Catering costs- afternoon tea

I think it's worth sitting down with your friend first and telling them the original budget you had in mind. They will probably be able to help with cutting down some of the items to bring it more in to budget. You have quite a lot there tbh; a traditional afternoon tea is normally just a selection of finger sandwiches, 2 scones each and a couple of (small) cakes each.

I think for what you're getting (does the cost include the bacon sandwiches?) it's actually a good price. The £14-£16 range is usually for a cake stand with sandwiches, scones and some fancy cakes.

I think the only way to cut the price would be to get rid of the canapés.

I agree discuss your budget with them. After all that's a fair amount of food and is more like a buffet than afternoon tea so I'm sure it could be pared down a bit. Another option would be to include a sort of 'great British bake off' as another Hitched did and get your family and friends to bring their best baking efforts. Fills up your food table and you just give a prize for the best effort.

As others have said I think £25 is quite a good price for what you are getting, but obviously not for your budget.

I would say have a chat to your friend, see if they can bring the price down a little for you.

Or alternatively could you have them do the sandwiches and main bits and you provide the puddings? You can then rope whoever you can find into making cakes and bits (Mums, Nan's, Aunts, Uncles, Friends..) might be another option.

that isnt any afternoon tea ive ever seen and ive had a few, sounds more like a strange buffet ?

plus the bacon sandwhiches are a completely seperate item, they should be £5 or so on their own

I personally wouldnt pay that much from an outside caterer unless your getting resteraunt quality food and service but an actual afternoon tea in a resteraunt would be about £15-£20 depending on company (champaigne tea being £25-£30) and as said when you add the bacon sandwiches that would bring you to a price of between £20-£35

Thank you for the advice everyone. I'm not sure how I feel about Sorbet telling me it's a strange buffet.... but anyway! It's not mean to be a traditional afternoon tea, we are far from traditional.

we are going to meet again and axe some choices, I think it's that we have too many options so the man hours are high.

We can up the sandwiches and cut down down in the pricing options so everyone is well fed but it doesn't break the bank.

Thanks again. X

We're in the early stages of planning our afternoon tea. We've had a sample menu for sandwiches, quiches, sausage rolls, mini croissant, cupcakes, scones, short bread, strawberries and cream, and tea and coffee for £18.50 pp. That includes table wear and cutlery but not staff, table linen or glass wear.

I would sit down with the caterer and talk about where you could cut back a bit.

I think that all sounds delicious!

Personally, I would probably keep the canapés for guests to have a nibble on whilst the photos are being taken etc. I would then keep the sandwiches, tarts, quiches and scones and lose the salads and the puddings. That way, you still have the savoury sandwiches and quiches and the sweet tarts for your guests. Are you having it served up on cake stands like a traditional afternoon tea or just laid out like a buffet? If you are having it on cake stands, then you need to think about everything "going together" as, traditionally, afternoon tea is sandwiches, sweet scones with clotted cream and jam and then small cakes.

Are you having a wedding cake? That can be served to guests in the evening with the bacon sandwiches and therefore you won't need the puddings x

Yes - I agree with FutureMrsSmith... Sounds like if you cut the puddings and salads you'll still have a decent afternoon tea and evening snack and can hopefully cut on price.

As a comparison, my venue is charging £19 pp for the afternoon tea. We're then going to have an evening meal, probably bbq, which is £20-something pp. Bacon sandwiches with fries are also available at my venue and are I think £11 so you've not got too bad a deal there. However, if it's with a mate's company I can see why you'd expect it to be cheaper than the going rate; or at least no more expensive!

Yeah you're absolutely right Much Ado, it was that it was a mates company and we were thinking blooming eck! What would it be if we didn't know them! Trouble is, you say "wedding" and the cost triples.

We met up again and cut a few things off and also changed the style of serving. This could work for other people trying to cut back, we originally were going to serve the food at the tables but are now doing it buffet style. Lots less prep for them and less staff required. Plus, our tables weren't really wide enough to accommodate as we've got long trestles with quite a bit of decoration.

In the end we didn't have to cut much out, maybe 4/5 of the choices and managed to shave off £350 so that's great.

X

Oh well done! Glad that's worked out okay!