Why do I Have to Feed the Guest Again?

According to wedding specialists the typical costs of catering should be 40 percent of the wedding budget and flowers should be eight percent. So with roughly a four thousand dollar budget I’m looking at spending $1600 on food and $320 on flowers. I can live with the flower budget, but the food budget is nowhere near what my fiancé or I are willing to pay. So we did a little research and what did we find? Simply put – Caterers have lost their minds!

Once you have decided on the time and location of wedding reception, it becomes easier to plan for catering. For instance, if your wedding is after lunch then you could do a cocktail or hor d'ourves hour to mingle with wedding guests and eat cake. Most people will have already eaten dinner and therefore, not consume a lot of food. We decide to do a picnic style wedding with finger foods, picnic foods, and fruit/cheese trays. The picnic style works perfectly with our Country Wedding in the City theme. Plus, we both love going picnicking at Umstead Park, so why not.

We started by looking at the different caterers in the Raleigh area, it was between $25 and $50 a person and we’re inviting roughly 110 guests. Since our wedding is taking place before lunch, it is necessary that we provide adequate food options for the guests and stay within the budget.

Premiere Catering & Events: Jessica King, the Lead Designer at informed us that for hor d'ourves, the price per person was $25. On the low end that’s about $2750 and on the high end we’re looking at more than the wedding budget at $5500. Ms. King informed us that “The food for the events is ordered specifically for the event. As well as they use local organic products to supply the events.” I like this fact and I’m still not willing to pay the price.

Catering by Design: Prices are a little high but considering that the food comes with linens, chinaware, servers and a bartender it's still still too rich for my blood. The best value option is $34 per person and the cost conscious option is $40 per person.

Tip: Make sure your venue allows alcoholic beverages on the premises before committing to buying tons of alcohol.

Family: We both have chefs in our family and they all want to help out with the wedding. They can cook and prepare exactly what we want to eat and take care of most of the costs associated with catering. Plus, family is already of aware of the food preferences and allergies of other family members and prepare the food accordingly.

I think the winner is to utilize family resources and have our picnic reception catered by the people we love. Family caterers supply the extra ingredient  of love that makes the food taste all the better.