7 Ways to Shrink Your Wedding Catering Costs
Fact: your wedding catering costs are probably out of control, even if you’re within budget. That’s because even so-called “cheap wedding caterers” are notorious for tacking on extra charges and hidden fees.
Luckily, if you’re a smart bride, you should be able to get them to drop the cost of your wedding food and service, without reducing the quality of your wedding catering. All it takes is a very small amount of planning and know-how on your part.
Top 7 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding Catering Costs:
- Shop around. You CAN find cheap wedding caterers if you give yourself the time to do a little comparison shopping between the caterers in your area.
- Plan ahead. Caterers – even cheap wedding caterers – love to charge extra for last-minute events because they know you’re desperate.
- Ask what you can DIY. Your caterer may let you find your own wedding cake, supply drink garnishes, rent your own flatware, etc. Doing it yourself avoids paying the caterer’s markup (and yes, believe me, they are marking stuff up up up!).
- Prioritize. Choose one dish or drink to make a splash and choose affordable wedding food for everything else. For example, you could choose inexpensive sides but have a beautiful carving station or a funky mac-n-cheese station.
- Trim labor. Servers, chefs, bussers, and bartenders can all be costly. Talk to your caterer about ways to minimize both the number of staff needed and the time they’re needed for.
- Force them to compete. Once you’ve gathered a couple of quotes, send them to your potential caterers and ask them to beat the competing quotes.
- Just ask! The economy is facing tough times and people in the serving industry are fighting for work. Just tell your caterer that you’d like to hire them, but you’re on a strict budget and you’ll need a better price. You’d be surprised what you can get just by asking!
Don’t get us wrong: we don’t advise cheaping out on your caterer… but that doesn’t mean good, cheap wedding caterers don’t exist, because they do. Choose to shop smart to avoid paying more than necessary.
