Does your venue allow you to have an external caterer or do you have to use one of their own?

We have to use their in house catering. Which is fine because I've only ever heard great things about the place. Our venue is all inclusive so the meal basically was the price.

We chose a venue that would allow us to use our own catering because we didn’t want to be stuck with something we didn’t like and also any venue that required us to use their catering was ridiculously expensive and tacks on 18% gratuity on top of it.

Our venue is all inclusive and has in-house catering. This is no issue at all as their food is delicious.

We also did the all inclusive venue and had to use their exclusive catering partner. Initially I was a bit worried because the price is pretty high since it’s all locally sourced ingredients, farm-to-table (buzz word, buzz word and more buzz word lol). However after the tasting I was blown away and even told the head chef who prepared the tasting meal that he helped me validate the cost. We have a lot of various dietary restrictions and I am confident they can and will accommodate every one of them.

Ours had a preferred caterer list at the tome that we booked them, with 5 caterers on it. You could bring an outside caterer but had to pay a $1000 fee. We chose one of the preferred caterers and they are great! I feel that for the service and quality, our price is very fair

We got a preferred caterer list, but were free to choose anyone - there's no chef at our venue. We definitely could have saved a chunk of money here, but didn't really because we picked a great local place that although it isn't cheap, their food is delicious and their service is amazing. They'll also be running the bar for us, which is an extra plus.

We have to use one of the two they work closely with. We lucked out because they had a cheaper end and a higher end. We knew we wanted fun foods like bbq foods so we went with the cheaper place because the offered that type of food. We told them exactly what we wanted they created a list of different things and we picked what we wanted off of it. I think we are paying something like $70pp that includes cocktail hour stations with pulled pork sliders on brioche buns with assorted sauces, buffalo chicken dip and chips and an assorted cheese platter. A stationed dinner with 2 types of salads, 2 types of mac & cheese, baked potatoes with all the toppings, beef brisket and pork loin with assorted sauces, mini corn muffins with cinnamon butter and an open bar for 5hrs.

Our venue is all inclusive so they do the catering themselves. It made planning a lot easier because it was checking two things off at once (as well as rentals, cake, alcohol)

Our venue is all inclusive so we have to use their in-house catering. Most venues we looked at had at the very least a list of approved vendors with an additional fee if you want to go off the list. The most casual of the venues we looked at allowed any external catering. As for price, if you compared apples-to-apples it was all a toss up. The only price flexibility on the ones that allow you the bring external caterers is options to bring in very low proced food (think pizza, italian, bbq)

We were given a list of preferred caterers to choose from. I choose one of the list that had several great reviews and had catered events that my mother in law had attended. We originally were going with an all-inclusive venue but the location was not ideal for our guest.

Some venues will, some won't. We didn't want to hire separate catering, so we chose an all-inclusive venue. Catering, rentals, space, dance floor, everything except photo, DJ, desserts, really. They had two on-site restaurants with great reviews and their wedding/event catering was reviewed high as well. It was a no brainer for us! (And we are STILL getting compliments on the food! We got married in October! Anytime someone brings up lasagna in our family of Italians, it's "Oh man...that lasagna at your wedding - I still think about it!") Ha!

Ours has preferred caterers, but they have a nice wide variety of price points. There *is* a venue fee included in our catering contract, but it's not that much, and I'm pretty sure it's to cover insurance.

We used an all-inclusive venues because we didn't want to mess with a bunch of different vendors.

We are doing an all inclusive venue and have to use the caterer. Which we thought was fine because an all inclusive with food and 2 hrs of open bar for 115 people is around 14000. But then we tried the food and it was awfffffful.
Its defenitly alot easier to do an all inclusive and alot cheaper than other options I have seen but just keep in mind the food might not be what you want lol

View Quoted Comment Do you know the specifics why they wanted to charge an extra $1,000? Is it because they couldn't charge you their own per plate price? I assume they play the middle man between the inclusive caterer and the venue booker?

View Quoted Comment Did they give you an option for an external caterer or it was strictly their inclusive caterer?

View Quoted Comment Well the venue doesnt charge us a price per plate, our catering is a separate company and payment. Each of the five preferred caterers our venue had were very different catering styles and price points. I think the $1000 fee is more because they want you to be allowed to pick any caterer, but they just have worked with the 5 preferred caterers more. I think it’s also some sort of liability fee or insurance within that $1000.

View Quoted Comment

Ahh, understood, the venue must get some type of kick back from the inclusive caterer, or else how can they justify that $1,000 charge in my opinion?

Some places did, some didn't. the place we chose was mostly inclusive so food and bar, linens, flatware, DOC, centerpieces etc. The price per person covered everything. The places that were just the venue ended up coming out to be more when all was said and done and the food wasn't as good either. The place we chose has their own chefs, working in their own kitchen, vs either working in an unknown kitchen or bringing everything over in hot boxes/sternos, and they have a really nice Italian restaurant attached so if anyone has any special requirements they can accommodate. Plus the kids can choose their meals at dinner time so no one has to guess what they might want on that particular night.