$/person for reception question- what is included?

Mine includes everything, but it depends on the venue. we visited a lot of different venue, some of them give you a lot more for lower price and some of them give you a lot less for higher price. Only the venue in question can answer that question correctly for you

Like Patricia said, this varies from venue to venue, you can't really tell, you have to ask them, they should be able to give you details, I find that some places care more about the structure and how beautiful the place is then to actually help with anything else. Call the venues and compare

Mine is $60/head for dinner, dessert, 3 premium drinks, all tables & chairs, linens, glasses, votive candles, bar and plated dinner service. An extra $500 covers the facility rental for 6 hours with ceremony setup/cleanup (all chairs) & microphone for officiant. Anything beyond that varies and is extra, apps will be added for $500, increased bar tab, wedding cake etc

Mine was $1800 for the site package which includes tables, chairs, linens, glasses, dinnerware, fishbowl/hurricane, votives, aisle runner, 4 hotel rooms including the honeymoon suite, 10am -10pm, cake cutting, set up and tear down (and more). They have a $5k food and beverage minimum and offer varying packages for that. The one we chose has fruit & cheese tray, veggies & dip, antipasto platter, crab cakes, chicken entree, salmon entree, and a carving station with prime rib. All a buffet that costs $46 per person. Again, all we have to do is hit the $5k. If we had less people, we can throw in more booze. As it is now, we're buying a keg and people can pay for their own liquor. If less people come, we'll throw in wine .. as long as we hit the $5k. Oh, and this is a Marriott Courtyard and frankly, you get a lot for your money!

Ours is $110 per person and includes pretty much everything.

Different venues offer different pricing. Ours worked put at $78.00 per head for the venue, complete set up, tables, chairs, china, silverware, candles, chair covers, 2 entree menu, appetizers, cocktail hour, open bar all night, clean up, servers, 3 tier cake, cake cutting, coffee and tea service, and use of laser lights for the DJ (we brought our own DJ and hired our own florist to do the decor and center pieces), we also provided the place cards and seating chart. I would make a list of everything you want and ask each venue what is included, what id not included, how much are the "extras", what fees are there, and what you have to provide, so you can comparison shop.

Thanks ladies is is just the type of information I needed. I was afraid the prices were for JUST food and didn't include the venue, linens, setup, etc. We have a lot of good friends in addition to our family and I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to invite as many as we really want to because the cost would be to high.

Again, Thank you, Thank you. This is just the type of information I needed. Let me know if you have any more suggestions on what to ask, etc.

Most all inclusive places include the linens, etc- but they are bottom grade linens. If you want overlays or anything like that, it's extra. You can typically get them to throw stuff in. Most of the places I went to had crappy centerpieces, most chipped or falling apart.

Be prepared to negotiate upgrades and provide some things on your own.

It was all inclusive at our venue, the price per person included food, drinks (non alcoholic), linens, glassware, silverware, china, centerpieces, some decorations, set up and clean up as well as all servers and gratuity. But you'll need to find out from the individual venues what each price point covers and what it doesn't.

Our venue is all-inclusive...it includes all linens, table-wear, food, alcohol, they decorate, tear down, shots for the bridal dance, cake cutting service...for $44 a person, which I think is fantastic. There are upgrades you can do on just about everything, including food. We might choose different linens and the FI wants a bottle of champagne on everyone's table. We're also getting married there, so that's an extra $250.00. But all in all, I think it's a great deal, especially because they include the alcohol.

$0 per head- 1,200 rental fee.

Outside beverage/catering allowed. Linens to be rented.

Honestly, each venue is different. You really need to look at what you need, and calculate the cost of that for each venue.

For example, we had two reception venues, one for the luncheon after the ceremony and one for the at-home reception. For the luncheon, we used the private dining room of a nearby Legal Seafoods. There was no rental charge as such. However, the cost of the food was increased by 2% if you used the private dining room. In addition, a mandatory 18% service charge was added for large parties (whether or not they used the private dining room). Because we had so few guests (only 11 guests plus the two of us), this ended up being quite cost-effective for us. The total cost for the luncheon was about $1,600, including private dining room surcharge, tax, alcohol (we told them to put bottles of wine on the table and also fill guests' drink orders at our expense), and service charge.

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Ours included everything but when you looked at the invoice it appeared the price was broken down a bit

Basic lap length table linens, mirror tiles and candles, napkins, dinnerware, set up and clean up, ceremony outside at gazebo in wedding garden and reception on the inside in ballroom - $1k. $1100 rental for chair covers and sashes. $4k food/drink minimums. Other misc charges.

Wow, I feel kinda cheap lol, my venue doesn't charge a rental fee; I will be paying anywhere from $20 - $27/person with discounts for the children depending on what we decide on for menu options. The venue will make their money on the meal and on the bar.

Renay dont feel cheap.... I forgot to mention we won our $1200 site rental for free... and opted for a lunch menu our lunch menu is about $20 pp

For our at-home reception, we used a private club. The rent was $750 for a huge space that would have fit all the people we know and then some. ;-) They insisted we use them for our beverage service, but we had no issues with doing that since they gave us an open bar for 60 people for five hours for $250. They did not provide food, but allowed us to use any caterer we wanted--or no caterer at all, and pay friends to help with food. This included all tables and chairs, a DVD machine (so we could show the DVD of our ceremony), a sound system for our musician, and staff to handle the door and run the bar. However, we had to rent or buy linens, plates, flatware, glasses, decorations, etc. The net result was that adding to the guest list didn't really cost us all that much, because only the food (which came from BJ's) was a per person cost.

For my daughters wedding, the cost, per person at the venue ended up around $36 per person. The wedding and reception were both held at a hotel. We took over the entire Ballroom for the reception and the smaller two section meeting rooms for the ceremony.

This included appetizers, dinner, non-alcoholic beverages, linens. I did rent napkins as they hotel had the table cloth and runner colors, but not the napkin color needed. My friend, who is the GM of the hotel restaurant, told me to go to their rental company on my own. He told me that he could order the napkins, but I would have to pay an upcharge. So, I saved $30 on napkins by picking them up myself. The hotel returned them for me. A few were missing, so I paid $5 for the missing napkins. I still saved $25.

Site rental 3300- includes tables and chairs. Everything else is to be provided by the caterer. 68-96 per person, more if you want extras like specialty linens, china, and chairs.

Thanks ladies I appreciate all the information. It really helps to have an idea of what to expect before I start looking.