Do you get to keep the excess food after the reception??

Also....about reviews. My wedding venue only has 6 reviews over a course of 5 years on WW. But it is a the place to have it in the surrounding area. I don't think most ppl care about posting reviews. I will.

Nope. We got to keep the top layer of the cake to freeze and the leftovers from the candy bar (different vendor than the venue). We ended up giving the candy to the waitstaff, otherwise they would have thrown it out. The way the fruit and cheese display looked, at the end of the cocktail hour, I wouldn't have wanted it, anyway. Our wedding day was 90+ degrees out and 90%+ humidity, so saving anything edible wouldn't have worked.

Nope. When I worked for a caterer, we would sometimes box up a meal or two (at the beginning of the night) and set it aside if it was requested. Like sometimes the bride would request a meal to be boxed up and set aside if she knew she wasn't going to get a chance to eat. But the food that we cooked and it sat in the chafing dishes waiting to be plated but never was, we would refuse to do that. It made a great meal for the staff and then I think it got tossed, unfortunately.

Have you looked up reviews on other websites? WW is awesome but not everyone uses it. Try googling the name of your venue and the word "review." Yelp, The Knot, etc. are all good places.

Most venue won't let you keep the left overs. I have drop of catering from a restaurant so I will be able to keep the left overs.

We are getting "doggie bags" for sure but as far as the rest of it - it's a buffet so I am calling that a sunk cost. I really do not want to deal with left over food.

Huh. We did. It was delicious for days! It wasn't much (1 tray of veggies and rice, 1 of brisket).

Wow. I've never heard of this. If I am paying for 130 people to eat and we only feed 110 I want the other food I paid for. Yes, our food will be boxed up by the caterer and given to us or who ever we ask.

I didn't think to ask about leftovers/no show plates, but from most people's responses on here I am guessing if its not served at dinner time, its lost $.

We wont get to keep our leftovers. But I can understand why when you consider potential food safety issues and liability.

I've only just started looking at venues, but most of the ones I've seen say that you don't get to keep the food due to health standards. The only exception was one where they will donate any leftovers to charity.

We get to keep ours but it's a rare thing from what I understand. I believe it's for food safe reasons, they can't guarantee the storage of food following the event but I think they are still liable for any food poisioning that occurs.

It's almost unheard of to get to keep the food. Many venues claim for "health" reasons, you cannot take it. It's such a waste of food. I plan meetings for a living - you should see how much food - untouched - is throw away.

Yes, we did. The venue caterer packed up some leftovers and kept it properly stored until the end of the evening. None of it was part of the main course though.

We got a huge tray of mac & cheese and a few sliders (part of the late night snacks); some crepes with caramel sauce, wedding cake, and bunch of sweets and pastries from the dessert bar; and potato pancakes and coconut chicken which were part of the passed apps. It made a great dinner the next night!

Vendor is a "featured vendor" because they pay to be featured.

Our caterer told us he would box it

Up if

We

Wanted

One venue I wanted,but could not meet the min. guests, gives the leftover food to the host. I thought it was great because no other venues I looked at offered it.

Yes, it is the norm. We did not get to keep the left overs, which there were plenty of.

I also tried to sweet talk the banquet manager to bring the leftover food back out around 10pm (drunk people get hungry!) and it was a no-go.

Just wondering...if "you" paid for a bar package and not everyone showed or drank that you paid for, would you request the alcohol that you paid for to be boxed up? Would you ask for a refund? I have heard of people joking that if some rsvps yes and they are a no show, they will send them an invoice and bill them...I would never do that, but i can see someone out there who thinks it's a good idea.

We're having a plated meal, so this won't be an issue for us. But yes, this is totally normal. I'm a high school class advisor and for proms we always have to order food through the venue and we are never allowed to take extra with us, even though the kids rarely eat it lol

I believe our venue donates the extra food to a local food pantry.