Outside catering fees

We knew we wanted to host our wedding in a hotel, but we didn't know about a common fee at hotel venues called an "outside catering fee." Most hotels will charge an outside catering fee in which you're paying anywhere from $30-60 per person per meal just to have the option to bring in food from an outside caterer. This outside catering fee is also sometimes called "sitting fee."

For example, if you have 200 guests and are feeding them three meals over the course of your wedding, with an outside catering fee of $30, this means you would be spending 200 guests x 3 meals x $30 = $18,000 just to bring in food from an outside caterer. This doesn't even include the cost of any food itself yet!

Here are three tips to help reduce this cost.

Find a venue with a South Asian chef

Some hotels may have chefs who have experience cooking South Asian food. If you can cater your event directly through the hotel, you can avoid having to pay the outside catering fee. Be sure to have a tasting with the hotel's chef to make sure the food matches your desired taste palate!

Find a venue that charges a flat ballroom fee instead

Usually hotels will do one or the other. This is what we did with our venue, opting for a flat ballroom-rental fee instead of a variable cost based on the number of guests and meals, and it ended up saving us a lot of money in comparison to some of the other hotel venues we looked at.

Host one pre-wedding event at a different venue that doesn't charge a fee 

South Asian weddings can have multiple events (we had 6 different functions: Haldi, Mehndi, Dholki, Sangeet, Wedding Ceremony, and Reception!) If you are having a wedding with multiple events, instead of hosting all of them at the same venue, consider hosting one (or a few) at a different venue that doesn't charge an outside catering fee (for example, many banquet halls do not charge this fee). We chose to host some of our pre-wedding events (Haldi, Mehndi, and Dholki) at home and catered food from Taj Mahal Grill.

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