I cannot believe how much my catering quote is - not including the drink!!!

Id talk to your venue - tell them that you want and what your budget is and see what you can do - it might be that by narrowing choices it becomes cheaper.

Just thinking about what its like to cook a sunday dinner for 4 people I know a quality joint of lamb is around £10-£12 whereas an organic chicked equivalent is £6 so they must be able to change numbers around if you opt for different products.

Well mine is £33 for the main meal and then I think £12 for buffet - so that doesn't seem too different.

Get them to drop the canapes for a start. You could also ask if you can only serve 2 courses for the main meal and serve your cake as dessert.

TBH that doesn't seem terribly outlandish to me - even if you weren't taking in the additional evening guests it works out at £57 per head. Mine was I think £45 p/h for the meal and £10.50 or thereabouts for the buffet. We obviously then had a drinks package on top of that which worked in about £12 per head.

If you need a drastic budget cut (and don't be afraid to tell your venue this) then I would consider dropping the canapes (if you're allowed to do your own M&S does some lovely selections you can order to pick up the day before) and maybe downsizing the evening buffet to a more usual sandwiches, samosas, sausage rolls kind of affair. Also take into account that although there will be 95 people at your evening do you probably won't need to cater a full buffet for 95, since 70 of them will have eaten a fairly substantial meal just a couple of hours previously.

If that still doesn't cut the cost back enough then maybe consider getting married a bit later in the day and only doing the buffet, rather than both a sit-down and a buffet. One last option, I've heard of a couple of weddings where instead of providing a buffet at night the bride has arranged for an old-fashioned fish and chip van to rock up outside the venue - £4-5 per head for some fish and chips (which not everyone will take up) is a darn sight cheaper than about £12 a head for a buffet.

HTH

My venue is £5000 so this and the catering is already £9000 alone, without anything else...Perhaps I have just been completely stupid about what things cost?!

The fish and chip van sounds cool!

Have had a word with H2B - what about the idea of having a 'high tea' in the day, and then have the BBQ for all at night? We were going to do scones and clotted cream as a dessert anyway...as we have an english country garden theme going on.....Im thinking this may make it cheaper....

x

Blimey, £5,000 just to have the wedding there? ?That seems very steep, ours was £500 for the hire of the ceremony room and no other fees (I do realise that's the exception rather than the rule though). Changing from a full sit-down to a high tea should shave a fair whack off the costs and you could still have a table plac etc - just have sandwiches and stuff on those cake stand thingies (technical term) to keep people going until the main BBQ.

£5k doesn't seem that ridiculous really - a lot of places I looked at charged about that e.g. barns etc, and some more so. I'm presuming the venue's exc use.

Like Mrs P's idea about having a table plan on the tiered cake stand thingies.

What time is your wedding? What time are the meals?

I think high tea sounds fab esp ifyou already have that kind of theme if you havnt set the times yet how about ceremony at 2ish high tea about 3.30 could you have cucumber sandwhiches and scones etc you could have decorative tea pots as centre pieces?

I think the evening food sounds great espthe jacket potatoes yum makes me want one!!

xx

To be honest for what your getting it sounds about right, Does it include drinks?

To give you a comparison we have a quote of £4356.20

this includes

Drinks package for 90

Then main meals for 90 adults

Starter Smoked Haddock fish cakes with chillie jam

Main Roast Beef wit yorkshires

or Veggie caserole and dumplings

Desert Summer pudding

Tea and Coffe

All for 90

then catering for 100 in the evening serving mix of bacon rolls and mini fish and chips

Our ceremony is at 2pm, with a proposed sit down for 4pm. I just googled High Tea and it says the official time for that is 4pm (if its good enough for the Queen its good enough for me, lol).

I like the idea of the cake stand thingees too :o) They will go well with the theme.. I'm thinking that nice bunting to make it all country-fied....Are doileys too much? ?

Decorative teapots for centrepieces would look fab! I could have little cups and sauces with them, with little tea roses in them..........?

You could indeed!!! I think one bride on here did something similar and she went round shops and car boots and charity shops to find a really nice collection of old country style high tea style tea pots!!

