Top tips to saving money on wedding catering

Weddings are expensive enough. So the last thing you want is to have to shell out more money than you have to on catering. Sure, you want great food, but some of the prices charged by caterers for wedding days are, quite frankly, absurd.

The good news, though, is that there are plenty of things that you can do to save money on wedding catering. Here are your options!

Have A Wedding Buffet

Okay, I know what you’re thinking: buffets are for all-you-can-eat restaurants, not your special wedding day, but bear with me. Wedding buffets are a fabulous option for saving money. And what’s more, your guests will hardly notice. 

Putting on a sit-down meal is expensive. Not only do you have to pay a catering company to create the food, but a team of people to serve it too. With a buffet, you don’t have any of those serving costs. Moreover, your guests will love the fact that they can just help themselves to whatever they want, whenever they want it. It’s a win-win. 

Shop Around

Some caterers will artificially raise their prices if they know that they’re catering for a wedding. But when you think about it, there’s no real reason for it. Providing for a wedding shouldn’t be any different from catering for a business event, in principle. 

Savvy couples, therefore, shop around, just as they would for wedding photography. Once you get the price to within 10 per cent of the cost of a regular event, you know that you’ve got a good deal. 

Provide Your Own Linens, Tablesetting And Silverware

Catering companies won’t do stuff for free. If you want them to provide silverware, linens, and table setting services, it’ll cost you. Doing all these things yourself, therefore, can save you money. Plus, when you provide your own table setting, you have full control over how the final product looks – great for themed weddings. 

Serve A The Minimum Number Of Entrees Possible

Some couples like to provide guests with a menu of options, but unfortunately, this pushes up catering costs. The more dishes that a caterer must prepare, the more they’re likely to charge. 

Think carefully about the minimum number of entrees you can serve. If you go full plant-based and avoid any known allergens, you can potentially get the number of entrees down to one. Most money-saving couples go for two entrees: one for those who eat meat, and one for those with dietary restrictions. 

Cut Your Guest List

Okay, so this one might not be so popular, but you can cut the cost of catering (and the rest of your wedding for that matter), by reducing the number of guests. Most catering companies will charge a fixed rate per meal, so the fewer they create, the lower the cost. 

Don’t Feel Pressured To Follow Convention

The eating schedule at a standard wedding goes something like this: post-ceremony appetisers, starter, entree, dessert, wine and cheese and then snacks at the after-party. But there’s no need to follow tradition here. Cutting out any one of these elements will dramatically lower costs. 

*Images in this post provided by PerfectMoment Photography

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Guest Author Bio: Wedding photography expert Jeffrey Wang has his own wedding photography studio in Sydney Perfect Moment Photography. He helped hundreds of couples to capture their love stories and the raw emotions and spirit behinds the weddings. In his free time, he writes about love stories, venues and photography tips for known wedding blogs around the globe.