To ask how much you spent on the catering at your wedding?

[barneymcgroo]

Hello, just trying to work out what sort of budget is normal for wedding catering - canapés, 2 courses (not plated, served on the table for people to help themselves to). Chicken, veg, nothing too expensive, pudding. And evening food too. Wedding from lunch time til midnight. 100 people. Rough ballpark?

It will very much depend. We're paying about £15k for catering + venue hire (included in catering price) which is canapes, three courses, buffet and a few glasses of wine pp. Our food will be lovely though. My SIL got married recently and chose a budget caterer. She paid about £3k and it was barely edible.

We hired a pub so paid more or less their menu prices which was about £18 a head I think (dessert was cake we supplied) then it was £8 a head for evening food which was hot ‘bowl food’ brought round by the waiters/esses. Think that’s on the cheaper side compared to other people I know.

We spent about £14,000 on catering for 120 - got married a few years ago so might have gone up since (with more people booking after the covid wedding shutdown)

We’re paying £100 a head for 40 people for post-ceremony horsey doovers, a three course meal served family style, plus a fairly basic evening help-yourself supper of cheeses, pate, breads, rice and pasta salads, vegetable salads etc.

Ours was catered by the Indian restaurant downstairs from our venue. We paid just over £2k for a 3 course meal for 50 (2 choices per course and served as sharing platters on each table so people could have as much or as little as they wanted) with a massive buffet in the evening. It also included two bottles of wine on each table for during the meal.

For 100 people I suspect you're looking at £50-£60 per head for that, so somewhere in excess of £5k.

£50-£60? Only if your wedding car is a Time Machine!

Whats a horsey doover?

We got a local caterer and for canapés, a 3 course sit down meal and evening buffet for 150 people it was £7k but that was 4 years ago.

Apologies. That’s our house term for hors d’oeuvres / canapés.

£55 per head for a sit down 3 course meal then £10 per head for the evening food. 50 guests.

Depending on the part of the UK you might be able to just about pull off £60 a head for family style dining (big dishes in centre of table and everyone serves themselves) and a basic ingredient menu which is what OP says is the aim. When we were looking at caterers’ quotes, a lot of the added cost was for plating up and serving staff to bring to the table.

We had an entirely veggie very posh and lovely Mediterranean hot buffet, 3 courses for about 90 people. Cost about £2500 3 years ago

We are paying 14.5k for canapés, 3 course wedding breakfast then, later, some huge grazing boards. For 150 guests. It’s the bulk of the cost by a long way. But really incredible food from very good caterers

About £350 including booze. Only 40 people, lunch I prepared myself (boeuf bourguignon, baked potatoes, salad, rolls, butter, home made coleslaw, sliced turkey and ham cooked by me, cake from M&S, mini desserts from the cash and carry, tea and coffee, nice cider from Normandy, non alcoholic cider, prosecco, orange juice). Two friends of my daughter reheated the boeuf bourguignon and put in slow cookers to keep hot, and reheated pre-cooked baked potatoes, and they set everything up, cleared up and did all the washing up. Their cost is included in the £350. Venue hire was £120 I think. This was in 2017, so not that long ago.

I do street food style wedding catering, outdoors or indoors but people come and order then the food is made fresh in a couple of minutes. Usually we are the evening food, around £7-£13 per head depending on whether one or two courses and on number of people at the wedding. Maybe look in to street food vendors near you.

£40 per head for 30 people. We had ours in a nice pub/restaurant so menu price and paid extra to have the room to ourselves.

@AcrobaticActuary

Nowt - we married abroad and had a big party back in the UK - catering was a gift from ex's best mate who runs a catering company!

I think we paid about 5k on catering for 100 people, this included the staff to serve alcohol and man a bar but we purchased the alcohol separately.
I just looked at the caterers my friend used which were incredible and I think it works out about £47.5pp for canapés, dinner, puddings, tea and coffee and then pizza for evening food.

We got married 20 years ago and it was about £50/£60 per head. I think it’s a bit like asking how long is a piece of string because of all the variables! Our wedding was all in a hotel so they did everything.

Fish and chips for 80 people = about £800
Evening buffet about the same, I remember it was under 2k. That was 2016.
Each to their own but we were not into the whole big wedding thing.

£2190

We had an afternoon tea/country picnic for the wedding breakfast which was all homemade sausage rolls cheese straws sandwiches scones etc.
evening was hog roast with 4 different little warm sides (can't actually remember what think we had honey glazed sausages and spring rolls) and the salad, buns, sauces, pasta and cous cous was all laid out next to the hog. It was a pretty casual wedding.

I work in a wedding venue. The only piece of advice I have is this. You will have guests with you for 12 hours. They will need plenty of food. If it is a hotel/venue in the middle of nowhere, then consider that the only food available is what you provide.

You will also need to consider your timings. If your guests have breakfast at home, turn up with you for 12pm and then aren't fed until 4-5pm, they will be grumpy. On the whole, it's also useful to provide guests with some sort of nibbles while you are with the photographer. This can be up to an hour and that's when people get bored of waiting.

If you are looking to watch your budget, a shorter day may be more sensible.

£79 for 60 guests.
2014.
I went to ASDA a week before and cooked everything myself in the week coming up to it after meticulously budgeting how to have a nice celebration on the bones of our arses.
Price includes the cake.
Would probably be over £150 for the same stuff this year.