YAY

N.B I still want a jacket potato!!! lol

Your prices don't suprise me, our venue is £6,800, with food and drink approx £7,250 - all including VAT (I had budgeted without VAT and had a fit when I worked out how much more it would be with VAT)

So thats 14k purely for the venue, food and drink. We have budgeted for approx 100 for the day and an extra 30/40 for the evening. We are not even having canapes!

It does make me sick thinking about it but I really want a sit down meal.

Just another thing - I went to a wedding a month or so ago and she had a tea party theme. She had been round loads of charity shops to collect tea cups and saucers. She then put a note on the cup to say please take me home and remember us each time you have a drink from me, which I thought was sweet.

Finger sandwiches, cake and scones were served. Just one note though, I was happy with this as I'm not a big eater but I think all the men were looking for a meal!

I think thats about right - to be honest I think you have got a really good deal! Maybe I'm so used to London prices, but I'm paying just over £3500 for 120 ppl for a three course meal with tea and coffee afterwards. That doesnt include drinks, canapes or evening buffet.

So I think you have got a good deal! ?

Ha ha, you and your jacket spuds.....Should I send you one from the wedding?? It shouldnt make too much of a difference to the cost lol ?

Robertson2b....Ouch! Where are you getting married? Are you having lobster?! Can I come?! Hee hee x

I think that sounds about right, esp for a BBQ in the evening as that often costs more.

I am having 75 day guests and a total of around 110 in the evening and for canapes, drinks, food, coffee & truffles and evening buffet, Im looking at around £5k!

Oh yes please they sound FAB!!! ( I think its coz i missed lunch today at work!!)

xx

Just to add - my costs are about the same. I am paying £4200 just for venue hire and then another £5000 (ish) for the food.

Jacket potato on the way mrslowndes2b - from essex, so could be a little cold and the cheese could be rubbery! :o)

Maybe I need to just get over the shock then....face facts that the slight mentiion of the word "wedding" and companies such as venues, caterers, florists etc start seeing £££ signs!

Thanks guys....my rant is over....for today :o)

There are several ways you could reduce cost. Especially with the time of your wedding as people should have had a bit of lunch before coming to the wedding. A 3 course meal ending with scones might be quite filling and if your guests have only finished eating at 6-6.30pm, they are not going to eat much in the evening. There is always loads left at evening buffets.

1) No canapes, but then everything else

2) Tea and scones at 4pm and then a sit down dinner at 7pm (if you have enough room for all guests,invite them all to all day, as the scones should cost a lot less than the evening buffet!).

3) Sit down dinner at 4pm, then lighter buffet in the evening.

There are some good cost saving tips on here, although your quote sounds reasonable to me for what you're getting. High tea is an ace idea and also love the fish and chip van - maybe a hog roast might be an option for you?

We're paying £14k for ours before we've even had a drop of booze!

I'd think about switching the menu, ditch the canapes (most people would have a brunch before a wedding at 2pm so wont need nibbles), I'd maybe look at switching the crab cakes for something else, think crab is expensive but not 100% sure on this one! Then for the evening, I'd have more of a finger buffet as I cant imagine people will be that hungry for BBQ food .

High Tea does sound nice but as someone else mentioned, the men may need something more substantial!

Hi Sara - we are getting married at Hengrave Hall in Suffolk. The food is supposed to be really really nice, but I should expect so for that price!!!!!

Flipping 'eck your budgets are massive - we got the lot, catering and venue hire, sit down meal for 40 and buffet for 90 with drinks package for £3000 oh and the DJ, nigths stay and chair covers all included too

That sounds quite cheap i think! especially for three servings of food, and lamb is quite pricey.

Our timings and numbers sound pretty similar. I cut our price down slightly by just having 3 canapes per person instead of the 5 that they quoted, this knocked £2 off each so only a slight saving but every little helps! We're having chargrilled veg toasties and bacon butties in the evening, that cut our quote down considerably.

sounds yummy though!

See thats why I didn't have our reception at a traiditional venue... given we only had 30 for the day and 60 for the evening but ours came in under 1k!