How much are you paying for your caterers??

It very much depends on what you want. We have booked a BBQ which includes so much food (when we went for our tasting we were given one portion to share and we could barely finish it), crockery, cutlery, chef and catering assistant. we are then having unlimited home made ice cream in 3 flavours which is being served out of a vintage trailer for two hours as pudding alongside our wedding cake. The main meal and pudding is £18 per head. All the food is locally sourced and cooked from fresh and is so delicious.

Our wedding is very much relaxed and we are doing a lot ourselves. My sister in law is making the cake and we are going to buy the alcohol and drinks ourselves and guests will then just help themselves. Our budget for alcohol is around £500 in total and again we have sourced local breweries who are giving us kegs and then doing a big wine and prosecco shop

Big caterers do seem to be really expensive. Find independent small caterers (ours is a husband and wife team) as they are so much cheaper and ours have been so flexible.

Hope this helps

Hi

I agree that is a lot! admittedly ours is all done through our venue, but on top of the venue hire we're paying £85pp.

with that we get all the tableware, canapes and welcome drink, 3 course wedding breakfast with a champagne toast and half bottle of wine pp plus tea, coffee and petit fours.

I'm based in Somerset by the way in terms of referencing cost by location!

A three course meal from a restaurant where they cook the food from fresh is usually £25-35 dependent upon where you are and the food chosen, obviously fish and steak are much more expensive dependent upon type or cut. I'm not sure why it wouldn't include a chef, have you looked at the itemised quotes to see what it says? Food quotes usually don't include service staff but they will get paid by hour and for travel, crockery hire is inclusive of delivery and the charge for washing up and tidying from what I remember, it can be quite expensive.

I'm not surprised at the costings you've been given as they will have to travel and bring pretty much everything with them if they don't have a catering van set up, they may even be having to hire a mobile kitchen which is very expensive and puts your quote up. If you aren't against it it might be cheaper to hire a company that cook from a mobile unit they already own such as a van. We're having pie, pea and chips, it's £11.60 per head and £38 for enamel plates. That's served by friends of ours from a mobile food van. No starters or desserts.

Hope that info helps.

For 60 guests next summer we are paying approx. £3500 incl VAT. That's 400 canapes, starter, BBQ main which includes brisket, brioche rolls, skewers, salads, man n cheese but no dessert. Then cones of chicken and chips and fish and chips in the evening. Day food is £42.50 per head and evening £6.50 per head. The caterers bring all crockery, cutlery, glassware, napkins, tablecloths and staff. We are actually reducing the canapes so it will come in a little lower than that price. Most caterers should bring crockery, cutlery, glasses etc so shop around for one that does. You don't want the hassle of having to hire all that on top. Perhaps look at local restaurants to see if they can cater. Our caterer started out with a catering company and then opened a restaurant which we love so we were really please to see they were on the list of preferredsuppliers for our venue. Have you also thought about food trucks as an alternative? At a wedding fair yesterday we found a pizza truck that costs £695 for 60 guests!

Yes, that seems a lot!

We’re paying £72 per head including VAT for everything (canapés, food, evening food, staff, linens, cutlery and crockery and alcohol service charge (we’re bringing our own booze)) and that made me wince enough!

We're paying £7800 for 110 people, including 4 courses, 550 canapes, tea and coffee and all crockery and glassware. It's £1300 on top of that for the reception drinks package and wine with the meal.

I would expect to pay around £80 max per head inc VAT excluding alcohol. £140 seems very excessive!