New York rates... $100-$200 per person?

I'm in Northern New Jersey and my per plate cost was $160 + 21% service charge + 7% tax

Yup- I'm in Northern NJ and this is right on for all the venues we looked at. 100 is actually on the low end... most places started at $150. We started reevaluating our budget pretty much immediately after we realized how expensive everything is, realistically.

I would think that in Feb. at the very least you could negotiate minimums, if not price.

Mine is about 200 per person and I am in Texas lol but my budget is a lot larger than most peoples in my Hometown in Texas.

I live in the greater Miami area and most things start around $120 before booze, service, and tax.

I got really, really lucky with my venue, largely because it's not really big enough for a traditional flashy South Florida shindig (max capacity around 90, fits 70ish comfortably). We're paying rates that are much lower than most banquet hall prices.

I'm in northern jersey. I would say more like $100-$400. My jaw dropped when I saw the pricing of some places! I went to a coworkers wedding and hers was $350 per plate. Mind-blown.

Mine is 90pp + 27% tax and gratuity but even that was hard to find.

If you are going with a February wedding, the prices are much more reasonable. You might be able to get a really good deal around the $100 pp range if not a little lower.

I'm in California, we're getting married at a winery and we lucked out because I wanted to get married in April (exactly one year after we bought our first home together) and for some reason April is considered an off season. We'll only be paying $1500 fee for the reception room and right about now I am guestimating we'll fall somewhere around $150/ pp (appetizers / spirits, wine, beer, sodas, coffee, etc. / sit down dinner/ cake included along with some rentals, but we'll still need to rent a lot of what they don't provide from their preferred rental company). Tax and gratuities are separate.

RjMargo - our reception is at Russo's on the Bay. Again we booked in 2014, so I have no idea what the pricing is like now that they have raised their prices.

Amanda - ours is a 75 guarantee. I also agree with Celia, for the time of year you're looking at you should be able to negotiate something.

Yeah you would think but they don't have an off season. I asked. She threw in coffee for free and dropped like $10 off per person so I guess it is what it is. I'm really excited though!

Getting married in Brooklyn here. With catering and the bar package (our venue 501 Union requires you to outsource all vendors but must use their bar offerings - combined food and drink it comes to a staggering (gulp) $250 per guest.

This includes 8-10 passed apps, seated three course dinner (guests choose menu items at table) and four desserts for dessert table. Also premium open bar for 5 hours with 6 signature cocktails. Our venue is very close to Downtown Brooklyn.

This does not include venue booking fees or table and chair rentals. City living eh?!

I'm in NJ and ours is $120 per person plus tax. I'm pretty sure the service charge is included in the $120. It includes cocktail hour and 4 hour open bar at the reception and salad, sorbet, entrée, and cake. It's discounted for guests under 21. They subtract the open bar amount for guests 13-20 and it's like half price for guests 5-12. Under 5 is free. Oh and we get 3 free rooms plus a bridal suite for the night of the wedding. So it's not too bad of a deal but still over $100. A lot of the other place we contacted were even more. NYC I can imagine would be more.

Keeping it under 300 per head for NYC area is pretty reasonable with tax and gratuity..

They have discounted block rates & a free bridal suite too. But still 20k for food, venue, drinks is a lot of money to spend for a party. We will need to take out loans to pay for this. It's like might as well spend it on a really great vacation ya know?

Sounds about right for NY! The places we looked into were quoting us about 200 pp. With our guest list it would have been about 50k..plus everything else. I didn't want to spend that kind of money on a wedding, I'd rather put it towards my house. So! Backyard wedding is what we decided.

I'm really fascinated by these threads. Having previously lived in NYC for 8 years, I'm not surprised by the $150-300 pp. I do think that anyone who would pay $300 pp is insane, but I suppose everyone should have options, right? ha.

I'm in CA, and while the per plate price here is much lower on average, the site fees are really, really high. Amanda's talking about $150pp and a $1500 site fee; mine comes out to $70 per person for apps, open bar, and buffet (yes, I know it's buffet, but it'll still end up being more food), but then $5250 for the site fee! That was a tough pill to swallow, but then the catering was so affordable that it made sense. There certainly seems to be a wider variety of affordable locations in NY, but then the food is astronomically priced everywhere. I do miss NY, though *sigh*

Wow. I'm so glad I don't live in NYC (I love it, though!). I can't even imagine paying $100 a head. I'm in a big city (Houston), but I found ways to keep it relatively small-budgeted. It took a lot of extra work on my part, but to me it was totally worth it.

I'm on Long Island and I'm paying $85 a person for a Sunday night in July 2016.....Saturday night would be $115 a person, which was about the average for all the venues we looked at.

Amada, have you signed the contract already? If not, it might be worth looking in NJ (including Celia's suggestions) or more upstate so you don't have to take out a loan for the wedding. Not sure exactly what you are looking for, but there are definitely some cheaper options in you are willing to go outside of the city.

I agree with @Rjmargo There are definitely options in NJ. It took a lot of work but I was able to find a few less expensive options mostly in Monmouth County. Let me know if you're interested.

Praise jesus I live in the south!