Price for pub reception

Tough one, as it'll depend on so many things- where you are in the country, they style of pub and the food on offer, time of year, guest numbers etc. There are the sort of pubs which do a lot of weddings and tend to price themselves more in line with any other sort of wedding venue, and pubs that do occasional weddings offering their normal menu or something not too far from that.

It might help if you can give a bit more info and the price you've been quoted, but really they can charge whatever they think people will pay at the end of the day?

Sorry and meant to say, when we looked at pubs in the North East for our reception, we found food prices anywhere from £15-50 a head for a 3 course meal (exclusive of drinks). The lower end was an average country pub which did the occasional reasonably small wedding and offered a fairly basic menu which was very similar to their usual Sunday lunch menu, and the higher prices were more of the gastropub type with much more sophisticated food and decor.

Can you not just ask the venue? That would be easier, no? Or have you booked a venue without asking them what they're going to be charging you? I'm not clear on how you don't know the cost, tbh.

Sorry, should have explained it better.

At some point this week the pub manager is going to write to us with a quote- he lost our address so it's been a bit delayed. I just wanted to know sort of what to expect as i have no idea if the figure in my head is accurate. So if the price is a bit high I know to negotiate a bit if necessary.

It's a pub in the middle of nowhere in Gloucestershire and they don't normally do weddings so we're having just normal tables, they won't have to move much around. We're having the pub from around 3.00 until 6.30-this is so the manager can still get his evening orders in. It's for January 11th next year.

We're being quoted for:

1 hot or cold starter per person

a beef roast dinner per person

one drink per person

bottles of something "fizzy" on the table for when we cut our cake.

This is for 41 people

Their Christmas three course meal deal is £20 for three courses, but I don't know if pubs hike their prices for Christmas. Sorry again if I confused anyone, I just didn't want to be too shocked when we get the quote.

Depending on the pub and quality of food I think you can expect to pay anywhere from around £12<£35 per person for 2 courses.

Wine can vary anywhere between £3<£7 per glass.

Bottles of fizz anywhere between £20<£90 for a standard bottle.

There could also be a room hire charge to factor in too which can be anything from a couple of hundred quid to over a grand.

Some venues also charge extra for things like linen hire, candles/tealights etc.

We had a pub wedding & here's a basic breakdown of what we paid.

The basic package was £3000, which included:

- Exclusive use of the pub from before the ceremony (we got married in there!) until 1am.

-Set up of the room, including table decoration and floral displays for bar.

-Sparkling wine for 100 people after the ceremony.

- 3 course meal for 100 people (including a choice of 2 starters and standard, vegetarian, children and coeliac main meal options).

- 1/2 a bottle of wine per guest (roughly split between red, white and rose).

- DJ until 1am.

- Cake cutting and handing out of cake in the evening.

We then paid an additional £370 to have evening food put out, alongside our cake and a cheese tower, and for prosecco to be handed out for the toasts.

I've got to say, it was phenomenal value and everyone had a blast.

Well if u was going out for a mean it be about 30 quid so base it on that pp but they may do an even better deal as it will be a full restaurant booking

Munchkin, that's amazing value! Sadly, we can't even afford half of that upfront for a deposit

We have two paydays before the wedding, so I'm hoping we can work out some sort of deal around the £800 mark but judging by your experiences it doesn't seem like that's going to happen

I havent' had my pub wedding yet but we are paying 22.50 per person for a three course meal for approx 25 people + 60quid for reception drinks ( pimms) . We will put a couple of hundred quid behind the bar that night. For that we get a beautiful room to use which holds 30 people and has a private entrence with a small outside are ( for the smokers). The pub itself is in Surrey countryside beside a river, really lovely.

Initailly the pub told us the minimum price would be 25 quid per head as the most basic menu, but we managed to haggle them down for a not so basic menu.

So about 1o00quid for food and a couple of drinks for everryone.

I'm getting married at a hotel for just over £1000 that includes 3 course meal £26.95 for 25 guests (we're having a small wedding) Ceremony room hire and then a room for our meal/entertainment. We are getting married on a weekday and out of season too to keep costs down. Beautiful 6 acre country garden grounds overlooking the sea and a beautiful bridal suite. Didn't need to look into pubs myself as this was my first choice and a bargain, would of happily chosen a pub though or a restaurant as another option.

Then it's pointless trying to guess a price per head and seeing what you can afford.

See what you can afford first.

£800, 40 guests. You can pay £20 per head. In a pub that serves a three course Christmas dinner for £20, I think you could manage two courses and a glass of wine for that.

January 11th is likely to be a lean weekend in the pub trade - too many people saving after Christmas - so you have some leverage for negotiation. Essentially, you need to pay as much in total as they could expect from a collective of individual guests, for a 3 hour or so period on a quiet Saturday afternoon.

You'll be fine. I don't think he'll come back with a staggering figure.

Ok quite a surprising (and annoying) development!

After not hearing from the place for a week, no letter or anything I rang today and was told the kitchen had "only just decided" what the menu was. All they had to decide on was a soup (tomato). The manager also got what we wanted wrong, despite being told twice (we specifically asked for two courses, fizz to cut the cake and a drink for everyone-he thought it was three courses and cups of tea and coffee and no drink for everyone?!!?).

When I asked him for a quote he said I'd "thrown him" because he thought we wanted something different and he couldn't even tell me roughly what it would cost. He also said he'd put a letter in the post today or tomorrow morning...heard that one before-twice to be precise!He said he was sending it last week!

When I told my boyfriend, he told me that the man HADN'T lost our details on the back of a menu because he wrote it down IN HIS DIARY at the time we went in to see him. I remembered it as well as he said, my boyfriend said he was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. So him losing our address was a lie as well. I doubt we'll ever get a quote and even if we do I'm unsure I want to go somewhere that's so unreliable

Why he couldn't have just said "oh I'm really sorry we can't manage 41 people for a roast" on the first or second time we phoned I will never know. Now we're nearly three weeks on, we have no wedding reception venue and two months to the wedding fun