Is the catering the biggest expense in a wedding?

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.

Our catering is slightly less expensive than the venue cost, however the venue cost includes lodging for us, the wedding party, and a few more people. Though if I add in drinks & bartender, it's the largest chunk of our budget.

We are from the Chicagoland area (DuPage county). We had our wedding in Will County, and because of that we were able to get pricing that was $50/PP with open bar (appetizers were separate). Our venue was also semi-inclusive, so that included tables, chairs, linens, cake, food, alcohol and mirrors and candles to use with our centerpieces. Catering came in at about 60% of our total budget.

LCOL area but when we were planning for a 200 guest wedding at a local Hilton, the catering bill would've been just under $15k. Alcohol wasn't factored into that amount. Feeding 200 people ain't cheap.