Venue / Food deal for 50 sit down guests / 100 evening buffet
Kayalana99
Forumite 3.6K Posts
That's 100 total not 150 btw.
So my question or rant...I am finding that where ever we go they are charging us a premium for food when having our wedding party - for a quick example a pub offers carverys for £7, but when you look at their party package they want £11 per person for the same thing...so that's like £200 extra from what they would charge if you walked though the door - now this makes NO sense to me because if were having a party and bringing you a set amount of people who are going to drink a lot of alcohol - then surely you would offer said party a discount?
We are running out of options but we have been quoted 'about 2k' depending on our menu for 50 sit down / 100 standing, and then another place is £1700 for a 3 course carvery type meal soup etc for 60 /80 (thats a package deal we ideally are looking at 50/100) nothing to fancy, but based on their normal prices I still think this is slightly over priced, do I accept that this is just what we are looking at paying within reason or should I A) keep looking or
try and haggle them down on price?
These aren't even based on the fact we would need to decorate the place etc... don't even know how to do this on a decent budget other then getting rid of the wedding breakfast all together...that would save a heap of cash I know.
So my question or rant...I am finding that where ever we go they are charging us a premium for food when having our wedding party - for a quick example a pub offers carverys for £7, but when you look at their party package they want £11 per person for the same thing...so that's like £200 extra from what they would charge if you walked though the door - now this makes NO sense to me because if were having a party and bringing you a set amount of people who are going to drink a lot of alcohol - then surely you would offer said party a discount?
We are running out of options but we have been quoted 'about 2k' depending on our menu for 50 sit down / 100 standing, and then another place is £1700 for a 3 course carvery type meal soup etc for 60 /80 (thats a package deal we ideally are looking at 50/100) nothing to fancy, but based on their normal prices I still think this is slightly over priced, do I accept that this is just what we are looking at paying within reason or should I A) keep looking or
try and haggle them down on price?These aren't even based on the fact we would need to decorate the place etc... don't even know how to do this on a decent budget other then getting rid of the wedding breakfast all together...that would save a heap of cash I know.
People don't know what they want until you show them.
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Feeding people is expensive ... you're feeding a bunch of people that you'd probably not normally ever buy a meal for
You want to have 100 people in one place with guaranteed food, then you will pay extra for it - most places won't haggle on price if it is a set menu, but you may find you're being charged adult prices for kids (this happens a lot); it also makes a lot of sense that they would charge you a set amount as they will need to order in specifically for the party, as well as their normal orders for their customers.
Also, not everyone drinks alcohol (most of my family don't drink alcohol) so it is NOT a guarantee that they will get a lot of extra revenue - there's a fair few young people who follow a straight edge or clean living lifestyle, so you'd be surprised at the amount who don't drink.
Simple thing is, if you put the word wedding before it, it gets very expensive. Why not find a location which you're happy with both the price of the venue and their food? You could even rent somewhere which takes outside catering so you can either a) make it yourself to keep costs down, or b) get an outside caterers which are within your budget - please also factor in cutlery, plates and staff into the costs of an outside caterer, as these can be extra.
Failing that, just cut the numbers - it is your day, and you can invite who you like, but its not worth getting into debt over.
- Understand what your saying about 'turning regulars away' but most venues have their own room for parties so they are not losing any business by you being their, surely it's better to have a set number to order in for then not knowing how many people will be coming in that day and what they will want!
May cut the evening numbers but the sit down meal is pretty set as it's all family and a few close friends / bridesmaids etc.
OP, you're getting married in almost a year in the middle of wedding season. You will be charged a premium for getting married in June, a simple google search would reveal that. You're lucky you hav a venue.
This is a money saving fourm!
I am trying to justify the price as we have found a nice hotel package deal for £2500 which is great a lot included in that - but we would be pushing our budget for this, but it seems as we can't find anything reasonable priced at the cheap places which just offer the basic stuff - yes we'd be saving £800 but the difference in quality you'd get - their is a lot of stuff you get extra in the £2,500 decor, DJ etc plus the venue it self is amazing compared to a back room of a pub.
With the £2,500 in mind we would probably be looking at a 4k wedding - which seems a bit OTT to me to spend on one day!
I would reconsider "pushing" your budget for the package - you will probably find it will work out cheaper in the long run, as well as a lot easier than having the stress & hassle of trying to find somewhere that does everything separately priced and will add up to being more costly.
OP, if you behaved this way in anywhere I owned you would be asked to leave very promptly; the price is £11 per head, which is very cheap to start with, you have room hire, staffing costs, overheads (heating, lighting, insurance etc) and you seem to be spitting your dummy out over literally nothing.
Even my friend last night - before giving my opinion when I said about the pub charging £7 or £11 to hold a party - she looked confused and said surely they would give you a discount if your having a party their?
£11 is cheap per head - but that was just a room in top of a pub which wasn't very big so not something I was considering but the blatant '£7 a head' then £11 a head if you held a party their was a bit bizarre to me
The way I see it if you have a pub > you already have to take into account overheads like heating lighting insurance so when you price a meal at £7 it is priced with the profit to cover this, now someone comes along with a big party yes it is going to mean more work more costs more staff - but if your original price has enough profit on it to keep the pub running then adding an extra £4 is basically because they know people will pay it not because they need to.
I guess we all have different opinions, I do understand that if we were taking a space that would normally have been used for the pub that they would be able to use the same table so many times over.
I'm really not that bad honest