Seated dinner receptions are not always the most expensive option; The price depends on your choice of menu card design, food and bar dishes.
Chicken, turkey, pork and pasta are the cheapest main courses. Talk to your caterer about serving these less-expensive chicken or pasta dishes with a delicious gourmet sauce, like balsamic glaze, tropical mango sauce, or creamy five-cheese sauce to give diners the feel of a five-star restaurant. Giving dinners stars at a much lower price per guest at your wedding ceremony programs.
Think local and think seasonal because seasonal dishes bought locally always cost much less than imported food.
Serve a vegetarian main course as an economical menu option.
Ask your caterer to create a gourmet presentation of side dishes, such as B. a spoonful of pearl couscous with a “zucchini salad” or asparagus with Fontina cheese.
Combine appetizer and salad, for example by serving some mini crab cakes with a mesclun salad.
Serve vendor meals. For sellers, that is. Most banquet halls offer a meal for vendors for around $20 to feed those eight band members, photographers, videographers and wedding coordinators for less than the price of the meal for their guests.
Save on spirits
“An open bar is a must, but just serve a selection of fine wines and beer with a cocktail or two,” says Bianco. , but you’re not paying a huge price for a top-notch full unlimited bar. You save 25 to 30 percent of your budget.
Skip drinks from your bar menu and save a fortune.
Creatively garnish your signature cocktail with curly lemon peels, colorful icing sugar or exotic fruit tips to make drinks look more expensive than they really are. This $2 per bottle (or more) fee is often easily negotiated from your contract. Avoid expensive alcohol-infused after-dinner drinks like Irish coffee and instead serve flavored coffee and cappuccino.
Save on cakes and desserts.
Choose a two or three tier wedding cake topped with buttercream and decorated with polka dots rather than an expensive replica of the lace of your dress.
Display a faux cake made of icing-covered Styrofoam for visual effect, then serve slices of cake from an inexpensive kitchen pan
Choose from your baker’s basic list (Vanilla, Lemon, Red Velvet) and skip the more expensive flavors and Fillings , including alcohol-infused cake flavors
Another fee you’ll need to negotiate outside of your contract: the per-slice slicing and enrobing fees some websites charge.
Skip the Viennese dessert table and serve your wedding cake with two or three delicious desserts, such as:
