Venue pricing and food

This greatly varies based on the size of your guest list (and your location). If you keep your guest list small, the cost of the venue/catering will be more manageable.

Our venue with food and beverage was around $11k for 75 guests, though we ended up spending more pp because we were under our minimum of 100 guests after RSVPs came back and had to upgrade a couple things to spend what we would have spent on at least 100 guests. It was also a fairly inclusive venue, so this did include things like our cake (before we upgraded it) and our floral centerpieces (before we upgraded them).

People's venue prices seem insane to me. I'm paying $500 and that includes access to the sound and professional lighting, plus a person to run them. (I could have paid $400 without). We bring in our own caterer and alcohol.

I agree with previous poster that some venue prices are insane - some places around here are $6000 just for the venue!! Our was....ready for it....free! It was an event room in our favorite restaurant but I must say we had no dance, it was an afternoon wedding. And it was a beautiful room, very large with natural light and stained glass.

Your budget will depend on your location, time of year and of course, guest list.

VFW's/KC Hall/Legions are going to be less money. Don't be too quick to dismiss these until you see them, some of them are quite nice inside.

Our budget was a bit under $3000 for 42 guests, including food and drinking. We had a break in our photography which helped a lot. We had no favors, photo booth, all those Pinterest type things. My floral budget was $150 as we needed one bouquet and a few boots and corsages - major savings there. Focus on good food and the comfort of your guests and you will do great.

We looked at over 15 venues. The cheapest was $5500. Catering for 115 people without alcohol but everything for the bar and desert was 7200$ . But that's Atlanta prices.

We are doing ours at a BEAUTIFUL state park. $100 per hour, plus $6 per car entry. We have do no almost no decorating because the area is beautiful (Just centerpieces for the tables.). Going with a local catering service and doing brunch. Because we have a long engagement (he proposed last August) we have been slowly buying things, trying to knock 1 small thing each paycheck.

Wedding spot

This is entirely dependent on location, guest list, and type of food you serve. You can do a whole wedding for $7000, but not if you intend to have 300 guests in NYC, for example.

We have two options which is very budget friendly. We can do the park which will be $200 to rent both picnic areas. We will have caterer to bbq which works at my church. Or we can do this hall that holds 150 for $450 we can bring an outside caterer ( we chose an italian restaurant) and alcohol. We plan on not spending more than $2000 for everything. We are expecting to invite 75-100 guest. It just depends on what your looking for. I found out that restaurants are fairly reasonable for buffet catering.

Our venue is 2500 and the caterer is 3450 but our venue also is strict with who they allow us to use so we had slim pickings on that portion. The table and chair rental is 1153. As well. Our caterer includes a bartender though and we byob and liquor

That is a reasonable amount for a wedding but, it will depend on how many people you are inviting. Guest size is the largest cost factor. We have budged between 6-7K for our wedding of 20 people.

Our venue with tax and gratuity is about $3300. That includes ceremony space, reception space, centerpieces and decor, venue's DOC, full open bar and table wine, sit down meal (apps, salad/bread, duo plate of filet mignon and chicken, sides, dessert) and wood-fired pizza for a late-night snack.

I'd recommend figuring out your guest list first and then pricing/touring venues. Food/venue should make up approximately 50% of your budget.

Our budget is 8K for everything, but unfortunately today we priced 4 locations and after we take in consideration all the other costs (wedding dress, groom tuxedo, car rental, photography, dj, and misc costs) it comes up to 17k we are pretty discouraged as we are paying for everything ourselves and just put the planning away. We will tackle again next week.

My whole wedding for about 32 guests will be around $6000. The venue is all-inclusive and is 3450. So I'd guess we're probably spending a little less than a third of our budget on food and alcohol.

My venue is $3600 and the catering is $1950 for 85 people. That doesn't include alcohol, as we will be proving the alcohol ans bartender is being provided by the caterer. We picked a venue that allowed outside catering.

Yeah, this depends. We didn't pay anything for our venue (a restaurant), but we had a $12k minimum food and beverage (75 guests, Manhattan)

View Quoted Comment Would you mind elaborating on what a break is and why that helped you save money? Just starting to plan over here so everything is new to me. And congratulations!

I’m still pre-weddin (domestic destination), but my package plus additions (additional open bar and an allowance for extra guests) for about 25 has been about $8,400, but that includes 2 nights at the resort, the officiant/ceremony, and a $500 floral allowance. It is by no means cheap, though it’s saving me headaches and is more reasonable than the bigger wedding I originally thought I might plan.

It really varies by geography, level of service, food type, atmosphere. I wouldn’t rule out all inclusive places. They can sometimes be less expensive in the long run than a la carte. And less hassle. I know of one place here (near Washington DC) that has a package for 100 guests for ~$9,000 that is in a historic house that included a buffet dinner, open beer/wine bar, cupcakes, a DJ, and all the linens etc.

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Sure Vicky! Our photographer was starting out and charged us $500. I knew her somewhat socially as we were neighbors where I used to live. Now please bear in mind: We were NOT her first wedding and I had seen A LOT of her work, her portfolio was/is extensive. She gave us a break on the charge. Also, we did not have her for a full eight hours; our wedding was at 11am, over by 3 and we hired her from 9:30 to 2:30. If you have any hesitation on a beginner, save your money and go with a more experienced pro. I knew her, we got along and that is key as your photographer will be with you all day long. We had no engagement photos. And not to scare you.....but my brother and his wife got married in 1987, before digital equipment. They "hired" her brother who FORGOT TO PUT FILM IN THE CAMERA. Not kidding. I received all the proofs, a flash drive with the finished pics, plus an 8x10 canvas print of our choice. BE FUSSY and GET A CONTRACT. Best wishes to you!

Ours is 6500 for 150 people. Includes decorator, coordinator, and caterer.

My venue rolls their price into the per person catering price. So technically we're paying no venue fee, but about $120pp for catering + venue, and about $140 altogether including alcohol

Our venue is about $1,400 for the reception and $250 for the ceremony. We haven't settled on the total price for the food and drinks but it will be under $5,000 for 100 people. Probably way less since it's more of a lunch/brunch.

Our venue charges a room fee of $1,000 typically. Because we chose a morning wedding (ceremony began at 11) and we met their minimum of 100 guests (we had close to 130), we were able to get the room fee waived. They also do in-house catering but there was no F&B minimum for morning weddings. Catering and bar came out to close to 15k for 114 adults and 12 kids. They didn’t charge us for the bar or cocktail hour for the kids and kids meals were $25 compared to the $60pp adult entrees.