Venues and food & beverage minimums!

View Quoted Comment Oh I’m sure! Charleston is its own category of location LOL. This price would probably be laughable if you were getting married in Charleston, and rightfully so! And you're totally right! A backyard, BBQ styled wedding will never cost the same as a formal wedding, no matter the vendor. Good point!

View Quoted Comment Yeah, they definitely went all out with seafood towers and sushi for cocktail hour, multiple courses including lobster and filet mignon, and their late-night snacks were wagyu sliders and artisanal pizzas garnished with truffle on it! It was definitely some of the best food I’ve had a wedding though! definitely worth the cost of the luggage pieces we gifted them. Haha

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I remember that post. The reason you got jumped on was not due to the issue of food and beverage minimums, but because you suggested having a no-food wedding.

I'd suggest finding a venue that allows you to use any outside caterer and that way you won't have to worry about meeting a food and beverage minimum.

My food minimum is still $18000 in a pandemic. We have so many no’s already. We’re asking random vaccinated people to come and our venue told us to embellish our menu to meet $18k

We had a $10,000 minimum and only had 52 people. It depends on location, venue, etc. I think you will find many venues to be in that price range. Good luck.

Luckily my venue doesn't have a food and beverage minimum. I live in a high price area though and many venues that had a minimum were $20,000 easily. I don't think people are trying to tell you you have to spend any amount of money you're not comfortable with, they are just trying to put things into perspective. Good luck!

Tbh I think that may be average price. Depending on your guest count you may would have probably spent that much anyway. It just looks scary because your contract says you HAVE to lol

Our wedding is in a restaurant in Boston and the F&B minimum is $13k.

That seems pretty low to me, but I may be in a different area than you. For reference for 65 people I'm hitting $8.7k for food and an additional $5k for alcohol. At the end of the day you just have to decide what you're comfortable spending, and find a venue/caterer within that.

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Oh my goodness! I had to stop and comment because I also have a guest list of 75, but we are spending $1350, and that includes personal charcuterie cups and cobbler with ice cream for dessert. I'm located in Texas, though. It's not going to be a fancy dinner with several courses, of course. We also had to go with hard acrylic dinnerware and flatware as opposed to glass/metal.

I'm genuinely curious, what kind of dinner will be served at $10,000 for 75?

Based on all the comments, it looks like the prices vastly range depending on where you live and what level of formality you're going with.

Our entire wedding budget is $11k, with a guest list of 75. We specifically sought out a venue that didn't require use of any specific vendors to help us stick to our budget. Our venue was $3500, we're having a Christmas wedding, so we opted for an upscale barbecue/holiday themed dinner. We're serving sliced brisket, turkey breast with homemade cranberry sauce, buttered mashed potatoes, whole green beans and a dinner roll. There will be iced tea served with dinner. We did have to settle for acrylic plasticware and flatware. It will cost us about $1350.

We're spending another $1400 on bar services and alcohol.

Our minimum is 12k 🤷🏻‍♀️

Ours is $7,500 and we’re having 75 people!

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Clearly I need to move to Texas haha. I saw your other comment and your dinner sounds delicious! My venue is in Virginia, about 40 minutes outside of DC, and everything is ridiculously expensive. We also wanted to stick with a "modern", country club type of venue, so that really limited our choices to more all inclusive venues. And to top it off, my FH is a chef for a living, so food was definitely our highest priority.

Our package had a list of several options, but we chose a sushi display and then baby lamb chops, vegetarian spring rolls, and mini crab cakes for passed appetizers. Dinner comes with salad and rolls and the guests can choose from 3 plated entrees - parmesan crusted chicken, caramelized onion crusted grouper, or grilled portobello napoleon. It also includes a 4 hour open bar and champagne toast and then all of the silverware, tablecloths, chargers, etc. The food is amazing, but is it really worth $100 a person? Heck no lol we are definitely paying wedding prices.

I know, it seems crazy, but that’s actually pretty low… Depending on where your state is. My state is Rhode Island and It’s hard to find a price like that here.

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That's a great deal!

In NY, that's a steal. Im paying 12G - 115 guests. for cocktail hour, 3 course meal, dessert, and wedding cake included, also best of all- open bar for all 5 hours lol. Honestly 6Gs is not a lot at all for the amount of guests you're having. You want to enjoy the day and especially thank the special ppl who you're inviting. You want your guests to have a good time and enjoy the food too .

View Quoted Comment 6 grand is just for the food I still have to pay between **** for the venue cash bar so my guests have to pay for their drinks or if I want an open bar that's another 4000 $ minimum I have to pay the bartender 25$ per hour and security 50$ per hour if I want alcohol 1000$ deposit just to hold the date for me n it does not go towards anything n if I want linens or china I gotta pay for them too im sorry maybe you can afford all that but i cant especially when i still have the limo officiant ceremony venue my dress accessories n alterations his tux accessories n alterations the flowers the DJ the band the photographer the decorations the cake the makeup the hair stylist the lighting the cake rehearsal dinner and whatever else I'm not rich in fact I'm on a super tight budget with all of this and 6000 is just nuts there goes my honeymoon

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Thats totally understandable. Have you thought about a backyard wedding? The main chunks of money should be spent on food and drinks for a wedding. If you have it in your backyard or someone else's you'd save a ton. You can do DIY centerpieces, bouquets, and see if any close friends or family members know how to do hair and makeup. that's hundreds saved right there. maybe find a new venue/restaurant that's going to give you a better deal. OR cut down your guest list.