Pricing guide
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 a lot more than the plate — service, rentals, a tasting, the hours of coordination — and it has to hold from the proposal to the invoice. Here is how to build a per-plate number that still makes sense on the wedding day.
The worked number
Per person
$48.50 – $81.00
Total for 100 guests
$4,850.00 – $8,100.00
Full-service plated dinner, premium protein, three sides, national cost average — the dinner alone, before cocktail hour, cake, and rentals.
Plated or buffet — price them as two products
A plated dinner carries service staff, coursing, and more rentals than a buffet ever sees; a buffet trades some of that labor for more food volume. They are different products with different per-plate numbers, so quote them separately instead of discounting one into the other.
What is really in the per-plate
The food is often less than half. Servers and kitchen labor, rentals (linens, china, glassware), the tasting you host to win the job, cake cutting, coffee service, and coordination hours all live in the per-plate price. Load them deliberately — a wedding priced like a large dinner party loses money on the parts that make it a wedding.
Premium proteins and a longer cocktail hour move the number the most. Quote the dinner, the passed apps, and the extras as separate lines so the couple can see what each choice costs instead of negotiating one lump sum down.
Deposits, tastings, and the timeline
A held date needs a deposit behind it, not a verbal yes. Put a deposit line on the proposal to your own payment link, set an expiry so the quote cannot resurface a year later at last year’s price, and send it as a branded page the couple can accept on their phone. The faster the yes, the more likely the date is still yours when they decide.
Get exact costs from YOUR recipes
These are market ranges. CaterKit photographs your menu, costs every recipe from your ingredients, and prices the quote at your margin — free to start.