Food/alcohol costs

We are in the same boat where we want to get someone we are familiar with the food but they always jack up the price for the catering service. We ended up with BDs Mongolian Grill. They are around $22 a person for catering but we justify that in our minds because normally its $16 but we're paying for them to cook on site and entertain guests as well. We're doing limited mixed drinks only which came out to $140 for sodas and vodka and rum. My parents gifted a champagne toast so we took that out of the alcohol budget and limit. We also have allotted $100 for a small cake, snacks, cookies, and tea and coffee for dessert time.

Our total is just over $10,000.

This is for 115 people. We are having a cocktail hour with 5 passed hors d'oeuvres as well as a table with chips, salsa, dip, fruits and vegetables. Dinner consists of a salad course and then 3 buffet stations (pasta, chicken, steak) with choice of carrots or potatoes as sides. Dessert (we are providing- not included in this price) is accompanied with a tea or coffee station as well.

We are also having a 5 hour open bar.

Our venue includes the food and beverages. It is $120 per person, including taxes, gratuities, and fees. We are having about 115 guests. This is on a Saturday night in July for full premium open bar for 5 hours (cocktail hour plus 4 hour reception). For cocktail hour we have 8 butler passed apps, a carving station, 2 hot stations, and a cold display of fruits, cheeses, vegetables, breads and crackers, and dips. Dinner is a 3 course plated meal (appetizer, salad, and entree). The 3-tier wedding cake was also included in the price. That $120 is the price for everything, including event space, chairs, linens, etc. This is in central NJ for reference.

View Quoted Comment That sounds delicious! If it was somewhere in S. FL by chance, would love to know where as we are still searching for reception venues.

We are getting married in the Bay Area and our food costs are about $55 per person which includes apps throughout the evening, non alcoholic beverages, and a one course buffet station (which we may increase to 2 options). Alcohol we estimated about $2000, but planning to source it from our local wine outlet, and go beer/wine only. Not gonna lie, reading some of your food/beverage costs makes me think hard about Bay Area and high prices lol

We haven't found our caterer yet but we budget no more than $30 ppl. Our venue is total DIY, we are planning on spending $800 on beverages including alcohol and mixers. We are not buying bottle water. We will buy a Brita filter for the faucet and everyone can enjoy filtered water in pitchers.

We are doing the appetizers ourselves and figure about $350. Probably less. 130ish guests.