There are two types of wedding caterers: On-premise or off-premise caterers.
On-premise caterers are catering operations that exclusively provide the catering for a site, such as hotels or country clubs. Most of these sites won't allow outside or off-premise caterers.
Off-premise caterers bring in food to another site. They can provide just the food or coordination of the entire event. They can provide services like decorating (table centerpieces, table skirting, etc) and consulting.
Top Money Saving Secrets for Wedding Caterers:1.
Consider serving ethnic food. Surprisingly, Asian, Mexican and barbecue food are crowd pleasers and fortunately to you, are around 20%-40% less than traditional wedding fare. You can dress up the buffet table with a pasta station, for example, to give some flair to the reception. Serve margaritas to accompany Mexican food, etc.
2.
Pick a site where you can bring in an outside caterer. Not only outside caterers often offer higher quality food, they also charge lower. They don't charge a $1 per person for cake cutting (what a ridiculous charge!) like a lot of reception site. Often they let you buy your own liquor - a significant saving on cost. Bottom line: they provide more food and beverage for the dollar.
3.
Tell the reception site that you're having a reunion, as opposed to weddings. You might have to come clean later, but this way, the reception manager will then give you the price list for the regular fare, as opposed to often-inflated wedding menus. This way, you have more room to negotiate.
4.
Serve beer in a keg or wine in a box. A keg of beer is equal to approximately seven cases of beer. Don't worry that a keg will give your reception the ambiance of a college frat party. Most caterers can hide the keg behind the bar and use a system to draw the beer. With boxed wines, it can be poured into carafes. You'll save about 50% with this trick.
5.
Buy your champagne on December 30th. Liqour stores often do champagne sales right before New Year's Eve and raise the prices the first day of new year. Buy it in advance and save! Tip: Save the champagne in a cool, dark place around 55 degrees. They should not be refrigerated until just before the reception.
6.
Buy magnum size wine bottle. Magnum size is twice the size of regular wine bottle, therefore you save on corkage fees, and you save on the wine cost itself since price per ounce is less than regular sized wine.
7.
Serve only one drink. You can choose between one signature drink (a margarita, a mojito etc), one champagne toast, or one kind of wine.
8.
Consider a non-traditional time. Luncheon reception is less expensive than dinner reception. Dessert or hors d'oeuvres receptions are getting popular, and certainly cheaper than a Saturday dinner reception. Guests have their dinner already, and they are looking forward to a fabulous dessert reception to finish their night. In case of hors d'oeuvres reception, you can hold it at two in the afternoon, when guests already have lunch and won't be expecting a sit down meal.
9.
Know your food. Certain food items are expensive, like beef tenderloin and shrimp. A more affordable option is chicken. A lot of caterers have delicious recipes for chicken that are affordable but scrumptious as well. Another way to save is not to choose food items that are labor extensive, such as appetizers that require painstaking labor to assemble, such as "hand sliced peking duck slices with green onions and sauce in a thin bread", in which the appetizer needs to be assembled before handed out to guests. This item takes longer to prepare and as a result, more expensive.
10.
Have the caterer's staff serve buffet and hors d'oeuvres. This will control the amount of food served (and therefore, control cost). When guests serve themselves, the food always seems to go much quicker.
11.
Buy your own liquor, if possible. Buy them in wholesale prices in several cases and save. You'll save, your guests are happy. The end. PS: chill them prior to reception.
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