How to price a wedding catering package
A wedding is quoted months before it is cooked, for a day that cannot be re-run. The price has to cover far more than the plate: service staff, rentals, a tasting, and the hours of coordination that turn a menu into a timeline. Here is how to build a per-plate number that still makes sense on the wedding day.
Treat this page as the working reference rather than a read. It covers the band each service style lands in, what is actually inside the per-plate figure, how the cocktail hour and the rentals get priced beside it, the deposit structure that protects the date, and the places a wedding quote quietly loses money between the proposal and the final invoice. Every dollar figure below is computed from the same open 2026 market table the price-per-person calculator runs, so this page and that calculator cannot disagree.
A plated wedding dinner runs about $48.50 to $81.00 per person on premium proteins with three sides, or $4,850.00 to $8,100.00 for 100 guests. The same menu served from a staffed buffet runs $34.50 to $59.00 per person, and a cocktail hour of passed appetizers and a couple of stations adds $25.00 to $43.00 per person on top of dinner rather than inside it.
The worked number
Per person
$48.50 – $81.00
Total for 100 guests
$4,850.00 – $8,100.00
Full-service plated dinner, premium proteins, three sides, national cost average. The dinner alone, before cocktail hour, cake, rentals and staffing extras.
What a wedding dinner costs, by service style
A plated dinner on premium proteins with three sides lands at $48.50 to $81.00 per person, which is $4,850.00 to $8,100.00 across 100 guests. The same menu served from a staffed buffet runs $34.50 to $59.00 per person, or $3,450.00 to $5,900.00 for the event. Those are market bands at the national cost average rather than your number, and their job is to tell you whether the quote you are about to send will read normal to a couple comparing three of them.
Headcount moves the total and barely touches the plate. Twenty more guests takes the plated dinner from $4,850.00 to $8,100.00 to $5,820.00 to $9,720.00, because shopping, prep, plating and service all scale with covers while only your fixed costs spread thinner. Quote per plate, then sanity-check the total, and never let a growing guest list be the thing that makes a thin per-plate number look healthy.
Plated and buffet are two products, not a discount
The step between them is $14.00 to $22.00 a head, and almost none of it is food. A plated dinner adds servers at a ratio the room dictates, coursing, a kitchen brigade working to a timeline, and a rental list that grows with every course. A buffet trades most of that labor for volume, because a line guests walk sends more food out the door than a portioned plate does.
Quote them as two named products with their own descriptions and their own prices. A couple who sees a plated price and a buffet price makes a choice; a couple who sees one price and hears that the buffet would be a bit less has started a negotiation. Family style sits between the two and prices closer to plated than most caterers expect, because the labor moves to the pass while the rental count barely falls.
What is really inside the per-plate figure
The food is often less than half of it. Service hours, kitchen labor, rentals, the tasting you host to win the job, cake cutting, coffee service, and the coordination calls between the proposal and the final count all live inside the per-plate price. Load them deliberately, because a wedding priced like a large dinner party loses money on exactly the parts that make it a wedding.
Proteins are the visible lever and the smallest of the surprises. Dropping from premium to standard proteins on the same plated service moves the band to $43.50 to $71.00 per person, a step of $5.00 to $10.00 a head. Offer that as a named menu rather than a quiet substitution, so a couple choosing the shorter number is choosing a dish they read and liked instead of accepting a downgrade.
The cocktail hour is its own product
Passed appetizers and a couple of stations before dinner price at $25.00 to $43.00 per person, or $2,500.00 to $4,300.00 for 100 guests, and they belong on top of the dinner rather than inside it. That hour is when the guest count is highest, the service is most visible and the food disappears fastest, which makes it the worst possible line to fold into a dinner price as a courtesy.
Price the hour by what it actually needs: a piece count per guest, the passers to carry it, and the stations that need somebody behind them. Six to eight pieces a head over an hour is a common planning range when a full dinner follows, and a long gap between ceremony and dinner needs more food rather than the same food spread thinner. If the couple wants a shorter hour, that is a real saving you can show them.
