Venues and food & beverage minimums!

That’s pretty low, actually. My venue has a $7k minimum food and beverage.

It all depends on where you are.

Our venue was $150/person.

That's considered a cheap option for NYC.

The best way to see if it's a good price for your area is to use the "cost calculator" under "Planning Tools" above.

That's lower than the national average!

View Quoted Comment That's krazy do you know how many starving children or homeless people could be fed off $6000 and for how many days they could eat I'd rather give it to that then spend it one a party for one night ima keep looking I think I found one 1500$ 200 guests

View Quoted Comment How much do you spend when you go out to dinner? A wedding is like taking all of your guests out to dinner for a nice meal. For 200 people, a $6,000 food cost is only $30 a person, cheaper than a meal at any nice restaurant.


At $1,500 for 200 people, you are looking at a cost of $7.50 per person, so something like a Chipotle burrito per person. While the cost might, at first, seem high, you have to remember that you are throwing a party for hundreds of people. People have different priorities when it comes to wedding.
Some might be fine with a simple meal from Chipotle at their wedding, there is nothing wrong with that, while others might want to treat their guests to a fabulous steak dinner. Just be warned that I don’t think the $1,500 venue is going to be able to provide you with much when it comes to food and drinks. While $1,500 might be the minimum, you will probably have to pay a lot more to make sure all of your guests have food and drinks.

That is highway robbery. But they charge what they do because they know brides will pay it without blinking. It's one of the many reasons we decided to stay away from an all inclusive venue and the caterers we looked at don't charge anywhere near that for everything..plus great reviews.

View Quoted Comment In that case have a cake and punch reception at 2pm and give the rest to charity. I agree with Paige. If you still want dinner then you will have to reduce your guest list. You could also consider eloping.

View Quoted Comment Thirding.


Remember that you are not just paying for food, but for preparation, clean up, serving, and so on. The people doing that work deserve payment.
Different areas have different costs. That is reality.
If you do not want to spend a lot of money, have a courthouse wedding and a simple dinner after.
We do not judge budgets here.

Around me, that is super low. The lowest F&B I came across was $12k, and it wasn't even a particularly nice venue

$6000 for 200 guests would be an absolute steal where I live! I have a $10,000 minimum for 75 guests. Weddings are expensive haha. Unfortunately, I'm sure if you look deeper into the $1500 one, you'll find that it doesn't include everything you need and you'll end up paying more than that

View Quoted Comment This is spot on. You have to remember that you're feeding 200 people at your event, and feeding people a prepared meal costs money. If you don't want to spend money, don't have a dinner reception and do a non-meal reception like cake-and-punch or mid afternoon hors d'eouvres.


You're not going to be able to feed 200 people for dinner for $1.5k. That's not a reasonable budget.

Well if you are looking at it from a social perspective, much of that money pays the staff, who use it to pay their rent and buy groceries at stores that also pay employees who then can provide for their families.
If you were going to choose between a charity donation and a wedding that calculation would make sense, and then your goal is clear, of course make the donation.

I agree with the others- $6k is a smoking deal! I know the sticker shock threw you for a loop- it did to me as well.

This and the comments are CRAZY for me! I'm in South Carolina and I've never seen this - anything even close! We looked at an all inclusive venue that included everything down to the photographer and wedding planner and it was right at $10K. At our original venue, there was a $3,500 food and beverage minimum and we thought that was kind of a stretch.

For reference, we have separate bar and food caterers. For 75 people, we are paying our caterer (for plated filet) $2,200. Our bar package is $1,600 for a total open bar.

So to me, this is insane. But I know pricing totally depend on the area and this may be a great deal where you are located!

View Quoted Comment

I don't understand how people don't get this. Food costs money, especially food for 200 people. I get it if you can't afford $100 a head, but a $30 per person food cost is a GREAT price for a dinner!

View Quoted Comment

Is it really insane though? You are getting food for $30 a person and drinks on top for another $20. If you were to go out to dinner at a restaurant, I imagine you'd spend about the same for a simple meal with a couple of drinks.

View Quoted Comment

Totally agree! Plus, we have to take in to consideration that a caterer has to make a profit off of their service too. They are a business and should charge more than what the foot itself will costs.

View Quoted Comment

In my area, yes. I haven't seen anything with this minimum on food and beverage. I don't think $30/plate is insane. I think the minimum is a little pricey, at least where I'm located!

View Quoted Comment

I think the wedding industry often gets a bad rep form people because of the costs of things. What I imagine most people aren't realizing when planning a wedding is that not only is a wedding a massive party with, usually, a hundred or so people, but there are also high expectations with a wedding.

Couples usually expect pretty much perfection when it comes to a wedding, and vendor mistakes that might be brushed off for say a graduation party will not be easily forgiven for a wedding. A vendor who is able to perform under such pressure knows their value and are able to charge as such.

View Quoted Comment

Ahh! My apologies. I misunderstood what you were saying.