Wedding catering was a bit shit

[Brieonabagel]

My best friends wedding, I was a bridesmaid. The happy couple work hard but aren't well off so had a strict budget.
The whole event was booked at a hotel. So the ceremony was there and then the reception, then guests booked rooms (paid for by themselves) and stayed the night.

The budget was tight so, when ordering the food, the groom asked what their options were.
They were told that they don't 'do' buffets. They only do a sit down meal.
The options for this began at £14 per head. As such they could only afford the cheapest menu.

The hotel has a strict policy on not bringing in your own food and drink, which is fine.

We were served a (small) spoonful of cottage pie each (one large catering tray for 50 guests) 2 pieces of broccoli each and some carrots.
Dessert was a scone with clotted cream and jam.

Aibu to think that's pretty meagre considering it was £14 per head?

I was not full from that meal and it certainly didn't serve to soak up the alcohol later on!
Also, they didn't sell bar snacks?! Odd, with their no bringing in food from outside rule I thought.

The groom was fuming as the meal had been described in fancy detail and he thought he'd get something decent for £14 a head. The bride and groom hadn't been able to eat all day due to nerves so that was their only food for all day and night.

Is £14 per head reasonable for that meal?

It sounds naff but then £14 per head I would say is pretty cheap for wedding catering so although it doesn't excuse a stingy portion I also probably wouldn't be expecting much on that budget.

It sounds very poor, but I suspect that they get away with it due to teh "wedding mark up".

they could complain directly to the hotel, or if that doesn't work trip adviser etc.

The type of food sounds OK. Except I would expect a decent portion. Or some bread and butter to fill up on. Fourteen pounds for 2 courses is pretty cheap for a pub meal never mind a wedding.

Personally, I'd be complaining if they were promised something else and it wasn't what they were given.

But that being said £14 per head for a meal at a wedding at a hotel is very, unusually low I'd say. When we booked ours 10 years ago, most places quoted about £10-£15 for a buffet and around £30-£40 for a meal.

No that sounds like an absolute rip off. Cottage pie is so cheap to make in bulk and it’s hardly what you’d expect for wedding food, just a normal weekday meal. The poor bride and groom, I’d feel so disappointed and embarrassed.

Don't know in regards to the shepherds pie, as a spoonful of cottage pie portion will differ in regards to who you're talking to whether the spoon was a big one or not.
Only 2 pieces of broccoli and a few carrots and nothing else if that's what it was does sound a bit meagre though.
From experience the fancier and the more expensive the wedding venues big up and rip you off with their menus the less food you actually get though!

If you were in a restaurant as a couple then no £14 is not reasonable. but compared to the cost of other wedding food then it is not reasonable but seems to be the industry standard in terms of what you get. I have seen friends paying £70 - £80 a head for food that you would pay £20 or less in a restaurant. Its the way that venues make their money - through the food and drink they provide. I am on a lot of forums in my local area buying/selling type ones. I have lost count of the number of times people have asked about a venue and I have commented that its not just the venue and how it looks that's important but what they tie you in to. No wonder I am seeing so many posts about barn weddings and festival weddings where food is provided separate from the venue.

That's made me a bit sad.

How did the hotel make cottage pie sound fancy?

And I doubt you'd get much for £14 a head.

It was sold to the groom as though the pie would be an individual one iyswim?
He imagined everyone with their own personal cottage pie with 'a selection of seasonal vegetables' on the side.
The dessert was supposed to br 'simple, elegant and traditional afternoon tea style'

Sounds poor to me.

The food described isn't expensive to make - especially if you're cooking it in volume.

Cottage pie and veg is hardly fancy fare, but done well it's tasty and attractive.

Tbh I'd have expected individual portions served attractively and a large dish of veggies per table to share.

I'd complain about the portion size - it sounds very meagre - more like a toddler meal.

If the venue can't produce adult portions for that price then they shouldn't be selling it and it's not unreasonable to assume if you're paying for an adult meal - that's what you get.

Bear in mind we're near Liverpool and they charged 3 grand to have the ceremony and reception there, plus £175 per room for guests who wanted to stay over. (The hotel was open to other guests too so not like they booked out the whole place)
Sorry for drip feed. The breakfast was generous and excellent though so not like they don't know how to cater.
It felt like the bride and groom were looked down on for choosing the cheapest menu option.
In my opinion, it's their wedding day, lowest catering price or not, make it fit for a wedding!

On the one hand that sounds rubbish, on the other hand £14/head for wedding food is so little.

Can you reassure your friends that everyone had a fun day and no one remembers what they eat at weddings anyway?

The quantity seems like the issue to me. (Not necessarily the kind of food.)

14£ isn't a lot but that still doesn't sound ok imo. Actually sounds rather dodgy. (I'd either expect to be told that it's just not doable at this budget or be served decent portions. Amount and taste...)

The wedding markup however... We recently loked at places for our wedding celebration. Much cheaper when it's a family reunion than a wedding.

£700 for 50 guests, its not a good deal.

This is exactly why we are hiring a village hall and using outside caterers for our wedding. The food you are tied into in most wedding venues is substandard and vastly overpriced.

Cottage pie? What kind of shit hotel was that?

A meal my local sushi restaurant costs me £14.

I'd say £14 a head is REALLY cheap though. I'm within spitting distance of my 25th wedding anniversary, and we were charged £9 per head which was a total bargain THEN. (and it wasn't a great meal. The only thing I can remember - because I didn't eat a mouthful all day - was tomato soup [and that was because they spilt it all over the Best Man's partner]. I think there was chicken).

Although, I don't live in the north, I live in an expensive tourist town, so I would be more expensive than you in any case.

I agree £14 is really cheap. But not so cheap that you need to serve cottage pie. I could serve up a much better meal for that price.

He chose the cottage pie option. It was the quantity and presentation that was bad.

Rather than serving the guests an individual pie each and (as someone here suggested) placing sharing bowls of veg on the tables we all had to line up with our plates and have the food spooned onto them from one big tray like a conveyer belt in a canteen.

The scones were served the same way. The groom was les to believe the scones would be placed on each table on a tiered cake stand, sort of like afternoon tea.

It was their wedding! I felt sorry for them.

They should have done a bit more research- I take it they didn’t have a menu tasting or anything? Also, £14 is not a lot of money per head for a wedding meal. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys

The minute you mention wedding you get ripped off. We were going to have a very small wedding (20 guests) and the prices we were quoted were ridiculous. If we'd taken 20 people out for dinner in any of our chosen venues it would have been a lot cheaper. In the end we decided sod it, told no-one and got married in the US and had a very nice holiday at the same time for much less.

Why did they choose that venue? For £14 a head you could get a decent buffet. Booking a hotel that charges £175 a night doesn’t really sound like a budget option!
It’s very cheap for a sit down meal though. We paid £42 a head for our sit down meal and thought that was a bargain!

That's really shit. Yes £14 a head is cheap for a wedding but you want a meal that is filling and a little bit special. I would be mortified if my guests had been left hungry.
Has he spoken to the hotel about it? If they don't refund and apologise I would name and shame.

£14 per head is exceptionally cheap! I work in a heritage property also used for weddings and I think our wedding catering starts from £60 per head. Having said that, if the groom was promised individual pies and you all just got a bit of a tray bake, I'd say there's definitely room there for a complaint.

A friend recently went to a wedding where she got a tiny salad to start and then three small pieces of ravioli for her main. It was a £60 per person package! She had to go back to her hotel and eat a banana in secret! Wedding catering is often a total rip off.