Food and Beverage Minimums

Yes, we’re getting married at a country club on a Sunday bc the package was $5000 cheaper! AND the only other reason is I get a 15% discount as an employee, if it wasn’t for that we definitely weren’t getting married there.

Yep, we ran into a similar problem. For our venue, we had to use one of four approved caterers, and they all had $25k food minimums (beverage packages were separate). Our parents were the ones paying for our wedding, but if they weren't, then we would have selected a different venue for sure!

I ran into that with my dream venue and decided not to go with them for that reason. Found a much better venue with no minimums at all

That is how all inclusive venues operate. If you can find a venue on eventective.com in your area that allows outside catering, you will be able to serve filling, high quality food at a fraction of that price for the same guest count.

The exorbitant food/drink minimums DO NOT save money. And are one of the many things were a hatd pass for us in a venue. Also, what they do that you never run into with outside catering is requiring you to book them before a tasting. That is another huge red flag. With a tasting beforehand, you can move on to another caterer if you hate the food, which you are stuck with in the all inclusive.

Yea my friend had to choose a Sunday date because Saturday food and beverage minimum was too high for him. Maybe you can see if there’s places that offer lower minimum for a Friday or Sunday instead?

We looked at a few but their food minimums were a hard no for us. We wanted a n all inclusive package- these country clubs wanted us to do the leg work (call their approved venders, coordinate the timeline, etc) but they would take it from there. I asked what exactly I’m we paying you for? Take what from there? I’m doing all the work & you get paid for it? Nope! We found a beautiful all inclusive venue for a little over $16K for our guest list of 100 people. Includes caterer, DJ, photographer, florist, cake, invitations, servers, bartender, decorations, plates, utensils, glassware, tablecloths, set up/tear down, day of coordinator- EVERYTHING!

So funnily enough—no! I had heard about F&B minimums on these and other forums and from past event planning, but all of the venues we inquired of were four or five star hotels and none of them had minimum guest numbers or F&B minimums.

We were deciding between two venues when we originally booked in 2018--both country clubs. One had a $10k food and beverage minimum, the other didn't. We went with the one without the minimum, and I was very thankful we did since we ended up downsizing to 35 guests.

As we were researching venues though, a lot of different types had food/guest minimums, not just country clubs, so it's fairly common--particularly for a Saturday wedding.

I'd try and find one without, though, especially if those minimums are above your budget.

Yes, that’s why we opted for a non-Saturday.

Yes every venue I looked at had an F&B minimum. They want to make sure they are booking events in a certain budget on Saturdays.

I feel like that's normal for country clubs to do that. I've seen some much less than 20k but every country club we looked at had a minimum.

Ok so if a place has a package that starts at 35k and a 20k food and beverage minimum for a full weekend buy out of a ranch does that mean the F&B is included in the 35k or the wedding would come to at least 55k?