In a conversation we had before starting wedding planning, my fiancé and I told my in-laws that we do not expect any help paying for our wedding, but wanted to know if they were planning on contributing. They said they had wanted to help out with the rehearsal dinner - great. However we ended up booking our venue for the night of the rehearsal dinner as well and are planning a very small catered dinner, so they offered to contribute towards the cost of the reception catering as well. Great again.
The issue is that they are not specifying a specific dollar amount, but instead saying they'll help cover the difference between the cheapest catering option we're considering and the highest - they are very concerned with people having enough food as we're looking into food trucks vs typical buffet-style catering (a lot of different options). Which is very generous, but that doesn't really help me budget for the catering. As I'm sure most of you have experienced, prices can vary drastically and you will often pay per appetizer, per how many entree options you offer....etc. I'm just generally confused by how they are offering to help (although very grateful they want to help at all). Any advice with asking them to nail down a specific dollar amount they're comfortable with, or how to calculate the catering cost "difference"?
