The Olive Garden Rule – A Perspective on Wedding Catering Costs

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I’m having a lot of discussions with brides about wedding and catering costs lately. As in, “I have a 12k budget, my venue is $5,000, am I going to make it?

Here’s a good, basic “formula” to use:  Your venue site fee and yourreception should take up half of your budget. But like many basic rules, it’s not as easy as it sounds – feeding 100+ people can cost more than you think. I talked about it in my book The Mad Dash Down the Aisle:

When considering catering costs,  I use the Olive Garden Rule (TM Liz). The standard meal you’re going to serve your wedding guests will include appetizers and drinks during the cocktail hour,  a salad, an entrée, and dessert . According to Olive Garden’s website, this is their cost per person, averaging across all the different options:

Ta-Dum!

There are three money saving tips you can take away from this:
1. The less guests you have, the less money you’re going to spend.
2.If you can save money on any of these line items, SCORE. But don’t count on it.
3.Memorize these four words – tax, service, gratuity, delivery (“delivery” if you are  bring catering in). Find out what they are, and add the  cost in.

So,  with a budget of $12,000, if Olive Garden was catering, you’re paying another $6200 for food on top of your $5,000 venue. That leaves you less than $1,000 for the rest (alllll)  of your wedding stuff. If you don’t want to pay $62 per person, how much are you willing to spend? Start with that question.

ALSO: I am in no way, shape or form putting down the Olive Garden. I love the Olive Garden. I go to the Olive Garden. I use it as a benchmark of  price and perceived quality. Olive Garden is considered a reasonably priced restaurant with good food – but it’s still going to throw you back $6k + to feed 100 guests. If you are bringing your own catering in, this does not include the cost of cooking and serving staff, which can easily be another $1000+ on top of that. This has more to do with your expectations – If you want a menu that you feel is fancier or better than the Olive Garden, then gear up to pay more.  How much would a wedding meal cost at one of your go-to-restaurants?

What do you think? Were you shocked at how much the price of food really comes to? What alternatives have you found? And let me know if you have any questions, in the comments. 

See you at the end of the aisle,

Liz Coopersmith
Silver Charm Events
www.silvercharmevents.com
323-592-9318
liz@silvercharmevents.com
Instagram @elizabethcoopersmith