your food budget for 180 ppl?

Thanks guys that is a good idea. I am pretty sure ANYTHING is cheaper then some of the caterers I have looked at.

Another thing to consider it plates, cups, napkins, utensils, and your equipment to keep the food warm. Consider this when you are deciding whether to use a restaurant as opposes to a caterer.

We were originally going to have a friend do our food she was going to charge 1200 for 1 meat 1 seafood, 2 veggies, salad, and rolls for 200ppl. Then we would have to spend another 300 dollars on all the stuff we need to eat with, and then another 150 for people to serve the food. plus we were responsible for clean up. That was way too much stress.

So we chose to go with a restaurant that offers full service catering. A little more expensive, but no worries for me.

Also, we chose heavier foods like gourmet pizza, lasagna, and chicken alfredo with sides of pasta salad, mac and cheese, tossed salad, and garlic bread. Because they are heavier we didn't need as much. Keep that in mind when picking out a menu. Also keep any dietary restrictions in mind. We had 3 people in attendance with a gluten intolerance, so the restaurant made us 3 extra meals that were gluten free (grilled chicken, steamed vegetables, and sauteed asparagus) and they kept the bacon bits and croutons out of the tossed salad. Plus we had fruits and veggie trays. We also had one tier of our wedding cheesecake gluten free so that there was also a desert available. This tier also ended up being sugar free as well, since we also had several people in attendance with diabetes.

We are still in the fairly early stages of planning so I have not been able to finalize that part of the budget yet. That is really why I am looking for these tips so I can see what we will be able to afford for the rest of the budget. Hoping to stay under 2500.

2500 for catering or for the entire wedding?

Also, another thing to keep in mind is time of day. A lunch reception won't require as much food necessarily as a dinner reception. And a reception not during peak eating hours could be scaled back to maybe fruits, veggies, finger foods, and dessert. For instance, if your reception is at 3, there is no reason to have a full meal prepared, since most people will have already had lunch.

Things to consider -

A morning wedding is cheaper - a breakfest/brunch meal is ALWAYS cheaper. Think eggs, omelets, bagels, muffins, bacon, sausage, pankcakes, fruit platters, etc. Next up is lunch with dinner being the most expensive meal to serve.

Other reception ideas would be a cocktail only reception (not sure how much cheaper this would be, but time frame needs to be taken into consideration and you should also let you guests know they will not be receiving a full meal.)

Another one which is good and cheaper is a dessert reception, but this is more for a night time wedding (as in your guests ate dinner before your wedding) and again you should let them know. Just set up desserts - wedding cake, brownies, cookies, candy, etc.

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Find restaurant who will be willing to cater your wedding is cheaper than a caterer most of the time. But realize that they will most likely make you pick up food, set up and clean up. You will need to hire extra help if you are having a sit down or you may just want to do a buffet which you can either hire someone to serve or just have your guests serve themselves. If you want to hire the help then you need to compare prices because I believe caters include the delivery, set up, servers and clean up in their prices. Make sure it would still be cheaper.

Also if you are going with a restaurant - the most they will supply you with (if any) is paper products... If you are okay with that then cool... If they don't supply you with that then you will need to get your own which you can either just buy your own paper products or you can check out http://www.smartyhadaparty.com which sells reusable and disposible products that are very nicely.

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We are doing it thru a technical school. at first i was afraid because I didn't think some students would be able to do a good job, but I've talked to 2 friends who have been to weddings the catered, and read a ton of reviews online from people who said they where amazing.

We are going to a tasting in Aug to see for ourselves. But I'm anticipating that they will be great. and it's only about $15 bucks a person after all the delivery and waitstaff fees. Plus they provide (plastic) plates and utensils. If we have left over money we might rent actual china, but I doubt anyone will really care.

Definitely look into collages/technical schools. I know the collage I go to now has freakin awesome food.

You can DIY the food (by yourself or maybe ask a family member to help), but this will take work (preparing and cooking) and will be time consuming... but probably is cheaper than restaurant or caterer.

Also, think grocery stores --- Winn Dixie, Walmart, Publix and Costco... You can order long subs, sandwiches, wraps, chicken, chicken wings, veggie platters, fruit platters, etc etc... They offer quite a bit of options for events... I haven't done this so don't know how they set it up so you might want to be prepared to rearrange the food items to make it look better/not boring/etc... May also come in cardboard containers or plastic.. You can always move them into cheap, but nice silver looking platters and such.

Need any more ideas or help, you can PM me... sorry for taking up the whole thread lol

Thank you all for the suggestions. And sorry if my estimate was totally off but like I said I am new at this and basically doing it all on my own. There are some awesome tips here though and I am super appreciative for everyone's help.

In the city I'm getting married, the caterer was much cheaper than having a restaurant cater. You really just have to price it out.

Keep in mind your total guest list. With 180 guests and a full meal each, you're not looking at a cheap catering bill. It will probably be, by far, your biggest expense. With 180 people and a catering budget of $2500, that's $13.88 per guest, without taxes or tip, or plates, or servers. You can't even get a decent meal at a lower end resturant for that.

One way to really save is to cut your guest list. Another is to do a lunch over a dinner. Your venue may be cheaper during the day too.