Jamie Wolfer explains why you need to ask venues about mandatory vendor requirements before booking. Many venues force you to use their preferred DJs, photographers, caterers, and bartenders, and catering costs especially can spike dramatically depending on menu choices like plated dinners or premium options.
We're putting the phone down, we're getting serious with this for just a minute. Before you sign up with a venue, you need to know what you're going to be required to pay to other vendors that they require you to book. So if there's a required DJ— I've seen it— if there's a required photographer, florist, if there's a required caterer and bartender— those two are the most common, okay? Those two are the ones that you're like, you absolutely need to look into what those costs can be because that ratchets up and escalates very very quickly. If you are having stations, if you are having a plated dinner, if you're offering a very bougie kind of steak, those numbers can get out of control really quickly. So you need to get a good idea of what catering potentially could cost if it's required, or if you have to choose from a list of caterers, you need to know that cost before you sign with the venue.
