How to Save Money on Wedding Catering

Depending on the duration of your wedding, your guests are served food and drinks at different intervals throughout the day. This can include arrival drinks and canapés, a three or four-course breakfast and a glorious buffet in the evening. But, how much does it cost to keep your guests wined and dined?

Wedding catering is one of the biggest expenses in most wedding budgets, second only to the cost of a wedding venue. According to our ultimate Wedding Budget Breakdown, the average cost of wedding catering is between $7,000-$8,500.

We understand that this is a huge expense, and one obvious way to save money on wedding food is by cutting the number of guests. However, we also understand that this might not always be possible. If this is the case for you, fear not – there are still plenty of ways you can save money.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at the many ways you can save money on wedding catering while still keeping your guests full and happy.

What type of food is the cheapest at a wedding?

Food that is easy to cook in bulk and requires little prep time will be among the cheapest food you can serve at your wedding. This includes the food served at both your wedding breakfast and the evening buffet.

At the reception, simple food cooked well will keep the costs down. An example of an affordable three-course wedding breakfast meal could include:

Starter – Soup

Main course – Roast chicken, potatoes and seasonal vegetables

Dessert – New York cheesecake

In the evening, the same applies to the buffet. Simple, tasty food that your guests can eat with their hands will make sure everyone is more than satisfied. Examples of cheap and easy wedding buffet food include pizza, pasta, salad, chips, chicken, wraps, tacos and more. You could even have a theme for your evening buffet, such as American, Asian, Mexican or barbecue.

12 ways to save money on wedding food

Now that you know what factors can increase the cost of wedding food, let’s look at 12 ways to do cheap wedding food.

1. Compare venue catering to outsourcing wedding catering

If your chosen venue has an all-inclusive package, this likely includes food. While it can be more affordable to hire other vendors, an all-inclusive option is usually your best bet.

If you do want to hire external caterers, though, do plenty of research before you book your wedding venue. Make sure your chosen venue is flexible, as this will open up your choices and allow you to hire other caterers. So, if you want a fancy countryside venue but also want to serve woodfired pizzas in the evening, ask the venue whether they would allow this first.

It’s best to research wedding caterers and venues at the same time so you can see which option is the most suitable for your budget. During your research, make sure you’re looking at not just the cost, but also the services they provide, their location and recent reviews to make sure they provide exactly what you want.

2. Choose local caterers

Once you’ve chosen the location for your wedding and found your dream venue, consider hiring local caterers if you’re outsourcing. For example, if your wedding is just outside Toronto but the caterer you’ve selected is based in Ottawa, you may face additional travel fees. These could be a flat rate or charged per kilometer outside their regular service area.

Opting for a local vendor can help keep costs down. They may also have experience working at your chosen venue and potentially a professional relationship with the staff, which could make everything run more smoothly on the big day. Plus, you’ll be supporting local businesses, which is always a win!

3. Go for a buffet

Who doesn’t love a buffet? Your guests can pick and choose whatever dishes catch their eye and help themselves to as much or as little as they want. Buffets are not only versatile and crowd-pleasing but also typically more budget-friendly than a traditional sit-down wedding meal.

On the other hand, opting for full table service lets you enjoy the royal treatment on your special day, which is undoubtedly a wonderful experience—but it does come with a price tag. For a table-service wedding meal, you’ll usually need one server for every 10 guests. So, for a wedding with 100 guests, you’d need about 10 servers, not including the kitchen and bar staff.

Buffets, however, require a much smaller team to prepare and serve the food, making them a cost-effective choice. While a plated meal might run you $50-$70 per person, a buffet often costs closer to half that amount. While a buffet may not have the same luxurious vibe as a formal sit-down dinner, your guests likely won’t mind as long as there’s delicious food to enjoy.

4. Cut your guest list

The number of guests you invite to your wedding directly affects the total cost of catering, because the more mouths to feed, the more food you need.

With the cost of food per head averaging $100, costs can quickly add up. Suppose you’ve invited 100 guests – 100 x $100 = $10,000 for the food alone. If you’re in a position to, cutting just 10% of your guest list will save you around $1,000, and this doesn’t even include other savings you can make, such as decor, stationery, favors and the ability to choose a smaller, more affordable venue.

It might be tough, but very few couples can invite everyone. A little bravery could potentially save you thousands, without you having to forgo the food you want.

5. Take peak dates and times into account

A huge number of couples want to tie the knot during peak wedding season, when the weather is more likely to behave itself, flowers are blooming and you have more options for beautiful outdoor photographs.

