Jamie Wolfer exposes how wedding venues advertise low minimums that hide the real cost. A $3,000 minimum sounds cheap until you realize catering alone runs $250-$350 per plate, and venues lock you into their caterer with steep cancellation fees. Couples end up paying $60k-$100k when they expected far less.
I am in stout defense of so many small businesses in the wedding industry, but when they use terms like a $3,000 minimum, that leads a couple to believe that they will be spending— let's see, $3,000 divided by 70— that they'll be spending about $42.85 per person. Let's call it $45 per person versus $300 per person. Okay, so on average, we see our plates going anywhere from $250 to $350 per person. Why do we not say that? Why are we not upfront with these numbers? That grinds my gears. You sign with a venue that has a required caterer, you get yourself into something called the venue trap, and then you get to a place where you don't know what to do. You would rather bow out and lose $10,000 than commit to staying at this venue. Like, she's asking what should she have done. You got to find a way to be like, well, it's either this becomes a $60,000, $75,000, $100,000 wedding, or we cut our losses, or we go elope, or we go to a smaller, more low-key venue, or a restaurant for 70 people. They should have been like, no, on average, here's how much we see cost per plate. That's what the venue should have done.
