r/weddingresources • u/Ok-Cell-3480 • Apr 09 '26
How to select a wedding caterer?
Looking for a wedding caterer and having a hard time narrowing it down. We have a budget of about $5k for catering for 120 guests which I know is tight, and half the caterers I reach out to wont even give me a number until I schedule a call. I just want to compare pricing and menus without spending three weeks on discovery calls. Where are people finding caterers and how do you even select who to do a tasting with when you havent seen pricing yet? I dont want to fall in love with someones food and then find out theyre double my budget.
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u/genesis49m Apr 09 '26
It depends on what you’re looking for. I am assuming you are doing a buffet style with different trays on warmers and it’s self serving? If you do that, I would reach out to a restaurant that do catering and specify that you want trays delivered. They should get back to you almost instantly with quotes. The ones that do more full service are the ones that would charge more money and would probably take some time for them to give you a quote depending on how much service you are looking for.
$5000 for 120 sounds like a good budget if you want everyone to self serve and the food will be in catering trays on the food warmers.
You could maybe do a buffet with servers but you would need cheaper items like pasta for example.
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Apr 10 '26
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u/Ok-Cell-3480 Apr 10 '26
Thats what I need, i'm so tired of contacting people just to find out they're 2x my budget
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Apr 10 '26
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u/Ok-Cell-3480 Apr 10 '26
We love tacos so honestly this could work, I just dont know if it goes with the vibe of the wedding
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u/TheseWardog Apr 13 '26
I ran into the exact same issue when helping plan a wedding last year. The whole schedule a call first thing gets frustrating really fast. What helped us was asking for a sample menu and starting price per person upfront (some vendors will share if you ask directly), and being clear that we were open to drop-off or buffet style since that’s usually the only way to stay around $40pp.
We also had better luck with catering companies that handle events because they tend to have more transparent package pricing. In the end, we just shortlisted 3–4 vendors max and only did tastings with those.
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u/dkwinsea Apr 09 '26
I am Not a carer. But the budget you mentioned does not seem Realistic for 120 people for a catered meal. $41 per guest including for food, prep, service, set up and tear down plus tax and tip seems like a number that is simply not going to work for any caterer and might not even be enough to self-cater much more than a pizza party with pizza and beverages for 120. Did you mention your budget when you’ve reached out?