However, with so much competition during the most popular weeks and months, vendors have to raise their prices, and this includes caterers. So, you could save a lot of money by setting your date on a common-or-garden weekday between October and March, when caterers’ rates are generally lower.

So, instead of booking your wedding for a Saturday in August, why not consider a Tuesday in February? This will slash the cost of catering, as well as other wedding costs such as your venue and entertainment.

6. Craft your menu

Your first instinct might be to get one of everything when you see the menu options, as that way, you can cater to everyone – from meat eaters to vegetarians – while knocking out any allergy-causing options too.

But, to keep costs down, don’t offer your guests a wide variety of options at the wedding breakfast or meal. It’s usually far more cost-effective to offer a limited number of choices, as the catering team will be able to focus on making sure every plate is perfect. So, one meat and one vegetarian or vegan option is usually more than enough to meet the needs of the majority of your guests.

The type of food you go for will also influence the cost. Instead of choosing fancy or time-consuming dishes like lobster, sushi or beef Wellington, opt for more affordable options such as chicken, potatoes and vegetables. A skilled catering team can make even the most affordable ingredients look and taste fabulous.

It’s even better to go for in-season and locally-grown ingredients. This will be much cheaper while also allowing you to support local businesses. Have a chat with your catering team to see what they can do to get the most out of your budget. Fancy food doesn’t automatically have to mean expensive.

While it’s vital to make sure dietary requirements are fulfilled, the more bespoke dishes the team has to cater for, the pricier it will be. So, it’s important to provide food for special requirements, but you should try to avoid making changes purely because your cousin is a fussy eater and will only eat chicken nuggets.

Remember, whenever in doubt, speak to your wedding caterer.

7. Consider your bar options carefully

A fully stocked bar with a wide variety of drinks, or hiring a mixologist to dazzle your guests with their skills, might be a dream for some couples—but it’s an added expense. This is especially true if you decide to offer an open bar, which can add thousands of dollars to your final wedding bill. You can save over $3,000 by asking your guests to cover the cost of their own drinks, while still providing a bottle of wine at each table and a glass of bubbly for the toasts. Open bars are not that common in Canada, so it’s not something most guests will expect.

As for the bubbly, Champagne is a luxurious choice, but your guests will be just as pleased with a more affordable alternative like prosecco or Cava. These options are often cheaper than bringing in your own sparkling wine, especially since many venues charge a corkage fee, which can reach up to $50 per bottle.

8. Ask for smaller plates

You read that right – ask your vendor for smaller plates during the evening buffet. This will limit the amount of food your guests can pile up. Instead of taking mountains of food, most guests will take considerably less, which will reduce the amount of waste too. And don’t worry – if someone wants to go for multiple rounds, they can! No one will go home hungry.

9. Consider a food truck

Renting a food truck to provide freshly-cooked plates is a great way to add a personal touch to your wedding, and will help keep your catering budget down.

Think about it – food trucks are used to cooking and serving delicious, crowd-pleasing dishes at busy, fast-paced events. The same can be done for your wedding – just tell them your budget and they’ll handle the rest. This is great way to keep costs manageable while offering your guests some unique and mouth-watering food. Plus, with food trucks being one of the hottest wedding trends of 2024, this kind of catering is all the rage right now.

10. Go for special promotions

Keep a look out for wedding fairs, where a selection of vendors come together to showcase their offerings and encourage you to have a taste. This is a great way to see what options are available and try food from a wide selection of local caterers. During events, a lot of caterers will offer exclusive discounts and promotions, which could save you a nice chunk of change. Not only will you leave the event with a full stomach, but your budget will also thank you for it.

11. Have a twilight wedding

A twilight wedding is a wedding which starts much later in the day, usually around the time the sun starts to set. This means, after the reception and photographs, you’ll likely want to bypass the wedding breakfast and dive straight into the evening buffet – a far more cost-effective option. Because you’re only feeding your guests once, you’ll drastically reduce the amount of money you spend on catering, as well as various other parts of your wedding.

12. Limit or cut the canapés and arrival drinks

Canapés and arrival drinks add a touch of class and elegance to your wedding, but they can be costly. To save a little money, consider only offering a single canapé option or even cutting it completely, together with the arrival drinks.

Find your dream caterer and organize your dream wedding Bridebook

Here at Bridebook, we have a wide range of tips to suit all wedding styles, tastes and budgets, and help you save money on catering and every other aspect of your wedding.