To confront venue over rip off wedding catering?!?!

[IAmAllAsttonishnent]

Urgent advice needed. DP and I are due to view our favourite local wedding venue on Sunday. It’s known for being a little expensive- not the end of the world as it had unique features and is very us!

It’s private hire and will cost about £5000 for 24 hours almost faints- ok
They’re lovely and kept stressing how flexible they are etc...got the impression they were maybe struggling to fill 2019 dates as lots of competition around here.

But here’s the issue, they have ‘approved caterers’ - all have ‘special’ menus on the Venue’s website.
One of the caterers are pretty prominent for weddings locally so I went directly on their website- where their menus are the same food but considerably cheaper! We would save over £1000 if we got them to cater a gazebo up the road from this venue which makes no sense at all. (We’ll be spending about £6500 on catering- for 55 day/90 night- which makes me physically cringe and they insist of doing all the alcohol!)

🤔 I know we’re spending a silly amount already but surely that’s just a totally ballsy rip off? It feels cheeky AF and whilst I was going to ask the venue tomorrow about bringing in another caterer (I think they’ll say no) now I’m tempted to just point out to them that we’ve seen the inflated menu prices and ask why that is? - it puts us off.

It seems the venue are most interested in their £5000 hire fee. So If we point it out now before booking they’ll either have address it or loose our business (which they really seem to want). Has anyone been in a similar situation??? What would you do???

now I’m tempted to just point out to them that we’ve seen the inflated menu prices and ask why that is

Do this. They can't have a good answer.

I mean £1000 would pay for the band or the flowers. It’s not that we’re scrimping or wanting a wedding we aren’t prepared to pay for- but we don’t want to be actively ripped off either.

If the price doesn’t suit you, book another venue. Simple as.

They can charge what they want, you can choose not to pay it and go elsewhere.

Haven't been in your position but I would definitely say it to them and see what they say! It sounds like they want your business so you should try to get the catering at the cheaper rate.

Which area of the country are you looking in? Are there no other options nearby that are more flexible with their catering?

negotiate. I’ve known couples to bring their own caterers when a venue previously insisted this would never be acceptable. It’s all about supply and demand. All they can say is no.

Well they're clearly not as flexible as they make out they are if you have no say in who provides the catering and drinks.
That would put me off a lot. Whst rlse fo they insist on?
Each to their own but the cost of the venue hire and catering seem a lot to me. I would want a lot for that sort of money. However, I am a bit of a bargain hunter

@mega
I’m in the North, there are lots of venues but only a handful similar to this one. Whilst it’s a competitive area it’s also fairly expensive and I haven’t found a single venue yet which allow you to handle the alcohol yourself...etc.

@BoomTish- It’s not that the price doesn’t suit. We probably would have paid it had we not seen it advertised lower on their site. 😡

I wouldn’t just swallow the cost, can you cut out the venue when talking to the caterers and say you want a menu from their website? I’d do this “innocently” and say “I like the look of xyz on your website, I see its £x per head” then be very surprised when they tell me they charge more at that venue.

They probably have you over a barrel, but I’d start out nice before being too annoyed about it.

We had an exclusive use venue and they had a list of approved suppliers. The reason for this was to do with insurance for using their catering facilities. You could have also used your own catering company but had to provide insurance which when priced was around £2000 and just not worth it.
We were happy with the catering companies they approved, and were happy using a company that we knew knew the venue, were used to catering weddings at it and had a good understanding of the catering kitchen.

Caterers often get charged a percentage from venues to be there/recommended by them, that will probably explain the higher price as they need to take this into consideration although and extra 1k does seem a lot. Maybe the venue have certain limitations to them, they want a certain amount of staff provided, they can only use certain equipment (Maybe no gas appliances etc), they can only come on and off site between certain times, all these things will add up. I have experience as I work in outside catering, also in the North but I don't think you are talking about my company! Venues are a lot more restrictive than DIY weddings and can cost the catering company more to provide the service but it's worth asking them to explain why.

IF a place that charges £5000 (and therefore feels they can justify these prices) is not fully booked up for next year and seems desperate for your money, I wouldnt book with them for a big clock. The risk of them going under would be too great a risk for me to take.

I would be looking for somewhere that is hard to get a booking at, daft as that sounds.

They sound like a rip off! I hired a whole freakin castle for far less than that and hired my own caterers ... query them and fein dropping them if they do t comply. -wedding is a freakin rip off territory

I viewed a venue near Carlisle that would let you buy your own drink, they'd provide bar staff, sell the drink at whatever price you decided and give you the proceeds so you could make a profit on it

As soon as venues hear the word "wedding" they add 10% to the price. What you should be looking for and booking is a "family event". It will be cheaper

Agree with pp though - take insurance!