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

We went with non-inclusive, but only because we fell in love with our venue and we were looking for specific things, and it all happened to fit our budget. The only problem that I saw with the all-inclusive venues we toured was that you tend to have very limited options for personalization/customization in the details like linens, catering, china, etc. If we weren't so picky though, all-inclusive sounds like a great way to save time and money! It just depends on your personalities and what you want most out of your wedding experience.

Its a bit extra cost but comes with so much less stress. My caterer is taking care of serving the champagne toast (we are having no alchohol otherwise) and gave us our choice of napkin colors (we are doing linens elsewhere). So much better to have one less thing to stress about.

In my case it was cheaper. Our venue is all inclusive. It includes a 3 course meal, open bar for 6 hours, a 6 hour venue rental, valet, all linens and china, and cake cutting service. It’ll be $80/person (it’s usually 90 but we have the winter discount). It’s also much easier because now we don’t have to coordinate anything.

Probably! You can price out all the rentals separately but if close to all-inclusive pricing, go with the venue. Much easier. Before our venue let us know they had farm wood tables we could use, I priced them out (and a few specialty items)—the rental cost was reasonable but the delivery charges were ridiculous).

That's a fairly standard service for venues around here. We did some research on venues that did NOT offer this, and the math did not really work out in their favor.

It's also easier - less coordinating on your end, honestly.

Overall, for me, it would’ve been cheaper to shop around. However, I didn’t want to deal with the added stress of working with multiple vendors.

Time is money. Go all inclusive and save yourself the additional time needed to coordinate all these moving parts. We chose an all inclusive and it's been the greatest wedding decision thus far. The only vendors we need to bring in are florist, photographer, stationary, DJ and Officiant. That's it. Our venue even includes a DOC, it's been amazing not having to stress over all the small moving parts of multiple vendors and to me the money isn't even an object, my time and stress levels are worth vastly more.

My venue comes with a caterer that includes bar, food, tables, linens etc. and after doing the math and comparing it to other venues that did not include it all, i realized my venue was the best route to go in price. I would definitely recommend comparing to other similar venues that may not include it all and see what the price would be for both in your area!!

All inclusive catering is definitely the easiest option, but I would double check everything before you commit. Some only offer certain color linens or have cheap tableware. We have an all inclusive caterer in our area, and they have a 50/50 reputation. I've been to some that were done very nicely, but I've also been to some that weren't. One that I went to only offered clear plastic plates (which I'm not against), but they were definitely not large enough to hold a meal and the cups were super small too. I chose not to do an all inclusive caterer, but my coordinator/planner has all of the plates, linens, décor, etc that I will be using. If you sample their food, and like their linens, tableware, etc. then I think it would be a good idea- just make sure everything is up to par before you make the commitment!

One of my married friend told me it is less stress to mainstream the number of vendors. So if you can hit a lot of boxes with this all inclusive - do it. You’ll save yourself stress . Maybe not money but the stress part can be priceless