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How much for a wedding reception?

4 replies

NaughtyBusterAndTheBumFactory · 22/12/2011 11:50

We are trying to have a cheap wedding and have had a quote back for a marquee - i'm not sure if it will work out any cheaper than a wedding at say a hotel.

Can i ask how much everyone spent on their receptions?

OP posts:
CleverClod · 22/12/2011 21:44

I took 28 people to a restaurant and the bill came to £985, which included all the drinks (wine, beer and soft drinks). It was a top class 2-course meal (we were allowed to take our wedding cake in and serve that for pud!) and it was from 1 pm to 5 pm.

A brilliant day!

joanofarchitrave · 22/12/2011 21:51

Venue £250
Marquee/decoration/lights (the marquee was inside the venue) £3000
Food 1250
Drink not sure

TBH to have a cheap wedding, cut the number of guests. We changed our original plan of going to a restaurant because we wanted to have more people and the whole thing ballooned massively.

Some pubs have really nice function rooms, don't rule them out until you've seen them.

If someone offers to do the catering as a wedding present, say yes!

A barbecue is a really good option too.

Fluffycloudland77 · 23/12/2011 19:01

We went to the belfry, £95 per head for adults and £15 for kiddies, £50 for the two teenagers.

It cost around 2000 for the whole 3 course meal of duck, beef, lemon tart and bacon, sausage and egg baps around 10ish. And pre dinner canapes served on slate tiles lol. Everyone had a glass of sparkling wine, two dinner wines and toasting sparkling wine. I couldnt afford champagne but there you go.

Everyone was full and happy and thats all that counts. The worst wedding I went to had unlimited free champagne, everyone got sloshed and one person got abusive and had to go home in a taxi. It was a £29,000 wedding but we had a better atmosphere.

emsyj · 27/12/2011 18:30

Marquees are stupendously expensive - IME a marquee will cost more than a hotel unless you have it at home and have a free bar, in which case the cost of buying the booze and paying for the marquee will probably be less than the cost of paying for the bar at a hotel...

We had our reception at the local town hall. Hire cost was £500 and we could use any caterer. We had to use their bar but it was only £3 a bottle corkage (including service and glasses) so we took our own wine. We paid for all drinks at the bar too.

I think our catering was £17.50 a head for 3 course dinner - starter choice of soup or prawn cocktail, served to table then main course hot buffet with choice of sausage & mash or chicken curry & rice plus chips for everyone (plus choice of veggie sausages and vegetable curry), then pudding served to table choice of choc orange pudding, fresh strawberries, raspberry pavlova or fruit salad. Evening buffet was £7.50 a head for the 'basics' sausage rolls, sandwiches etc - nothing fancy, but plenty of food.

We bought 8 cases of wine from M&S (96 bottles in total) which was about £600, plus corkage for the ones opened (£3 x 60 =£180).

We paid for the bar drinks, which was about £550 as most people drank the wine anyway. We stipulated single measure spirits only, no doubles or cocktails but otherwise free bar all day and night.

So for 86 people it cost:

Venue £500
Catering £25 a head £2,150
Drink £1,330

We also had a band, which was expensive. A friend made the cake. We provided transport for guests and the florist made centrepieces for the tables, but all this is optional of course.

The local council don't advertise that the town hall is for hire, I just rang up and asked because I was desperate!

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