Rentals, tastings, and the lines that are not food
Linens, china, glassware, flatware, chafers, a bar setup and sometimes the kitchen equipment itself arrive on a rental invoice that is yours to manage even when the couple pays it. Handle it one of two ways and say which on the proposal: pass the rental cost through at cost with a stated coordination fee, or quote it inside your per-plate number and own the count. What loses money is doing the second while quoting the first.
The tasting is a cost you choose. A tasting for two on a signature menu is real food, real hours and usually a real Saturday, and the two honest options are to charge for it and credit the fee against the booking, or to offer it only once a deposit is down. Both are normal in this trade. Hosting an open tasting for every inquiry is how a wedding caterer works a full spring and banks nothing.
Deposits, payment dates, and the guaranteed count
A date is not held until money holds it. On the plated dinner above, a 30% deposit is $1,455.00 at the bottom of the band and $2,430.00 at the top, taken when the date is booked, with the balance due on a date you name rather than "before the wedding". Put an expiry on the proposal as well, because a quote written eighteen months out cannot survive two seasons of ingredient prices.
Then write the guaranteed count as a floor and never as a ceiling. The couple confirms a number by a stated cutoff, you cook and staff for that number, you bill for it or for the higher actual count, and late additions carry a rush rate that was on the proposal from the start. A count that can only move up is a fair deal a couple accepts easily, because the risk they are asked to carry is the one they control.
The proposal a couple actually signs
Lead with the menu written like a menu, because that is the line that wins the job, then put the total beside the per-person figure where neither can be missed. Keep the dinner, the cocktail hour, staffing, rentals, delivery and any service charge on their own lines, so the food reads competitive and each charge can be discussed on its own terms instead of as one lump number to argue down.
Say what is included in plain words, and say what is not. Cake cutting, coffee service, late-night food, vendor meals, overtime past a stated hour, and the cost of a second staffing shift are the six that generate awkward calls, and each is far cheaper to name in a sentence now than to invoice afterwards. Then give the couple one obvious way to accept, and put the deposit step immediately behind it.
Where wedding quotes lose money
Overtime is the first. A reception that runs an hour past the contracted window is a full team of service hours nobody priced, so state the end time, state the hourly rate past it, and hold both. Vendor meals are the second: the photographer, the band and the coordinator all eat, and a quote built on the guest count alone is short by a table before anyone sits down.
The last one is the slow one. A wedding accumulates changes between the proposal and the week of the event, and almost none of them arrive as a request to reprice: a swapped protein, a second station, an extra hour, a table added for family. Confirm each change in writing with its price at the moment it is agreed, and the final invoice becomes a formality instead of a conversation you dread.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much does wedding catering cost per person?
A plated dinner on premium proteins with three sides runs about $48.50 to $81.00 per person on 2026 national-average pricing, or $4,850.00 to $8,100.00 for 100 guests. A staffed buffet of the same menu runs $34.50 to $59.00 per person. Cocktail hour, cake, rentals and staffing extras all sit on top of those figures.
Is a wedding buffet cheaper than a plated dinner?
Yes, by about $14.00 to $22.00 a head on the same premium menu, and the gap is service rather than food. Plated adds servers, coursing and a longer rental list. Quote the two as separate products with their own descriptions rather than offering the buffet as a discount off the plated price.
How much deposit should a wedding caterer take?
A third of the job when the date is booked is a common working figure, with the balance due on a named date. On the plated dinner here, a 30% deposit is $1,455.00 to $2,430.00. State the amount, the percentage and the due date rather than any one of the three.
What should a wedding catering quote include besides the food?
Service staff, rentals, delivery, any service charge, cake cutting, coffee service and vendor meals, each on its own line. Name the contracted end time and the overtime rate beside them. Every one of those is cheaper to state in a sentence now than to invoice after the wedding.
How much should I charge for a wedding cocktail hour?
Price it as its own product rather than folding it into dinner. Passed appetizers with a couple of stations run about $25.00 to $43.00 per person, or $2,500.00 to $4,300.00 for 100 guests. Six to eight pieces a head over the hour is a common planning range when a full dinner follows.
Should I charge for a wedding tasting?
Charging for it and crediting the fee against the booking is the cleanest version, and offering the tasting only once a deposit is down is the other workable one. A tasting is real food and a real Saturday. Hosting one free for every inquiry is how a caterer works a full spring and banks nothing.