In this episode of the Engage wedding planning podcast, host Jamie Wolfer answers listener questions about catering budgets, vendor logistics, and casual food options for small weddings. She explains how to use a cost‑per‑head estimate when guest counts are uncertain, advises that couples should have a general ballpark figure early and adjust closer to the date, and clarifies that caterers typically focus only on food service and may not assist with full venue setup or teardown beyond their own stations. Jamie also discusses a real‑world scenario where a couple wants to serve both pizza and Chipotle for a 30‑guest buffet, concluding that ordering roughly equal amounts should be sufficient and emphasizing the importance of aligning food choices with the couple’s vision and budget. Throughout, she promotes her Master Plan course and related resources as a way for couples to get personalized, step‑by‑step guidance.
Questions this episode answers
Use a cost‑per‑head estimate: get a price for a target number (e.g., 150 guests), calculate a per‑person cost, and treat it as a ballpark figure that can be adjusted as RSVPs firm up.
Caterers generally focus on their own food service and cleanup; they may bring extra servers to assist with tables, plates, or candles if requested, but they typically do not handle full venue setup, signage, or non‑catering items.
Yes, ordering roughly equal amounts of both should be sufficient, especially with a small wedding; the mixed menu offers variety and keeps costs manageable.
Chapters
Well, hello, lovely humans, and welcome to Engage, a wedding planning podcast for the modern-day couple. I'm your host, Jamie Wolfer, and I truly believe that wedding planning does not need to be complicated or time-consuming. I kind of picture these episodes like jumping on a quick phone call with your wedding planner. You get your answers and you go on your merry way, because sometimes not all of us have an hour to dedicate to listening to super long podcasts or super long intros. So without further ado, let's just jump right on into it. Today's episode is going to admittedly be a little bit all over the place. You see, every single month I sit down with all of the I was gonna say constituents, they're not constituents, the people over in the Master Plan course, and answer your questions in lifetime. So if you find yourself struggling and really need to sit down and speak with a real-life wedding planner, I would love to be a part of your wedding planning journey. Join us over in the Master Plan today to get your questions answered. Until then, take a listen. How do you budget for catering when you're not sure how many guests will be attending? There's a long period of time between figuring out how many people to invite versus how many RSVP'd? Yes. This is where you just wanna get a cost per person. So, 'cause you're right, that, that can be something that's a little bit difficult. And generally speaking, let's say you invite 150 people, you can tell the caterer, what's gonna be the cost for 150 people? Okay, what's the cost per head? You can kind of calculate down, or do you have like a price range for this amount of people? They don't do the shopping and lock in that number until much closer to the day of your event. They do this for a reason, right? Because you're right, there's a long time period between guest list, like putting it together, and RSVP yeses. Caterers know this, they're fully aware of this. So don't worry about getting the exact number super, super early ahead of time. Just make sure you have a general ballpark and then you can adjust the number closer to the day of. Sitting here listening to a podcast is all fine and dandy, right? But sometimes you need an actual person to be asking some of these questions to. And you may be sitting there going, you know what, Jamie, actually, yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense. I would love to be able to ask you these questions. Guess what? You need to join the Master Plan. You've heard me talk about it, but do you know why I love it so much? You get over 10 lessons that walk you through planning your wedding with videos and spreadsheets and other detailed resources along the way. Join me and my virtual clients over in the Master Plan and get all your wedding planning questions answered. Literally thousands of couples have gone on this journey with me, and I'd love for you to be next. Check it out at wolferandco.com TMP. That's wolferandco.com TMP. Listen, wedding budgets suck. They're just like the actual worst. And the hardest part for me is that weddings are not cookie cutter. They're not one size fits all. And I think it's important to make sure that you're budgeting according to your priorities. Build a budget that works with your vision and you'll be on the path to planning a wedding that you really want. So if you want my recommendations for making your perfect budget for you and your partner, head on over to weddingpriorities.com. I'm considering a venue that is only for one day from 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM. So all setup and teardown has to happen in that timeframe. Do vendors like caterers usually help with setup and/or teardown? What kind of things can they help with? It is not likely that your caterer is gonna help with setup and teardown. They typically will just show up, do their own work, and then get the heck on out of there after cleaning up their own stuff. First of all, to address the 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM, that is a glorious amount of time for your vendors. Typically we get 2 hours before and 1 hour afterwards. So the fact that you have this giant spread of a timeframe, he's delicious. It makes me really happy for you, um, which will help with your vendors, although a lot of them will still show up about 2 hours beforehand, so they won't need the entire time. Caterers do sometimes bring along additional servers, or sometimes servers will jump in to help with specific items, but that is not within their job requirements. So if they bring additional servers to, um, like per your request to help out with those things, possibly, but per their regular day-to-day catering services, most likely not. What kind of things can they help with? If you have additional servers, they can help with things like setting the table if you want plates, napkins, utensils, glassware, etc. If you need candles lit and placed out, but they're not gonna help out with things like your card box, signage around the venue, or anything like that. They're really gonna stay hyper-focused on specifically catering-related items. Um, see, and they also probably will not set up your— any other food items that you get or bring in yourself, which some will, some will not. Most will not, actually. So I don't know if that helps. I hope it does. All right, Amanda said, my fiancé and I were torn on wedding food. I was going to cook everything myself, and then I decided that's too much work. And said I would rather order pizza. Yep, ordered pizza for my kids tonight. I understand hitting that easy button. My fiancé loved that idea, but I, but I thought it was tacky and decided to order Chipotle drop catering. My fiancé was still attached to getting pizza delivered though. I decided we should do both. However, I was afraid of ordering too much of one thing and not enough of the other, so I've decided to poll. So I have decided to have a poll for my wedding guests. It was tacos versus pizza. Surprisingly, it was a tie. Now we have 30 people invited to the wedding. The food will be served buffet style. I'm ordering pizza for 20 and Chipotle for 20. Will this be enough food? I believe so. Yes. And the fact that you have such a small wedding, my hope is the catering costs will not be extreme. That is probably almost exactly what I would recommend you do in this scenario, because if you've been in these calls before, you've probably heard me mention or refer to my husband as like the wedding guest barometer that I put everyone else through. Okay, because my husband would get there and be like, wait, you told me to pick and there's options for both? I'm getting both. You know what I mean? Like, my husband's that guy. My husband's the guy that when the buffet is unattended, he's gonna scoop a little extra something something. Of course, I'm like, decorum says you can't do that. And I'm like sweating. But don't get between that man and food. So the fact that you have this crossover of about 10, you should be okay. I think that's gonna work out brilliantly. And also, I love that you're serving both. It's great. And I love that you're not cooking it. I love cooking. I think cooking's phenomenal. In fact, pipe dream of mine is to host a dinner club. I think that would be so much fun. It'd be an excuse to cook all these incredible things, but to host a dinner club on the night of your wedding, it might be a little bit much. So, um, yeah, if you are struggling with wedding planning and you have questions and you just need someone to listen and to chat with, come join us in the Master Plan community over at themasterplanwed.com. Com. I would love to have you in there. Thanks so much for listening. If you haven't done so already, subscribe, jump on over to wherever you're listening to this podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can let the podcast people know that Jamie knows what she's talking about sometimes. And until next time, bye guys!
