Venues and food & beverage minimums!

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I totally agree! If you think about taking that many people out to dinner at a restaurant, the price tag will make more sense. Yes! The vendor is providing food and a service, you pay for both. We originally had over 200 people on our guests list and were quick to downsize when we realized how much things like food and drink will costs per head. The price is justified, it's just whether you are willing to pay for that many people to eat dinner/can afford it. If not, you have to rethink your guest count!

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Yup! It is also why I am not having a 200 person wedding. If I have a limited budget, I can spend it more efficiently the smaller my guest list is.

Hi Angeline! Weddings are crazy expensive so I totally get the sticker shock. Our minimum was $15,000 but with covid, we were lucky our venue did not hold us to that because of restrictions, it wouldn’t have been possible.
Your mentality is admirable to want to give back to your community and I understand feeling guilty spending so much. If it helps ease your mind, like Samantha mentioned, your wedding will help keep businesses open and keep employees from losing their jobs. There are many ways you can use your wedding to benefit socially such as hiring minority owned businesses or in leu of favors, a donation in their honor to your favorite charity, donating leftovers to a shelter. Hope this helps ❤️❤️❤️

View Quoted Comment Love this response! I was going to write something similar, but I don’t think I could have worded it any better.

Normal, sadly! That was our minimum.

View Quoted Comment Aw shucks 😚 thanks Ava!! You just made my day ❤️

If you think that's bad, take a look at the $20k+ F&B minimums for a Saturday summer wedding in the greater Boston area Joking aside, if you're not already in a contract with them, don't go with them. I'm not even looking at places that make you go with their caterer and would have a minimum. I liked the previous comment about using your money to support local businesses and good causes, but why not do that with your venue, too! A historical mansion owned by the town, where your money goes to upkeep of the historical property. A nonprofit you support that rents out their space for functions. A summer camp for underprivileged kids that rents out their property to raise money for upkeep/scholarships.

That's 60 people at $100 a plate. That's not that much, honestly.

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And the food usually sucks.... every wedding i have been to with high end food has been dried out, and bland. BUT the weddings I have been to that had Chipoltle, chickfila, oilve garden, mission bbq, smokey bones and other restaurants cater THE FOOD WAS AMAZING, COOKED PERFECTLY, AND NOT DRIED OUT!!! and it's SOO much cheaper than high end catering too

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They don't realize that not everyone has the same high expectations. As long as food is good, guests don't have to open their wallets, everyone is enjoying themselves, that's really all you need. There's an unspoken expectation directed at brides that if your wedding is not as opulent as a Grace Ormonde magazine spread or if anything deviates even slightly from the Wedding Industry Standard traditional (including being whatever is on wedding tv that is not part of reality their friends and families are aware of or used to), your guests will hate you, your marriage will be invalid, etc.

Some brides truly don't care about or want certain aspects that are considered "bare minimum essential" and in turn are painted as bad brides because those things don't matter to them and they have different priorities. They still want tasty (doesn't have to be fancy) food but for their guests, champagne and shrimp cocktail with white linens the same shade as the dress are a waste of money. So they care more having a good time than fancy aesthetics.

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This is my experience as a guest too. Local restaurant catering always beats out the higher priced options.

View Quoted Comment Yaaaaaaas I have a huge family I have my own personal caterer with their own business which happens to be my fiances cousin and best man and he said he would send his people to do the catering for us plus pay for all the food and pay his people as a wedding gift to us i also at first was planning to buy a bunch of food on my own and pay someone to cook for me and they wont allow it bkuz its outside food bkuz of covid but then they slap me with a 6000$ minimum and expect me n my family to wanna eat their food made by them as if they dont have the same risks

View Quoted Comment A simple court house wedding is not an option here but I'm not gonna kill myself paying for it either you go ahead n pay them prices if u want to but I'm not a my wedding will be just as good

I found a venue that was $65 per person for food and $40 per person for open bar. And that was the absolute cheapest I could find because this venue does mostly member events and not weddings. But even with those low prices plus taxes and other fees, it comes out to about $6k. Weddings are extremely expensive even if you do the absolute bare minimum

View Quoted Comment My wedding is gonna be in Minnesota but I live in north Carolina and I wish I had that deal there but

View Quoted Comment I feel the same way! Yes I want to have a nice celebration but would rather not spend all my money on one day of my life.

View Quoted Comment Again, we do not judge budgets here.


Some people are spending next to nothing, some people are spending 6 figures.
Everyone is different, and we are a welcoming community.

View Quoted Comment It's not possible to have a massive sit down dinner wedding without spending thousands. I'm sorry, that's reality. Nowhere in America does 200-person dinners for pennies

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Even pre-Covid diy catering was not safe because you're not licensed through the health department. Also you won't have time.

There are venues that allow outside catering by a licensed company with no issues or health risks. Are you stuck with this venue? If not, take a look at eventective and see who allows outside catering, because that is very common to do so.

View Quoted Comment No ur wrong that $6000 is for the food only they still want me to pay ****$ to rent the space pay the bartender 25 per hour and the security 50 per hour if I want liquor and then on top of it make my guests pay for their drinks or pay another bar minimum of 4000 plus 1000 deposit that holds the place and dont go torwads the bill at all and then if I want centerpieces linens or china I have to rent those too we have to set it all up n decorate it all ourselves and take it all down and clean it all up at the end of the night and that's just the venue idc what nobody says them people was trying to rob me