Wedding Menu Ripoff

faye1978

Hiya,
I know someone posted something similar to this a little while ago but I couldnt find the post so dont know what happened but I have booked my venue and get married in a few months however, I have just noticed on the website a 'Sunday Lunch' menu which is practically identical to the one we are having. The one we are having is costing us £27 per person and the one in the adjoining restauraunt is advertised as £14.95 per person. The exact same foods we have chosen are on the menu so it's no different.

The childrens menu we are paying for (when I say childrens it only accounts for under 8's) is costing £15 per head and is only a 2 course menu with things like chicken nuggets and chips on it and only ice cream for dessert. Really I was wanting them to have the same as us but a smaller version but we couldnt do that. However, on the lunch menu they are offering a half portion size for under 8's at half the adults price. Why cant they do the same!?!?!?!

Would anyone say anything? I think i should but dont know what to say!!?!? We are obviously spending on the wine too and the cheapest is £15 a bottle and we arent allowed to bring our own so they have basically doubled the cost of the meal for each person and child as well as charging the earth for wine and champers!?!?! :mad:

What would you girls do? Or am I being tight and unreasonable?

Burlesque_Babe

I would send them an email pointing out the differences in the 2 menus and asking them to explain the difference. Perhaps angle it that they have possibly made a mistake in how much they are charging you as the menus are so similar.

Is the increase in costs due to extra waiting staff needed?

rinroo

Its the same old thing, as soon as the word 'wedding' is mentioned the price soars.

I doubt there is anything you can do if you have already started paying and agreed to the menu and price. I would mention it and ask them again why it isnt possible to give the child the same meal but smaller portions, maybe that could be your compromise?

Good luck

faye1978

Thanks for your reply, I have begun to draft an email and wondered what your thoughts were.......

Hi,

We are getting married in the Cavalier Suite on the above date and upon browsing your website I noticed you have a Sunday Lunch menu for Elonas Restaurant. I was a little confused when I saw that the menu we have chosen is also on the Sunday Lunch menu but for £12 odd less per person. I just wanted to confirm that this was correct as this adds up to a lot when paying for at least 50 people.

Also I noticed that the children have an option of a half portion menu (which would be preferable to us but isn't available on the Wedding Menu A option) at half the cost of the adults meal, again making the cost half of that of the childrens meal at the Wedding Breakfast for, what I consider to be, a lesser meal.

This is all I have done for the moment...

Burlesque_Babe

add something like

I would be grateful if you could let me know the situation with regards to the pricing, in case an error has been made on your part ( ) as I have many aspects to organise before my wedding and am keen to keep the costs within my budget

Violetta_2

Hi Faye it was my post on the Aug 09 thread just before 1 of your actually, it's post 469 & it's on page 12 if you have your settings to long page thing. All responses were to tackle the venue which I must admit I've not got round to my dad said no just leave it but I may still speak to them and say we have had to look at our budgert & would it be possible to pick from the set menu's instead or something. Be interested to hear how you get on. Good Luck.
Oh and as a mum I hate it when everywhere thinks kids food should be chips and reformed meat!!!

faye1978

Thanks for that info Violetta, I am not a Mum but I HATE that kids food should also be that type of thing.

I would be happy to get the kids eating the same thing as us but half portions for half the cost of our meal which woulld be £2 cheaper per child than it is now and as we have at least 15 kids going it would cut the cost slightly.

SugarSpun

This happened with our original venue - their advertised menu was 25 pp for three courses with tea and coffee, but as soon as they heard us say, "wedding," they upped the price to almost 50 and gave us the option of reducing it to 45 if we agreed to have only one choice for starter and one for dessert.

They also had a 1200% markup on nasty supermarket wines, so we moved our dinner somewhere else.

I'd send them an email and ask for an explanation of the increased costs. They might explain it in terms of the extra waiting staff required for a separate room, but I agree that it's completely unacceptable to price-gouge the weddings!

sal-ad_daze

TBH I can't see them reducing the cost of your menu, they will have many reasons for justifying the extra costs but I don't understand why they can't offer you a half size portion for children if it's available in the restaurant. Also the child age is really low, it's usually 11 or 12.
It's worth questioning the difference in the prices, they may reduce it a bit but I'd concentrate on the children's menu and get that sorted, that's one you can win.
HTH

bank_of_slate

Have they factored in the cost of extra kitchen and wait staff, more expensive table cloths, wine, champagne, table decorations/flowers/balloons etc?

I think these are the kind of things that will bump up the price per person.
...Linda xx

bride_on_a_budget

we found this when we queried the prices, a normal 3 course lunch in the restaurant cost £19.95, but ours cost £36.50, i spoke to the co-ordinator and she said the extra cost is for the catering staff and waiters.

we then decided on a bbq which cost £19.95 per head which had steak and prawns ect and it was lovely.