Catering a Wedding and Wedding Reception Cost

They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy. – Milton

Finding Caterers for Weddings

You deserve to have a carefree wedding, so having a professionally catered wedding reception will take a great load of stress off of your shoulders and those of your friends and family. Many wedding reception venues and hotels also have an in-house caterer or require a professional caterer, from a preferred vendor list, to provide all of the wedding food that will be served.

Your wedding reception catering service will have the responsibility of food preparation, layout, serving and cleanup. While not all caterers or restaurants can provide food catering for a wedding, there are many caterers whose specialty is catering weddings.

Before the bride and groom go out to select a caterer, or a venue which does its own catering for weddings, they should have some ideas of the foods that they would like to have served. Do they want ethnic food to represent their respective family cultures? Do they want hip modern fusion? Do they want bbq wedding catering or regional American like Maryland crab cakes or Jambalaya? Then, set up tasting appointments to help find a caterer or facility that will serve the desired food, and whose style of service and presentation is agreeable. The overall wedding budget may also play a role in this selection.

Advantages of Catering a Wedding with a Full-Service Caterer

With a full-service caterer, if you do not have a day-of-wedding coordinator, a “captain” provided by your caterer will not only make sure that the food is properly handled but will help the wedding run smoothly. The captain works with your music provider (DJ or MC for example) to see that expected components of the reception – First Dance, Cutting the Cake, Champagne Toast – happen on time and without missing a beat. An outside full-service caterer can also provide a bartender to safely serve alcohol depending on the policies of the reception location or if the wedding is at a private home.

Wedding Catering Prices

The catering charges for an event greatly affects the average wedding reception cost. These costs will also vary depending on the type of venue, the geographic location, the time of day of the event, whether the food is priced into the wedding package and a number of other factors.

Your professional caterer can advise you on the proper amount of food to order based on the number of guests and the type of reception you will have. The number of adults vs. children (who have smaller appetites) will usually make a great difference in the cost per person for wedding reception, especially if this is a buffet or you are providing kid-friendly plated food options (like mac & cheese or hotdogs). So, serving many childs’ portions will generally affect the overall costs of catering a wedding. Your cost per person will be based on the menu and number of optional items (such as appetizers, special linens, etc) that you have selected.. You can provide a more or less elegant reception meal by your food choices, table set ups and whether you are having a plated or buffet reception.

For example, cloth linens, china plates and metal flatware are generally expected for a formal evening affair yet nice disposables may be acceptable if you are having a simpler reception (this is more often if the wedding is earlier in the day). And, you may be asked if you want extras such as cheese plates, desserts (even though you will probably have a wedding cake), more expensive side dishes or appetizers, etc. After discussions with your caterer and depending on your reception food budget, all this should be ironed out well before the wedding day.

Catering Ideas for Weddings

You will still have some decisions to make about the food that will be served. Even if you have a good idea of the type of cuisine (Asian, Italian, Seafood, barbecue, etc), you want served at your wedding, your caterer will provide you with a package that has some choices within it. Like the proverbial Chinese restaurant meal – “One from Column A and One from Column B”, you will need to select at least a meat and non-meat option if you are having a plated reception dinner. There should also be vegetarian selections if you are having passed wedding appetizers or finger foods(a.k.a. hor d’oeuvres). And, consider having kid-friendly food options if a lot of children have been invited.

Your food choices will be greatly influenced by the theme of your wedding and your personal tastes, as well.

Catering Your Own Wedding

You may consider to cater your own wedding reception, to save money, however, do think about the affect this will have on the flow of the wedding day. Unless you use a service to set up and serve the food and clean up after your reception has ended, you will not be having the fun and carefree wedding that you want. Most wedding facilities also do not allow self-catered events.