Average Cost/Person for Wedding Reception?

[Antonia]

We live in South Carolina and DS and fiancee are getting married in May in a 2:00 p.m. wedding ceremony at our Methodist church on a Saturday afternoon. DH and I are paying for the reception.
I envision we will have wedding cake, heavy hors d'oeuvres, punch and possibly lemonade. Nothing too fancy for a mid-afternoon reception in the church social hall. Our church does have elegant round tables and white chairs to use now. And I have seen the social hall done up to look very elegant.
Today I got prices from one caterer (it's a small town so there aren't many)and the "medium menu" for weddings consists of 2 meats and 5 sides at a cost of $10.50-$11.50 per person. Sone of the meats are grilled pork tenderloin with assorted breads, shrimp, beef tenderloin, etc. and the sides are mostly your normal hors d'oeuvres.
I'm going to get other prices from other caterers, but just wanted to know what the going prices for this type wedding reception might be other places in the Southeast. For some reason I was thinking $7 or $8 for a mid-afternoon reception.

 

[minniecarousel]

WOW! We haven't started pricing for the wedding in the family yet, but I do believe that the $11.50 would be on the low side here in the SF Bay Area. I'm sure that once you get some more prices, you will see that is the price you're going to have to pay.

 

[Twinprincesses]

Ours was almost $20 a person and we had a open bar.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We had a church reception but had desserts only and did the food ourselves. Our cake was pricey (custom from a top notch baker) but the desserts were inexpensive. We did 3 punches.

I think that pricing sounds pretty good for what you are getting - esp if they will set up and clean up things. Will they provide napkins, silverware, china? What about drinks? Course that is inexpensive but it's one more thing you might be able to negotiate with them.

 

[Chris2597]

We had a sitdown dinner at dd's wedding three years ago and paid around 11-12 per person....that did not include the wine, beer, appetizers, champagne. I think you are getting a great deal on food.

 

[barkley]

i applaud you for having food at an afternoon wedding! we have been to several that were around noon or 2 in the afternoon and in order to arrive on time had either skipped lunch or eaten MANY hours prior to the wedding. while we don't expect to be fed at a wedding (and highly respect those that opt to keep wedding costs at a reasonable amount) it is difficult (esp. with children) when attending an event to goes from the lunch through the dinner hours without something more than cake and punch.

i think you have a good price for what is offered-we live near the san francisco bay area and would be hard pressed to find anything in that price range that would be much more than very simple cold appetizers.

 

[Cindy B]

Wow, that is a great deal! Mine was almost $40 per person 15 years ago. I have heard that nowadays the going rate in my state is about 100-150 per person!

 

[aprilgail2]

I am amazed at some of the prices in this thread...even having a wedding in your yard here costs more than that! Personally I would prefer a backyard wedding reception to some I have been to that cost 200+ a head, though the last one I went to was really nice and I am sure it was at least 200 a head, but I have also been to one in the backyard last year that was fun.

 

[Ranatra]

I think that's a fantastic price.

 

[jel0511]

That sounds like an awesone price IMO!! I live in the expensive NE, so I thought at first when I saw the title that keeping it under $100 per person would be economical.

 

[Zurealsoon]

So why are the parents of the groom paying for this?

BTW-your price seems very reasionable-cheaper than taking everyone to a nice sit down restaurant, that's for sure.

 

[TLinden16]

Wow. That seems cheap. One of my co-workers here in the Boston area is getting married, and she is looking at at least $30 per person just for the main course (something like prime rib). One place told her they could do soup to nuts for $140 per person! Yikes.

Have fun planning your wedding

 

[ncbyrne]

The prices for weddings varies GREATLY from region to region. I live in NJ in the NYC metropolitan area and we could never get a price that low...not even for catered backyard BBQ! We have 5 grown and married children. My youngest daughter was married in Virginia and the price for twice the guests was half the price of what it was here for my oldest daughter....and yet, still much higher than what you were quoted. In order to get a realistic opinion on those prices you will need to hear from others in your general location.

 

[VanniGirl]

It really does depend where you are! Having just gotten married 18 days ago in New York we paid $80pp for the reception alone - and we got a great place / price.

To the OP for what you are describing the price sounds great.

Congrats!!!

 

[helenabear]

For that type of food, it sounds like you have a good deal! I think ours started at about $10/person for light snacks. For a buffet style meal we had about $20/person. I think that range is good... anything less would be exceptionally cheap IMO.

 

[N.Bailey]

I can't really help on the pricing. For one, I live in Hicksville, USA so our pricing wouldn't be that of the rest of the civilized world and secondly, I've been married for 16 years, so it's been awhile.

I did want to comment on your 2:00 wedding though. An old wives tale says if you get married on the hour; as the clock is heading down, you'll have a troubled marriage, but if you get married on the half hour; with the clock heading back up, you'll have a fantastic marriage. It is what it is, an old wives tale and nothing more, but thought I'd share in case you're interested.

 

[wilderness01]

I did want to comment on your 2:00 wedding though. An old wives tale says if you get married on the hour; as the clock is heading down, you'll have a troubled marriage, but if you get married on the half hour; with the clock heading back up, you'll have a fantastic marriage. It is what it is, an old wives tale and nothing more, but thought I'd share in case you're interested.

Why on earth would someone ever post this? She picked her time, it is set, why tell her any wives tales?

 

[we3disneygo]

Congrats to you!! 19 yrs. ago we had a afternoon wedding and just served cake, mints, nuts,and punch......this was way before Martha Stewart!

 

[Chicago526]

For our wedding, the average was $45 a plate (we gave our guest a choice in entree, one was less than the other), but this was for a fancy sitdown plated dinner at a golf club in the Chicago area. Included 5 hours open bar and unlimited wine with dinner, soup, salad, entre (chicken or fliet mignon) with two sides (we picked cauliflower au gratin and wild rice) desert AND the wedding cake itself. We also had a cocktail hour with hors d'oeuvres (we got married at the golf club and wanted to entertain our guest for the hour between the ceramony and the reception while we had pictures taken), and the hors d'oeuvres were $7 per person for 1 hour (they keep serving as much food as the guests could eat for 1 hour, no limits), we got a choice of 3 cold and 3 hot hors d'oeuvres. The hour of open bar during the cocktail hour came out of our 5 hours of open bar for the sitdown dinner package. Had we just had cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and NOT done the dinner, I'm not sure how the open bar would have priced. Looking back, I almost wish we had just done a cocktail hour and not the sit down. As wonderful as it was, it would have saved us a ton of cash!

Oh, and contratulations!

 

[CathrynRose]

We live in South Carolina and DS and fiancee are getting married in May in a 2:00 p.m. wedding ceremony at our Methodist church on a Saturday afternoon. DH and I are paying for the reception.
I envision we will have wedding cake, heavy hors d'oeuvres, punch and possibly lemonade. Nothing too fancy for a mid-afternoon reception in the church social hall. Our church does have elegant round tables and white chairs to use now. And I have seen the social hall done up to look very elegant.
Today I got prices from one caterer (it's a small town so there aren't many)and the "medium menu" for weddings consists of 2 meats and 5 sides at a cost of $10.50-$11.50 per person. Sone of the meats are grilled pork tenderloin with assorted breads, shrimp, beef tenderloin, etc. and the sides are mostly your normal hors d'oeuvres.
I'm going to get other prices from other caterers, but just wanted to know what the going prices for this type wedding reception might be other places in the Southeast. For some reason I was thinking $7 or $8 for a mid-afternoon reception.

Thats obnoxiously low - I'm looking at $18-35 p/p for the same sort of thing.

Im considering ordering a darn pizza for the whole shin-dig.