Venues and food & beverage minimums!

Can you find a venue that just has the space and you provide everything else? I considered a couple but in the end the idea of coordinating tables, chairs, linens, china, flatware, etc etc was too daunting. Thankfully I found an all inclusive that met my needs.
For the venues that don’t allow outside food, it’s usually not specific to covid. It can be the way the facility is licensed, liability, or that the venue fee is a loss leader and they make their profit off catering.

View Quoted Comment Erin, Olive Garden catering starts at $12 per person for just basic pasta and doesn’t include anyone waiting on tables, anything to keep the food warm, or any non-plastic plates and flatware.

Wow, I would have killed to have a minimum that low! I'm in a high cost of living city and we had trouble finding a venue with a food and beverage minimum under $25k. Actually, our food-only minimum was $25k. Beverage packages were separate and our beverage minimum alone was like $5k. I guess it really depends on where you live!

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I'm gonna start saving money by making everything by myself dont kno what more I can do if I gotta pay for that place kuz I cant find another this will help

View Quoted Comment If you expand the distance by a 20 mile radius you will probably find a venue that will let you bring your own licensed caterer and not have a food minimum. If your FHs cousin is doing the catering at no cost, that will save a LOT. Just search fir a “dry hire” or “blank canvas” venue.

Chicago Botanic Garden is 20k. I was like YEAH NO. But many are 10-12k minimum in our area. Weddings are expensive!

I said the same sh-t and got royally jumped on, on another post. I have to use a list of approved caterers... and they all are over 6 grand for the most basic set up and not many people. Its insane.

Go on eventective.com and look for venues that allow outside catering.

View Quoted Comment Right, the key is to find a venue that allows outside catering.
Mine is all inclusive because I found one that fit my budget. If I hadn’t found one in my budget my next choice was a blank slate venue. Though for that, prices were adding up with the tables, chairs, linens, sound system...thankfully my job requires this sort of calculations for large projects LOL
It took compromise though - the two venues we loved were $110/pp, $4500 facility and $25/pp bar... I had to adjust my dreams a bit! We found one that is $85/pp, everything included but cake -even full open bar - and that was a huge weight off my shoulders!

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That's odd. We're in a major city and all the blank slate venues we looked at have tables and chair included in the rental fee. If you want something super fancy like an Oscars afterparty then the rental charges start to add up but the basic furniture is pretty nice.

View Quoted Comment The two I looked at were completely empty - well, they had tables and chairs that we could rent. There a few that had tables and chairs included, but by then I was getting overwhelmed with the the idea if renting china and figured that a more inclusive venue was more my speed.

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For example, we looked a couple all inclusive venues just to see what they were like and I personally wasn't that impressed. They would not let us swap anything out if we didn't want or need it or just wanted an alternative, which I didn't feel was very open to personalization. But everyone is different and that is ok.

View Quoted Comment I think we got lucky, prob because there had been so many covid cancellations? It’s a country club with a big menu to choose from, and can do vegan which will be important to some guests.
I think a country club might be old fashioned for some, we are older.

That’s why I don’t pay attention to their money advice lol

Every place I am looking at is 10k to 15k for minimums. It is ridiculous!

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That's why many venues are blank slate with no minimums.

That’s not that bad really. We were at $4700 with 40 people. It adds up quickly

View Quoted Comment I don’t know... I went to a Charleston wedding a few years ago and it was easily close to six-figures for around 100 people. It was a true black tie event. I think aside from location, formality and the type of wedding you’re looking to have will dictate your cost.

That is not bad at all! My venue has a minimum of $13,000.00.

Mine is 11,000 so 6 is great!