Is the catering the biggest expense in a wedding?

Don't know if this helps but our wedding planner has 48% allocated to reception venue and food combined

We are having 200 people in Chicago, too! The cheapest estimate we got for catering for that number was something like 22k not including gratuity. If you're looking in the burbs, you can find less expensive options but not substantially-so until you're about an hour outside of the city center. Took us a while to get over the sticker shock but we cut down elsewhere and are feeling better finally haha.

Chicago is definitely expensive. I'm in Chicago as well but chose a venue in the suburbs outside of cook county. I'm paying 15k for food and bar. I'm hosting approximately 150

Pretty happy with my pricing! We got the venue at a discount and the catering is a plated chicken or pork meal that is costing us 1800 for 105 adults and 230 for 20 children (they have their own menu)

Our catering in Schaumburg, IL is about $2500 for 100 people.

Yes. Catering, venue and alcohol took 45% of our budget. We are looking at $32000-$38000 depending on the amount of guests that rsvp yes

@Pam, we had our reception at Fox Hills What are you doing schlepping to the east side for your wedding (love Rochester btw) ?

My catering will cost 4100 for 150 people, not including alcohol

Catering is my biggest expense.

Catering was $12k, Alcohol $10k and venue was $8500. This was for 220 people and our total budget was about $55k so venue/food/alcohol was more than half of what we spent.

ETA: Wedding was in downtown Minneapolis.

Yes, I would say food and drinks combined does.

I'm in northern CA, I am paying $20 pp, most friends who have gotten married already have spent around $40+ per plate & honestly I wouldn't have known the difference between what I'm serving and what they served. I also have been to a country theme bbq tri tip style dinner for about $12pp and that was fine too. Food & alcohol is really very important, do you research& it tastes "good" nobody really cares as long as you have enough of it that's all that matters to be honest

CT bride here, and for 200 guests my catering (and service) is going to be roughly 18-20k. The rest of my wedding expenses combined are roughly 20k! It is where we wanted to spend our money, for sure!

Our venue rental fee is 10% of our budget and our catering and bar is 44% of our overall budget. For 50 adults with beer and wine and 15 kids, our catering is right around $10,000.

We are at about 145 people and our catering cost is $8500 and our bar is $3200. I also work for a catering company and it really depends where you, but yes food will probably be your biggest expense. Don't just think "it's wedding food" either, people will remember food if its great. Get some action stations!

In Chicago probably $140-$200 per person (my daughters was $172 pp) for venue, catering and bar. In the suburban areas $100-$150.

My venue is in the Philly suburbs and catering is going to be about half the total budget.

We're getting married in Vegas and are paying about $7,000 for 60 people (alcohol included).

For most properly hosted weddings, catering should be the biggest expense. Ours was 40% of our total budget. The easiest way to reduce the cost would be to reduce the guest list of course.

My venue has catering, so the venue/catering cost was definitely the biggest cost by far. My venue is 75/pp and that's pretty cheap compared to a lot I've seen on here, so I can easily see a more expensive venue being upwards of $20,000 for that many people. Compare that to a $2500 photographer fee and it's obvious how big of a chunk the catering can be. It does depend on what you do though and whether your venue is all inclusive.