What is everyone's thoughts on full-service, all-inclusive catering?

I'm not sure how much money you save, but some caterers charge extra fees if you rent linens/china from outside people and outsource things like dessert, etc. For us, it was just so much easier to let the caterer take care of rentals too. But we did end up using a different dessert baker & bartender, we didn't like the sample desserts from our caterer.

I don't know if it's really cheaper to 'shop around' for multiple vendors, but I personally think it's worth avoiding the added stress/headache of finding/pricing out/managing multiple vendors on the wedding day by having at least the basics (food, china, linens, flatware, dessert) covered by the caterer. Sometimes you might be able to negotiate those things into the catering contract (that goes for bar service as well). My caterer includes everything except the cake and it's nice to not have to find separate vendors for everything related to food service.

I'm honestly not sure if it is cheaper, but it is less work you have to do. Our venue provided the food, china, flatwire and had a contract with a local bakery that provided our wedding cake. It was a whole lot easier. For my brother's wedding, he had to find his own cater since the venue didn't provide. His cater provided the china, but he had to rent linens. His decorator had linens he could rent so he got lucky that he didn't have to find someone else to rent linens from. I know from talking to my mom who is the one that planned most of my brother's wedding that she thought it was easier to have a venue that supplied all that stuff like we did.

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Our budget (as we are trying to spend wisely) will allow for all-inclusive catering, but we want to be sure its the best option. We will definitely do a tasting before agreeing to dessert.

Thank you for your advice!

We have what I consider an "all inclusive" venue which I find to be much easier. Our ceremony and reception are at a boutique Hilton hotel where we will be staying (so no transportation needed). They provide an officiant, chair setup and ceremony setup/teardown, all the rentals/furniture for cocktail hour, catering/alcohol/cake/staff. An event coordinator is included and we simply pick from what we want.

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Thank you for your Advice!

I totally agree it would be a whole lot less stressful to have an all-inclusive caterer.

For us we have all-inclusive catering which includes additions such as espresso bars and an chair/table/tablewear/bar rentals. They rent from a reputable company with online presence so I can pick and choose what I want for the table settings. During my tasting next week, they will bring all the options I've selected and set up a table for me so I can see which ones I like best. Additionally, they get a vendor discount for the rentals and will be passing along the discount to me! I love my caterer!

I personally think it depends on how much you are willing to do yourself and what is in your budget. Sure you may be able to find cheaper options, but is it worth it to do so much work? I am not a DIY-er so anything that is all inclusive is better for me. Going from store to store, making sure that I have everything that is needed would stress me out and not worth it to save a few bucks.

I'm not sure how much we saved but we were very very happy with what we got.

We chose a restaurant that also specializes in "all inclusive" weddings. We paid about $25/ person and it was totally worth it. No hassles, no set up, no tear down. It was great and very chill. I'd recommend to any bride who doesn't want to handle those small particulars to get someone who includes them.

Eh I think it is worth it unless you can have : plan for someone else to be doing what needs to be done - sometimes it’s easier to just have one company rather than juggling a few different ones and having them all work togwthwr

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I wish my venue was all-inclusive. I can see how the planning process can be a big difference when having to research and find all the different parts that are lacking in an all-inclusive setting.

thank you for sharing!

Not sure on the savings, but we are doing it to ease stress. Our venue handles food, drinks, linens, cake, etc. It really lowered the number of vendors we had to search for and made everything a lot easier.

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I think as long as you like their china/linen/food options, it's just so much easier to have it all in one. It was kind of a pain communicating with the caterer & baker & bar.

We have an all inclusive venue which includes the ceremony space, reception space, and all food, bar, tables, linens, serveware, etc. I wasn't necessarily set on that type of venue, but most of the places we liked were hotels or specialized wedding venues so they price per person rather than in flat rates. At one point I priced out another venue where nothing was included and we would have to rent everything. While there was more flexibility with that type of pricing, if I picked out the stuff that was similar in quality to other places, the prices worked out to be about the same. Just make sure that you actually see what your caterer is providing for linens and dinnerware and that it is a style and quality you are happy with.

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Dayna,

You have thought through all the things I have been thinking through in my head. I will definitely make sure that we actually see what the caterer provides for linens/dinnerware and that it is a style and quality we are happy with.

Thank you for your advice and for sharing!

We have an all inclusive venue and its giving us (well me) the ease of not having to contact separate vendors outside of our DJ, photographer and florist. Everything is included which I prefer and they setup and breakdown everything. I might not be saving a lot but the ease of knowing that the staff of the venue will be on hand to take care of those things is settling to me. They even provide the cake (I will use their baker and do a testing) as well as additional desserts and top shelf open bar.

It depends. I've seen some that are rather expensive and some that are actually a good price. It does save you the work though from having to find all those parts individually

View Quoted Comment You're welcome! My bil's venue also provided everything except for his desserts because he wanted donuts instead of cake and they forgot half the donuts so right before the ceremony someone had to run out and get them so if you can do all-inclusive and not have to worry about organizing a bunch of different things I say go for it.

I had a backyard wedding with a full service caterer and I honestly could not have done it without them. They basically WERE the wedding. They coordinated everything, delivery of all the rentals, set up of all the rentals, clean up and return of all the rentals and I didn’t have to worry AT ALL. Ugh I can’t recommend that enough!!

I didn’t want to go nuts with price and comparison shopping (plus, once you have different rental companies coming, you have to figure in separate delivery fees and potentially set up charges [i spoke to a couple companies that wouldn’t touch any other company’s products — so then keeping everything sorted and separate becomes a headache!]) BUT the only thing I decided to go rouge on was chairs....and I did save a couple hundred dollars there (wouldn’t have bothered if not), because I could rent them through my tent company for much less. Since I was already getting a delivery from them, changing vendors didn’t matter much as the chairs came when the tent came!

Daughter's wedding was at an (almost) all inclusive venue, and I have to say, it was awesome to know that someone else (the venue coordinator) was responsible for SO MANY DETAIL. FWIW: We looked at 10 fairly similar venues, and nine of the 10 were almost identical in cost (when we adjusted for "apples to apples" comparisons). The ONE of 10 that was almost $2000 more than the others was the one that was the LEAST inclusive.... We're in So Cal, but I would definitely do an "apples to apples comparison" -- you'll likely find value/savings in the more inclusives. Good luck!