One of the most expensive aspects of a wedding is the food that will be served at the reception. It is very easy to end up spending more on wedding reception food alone than you have budgeted for your entire wedding. Carefully planning and hiring a good wedding buffet caterer can save you a lot of money by providing you with an exact figure on what your wedding reception is going to cost you.
You may be able to save even more money by renting a reception venue that offers its own wedding buffet caterer. However, this option does not always offer the best price; you can do a lot better. Be sure to shop around for the best price and get the price quote in writing before you hire a caterer.
Remember that it is your wedding and you can choose the food to serve your guests. You do not necessarily have to offer some kind of heavy meal at the reception. If you merely want to offer tasty treats, that is your wedding planning prerogative. Make sure to communicate your preference with your wedding buffet caterer.
While wedding buffet caterers tend to be the cheapest and have the most predictable prices, you should not rule out getting price quotes from others. Ultimately, if the food is good, it is not going to matter what the style or meal type is.
If you are planning on serving alcohol, expect your meal to cost at least twice as much and watch out for unexpected costs resulting from unpredictable guests. You might do better financially to have your caterer serve a full line of fine fruit juices.
Do not be afraid to let the caterer know that you will be shopping around for competitive quotes. If you already have a few quotes with you, ask for a better quote from each. You can save a lot of money on a wedding buffet caterer if you really want to save money.