How Much Does Wedding Catering Cost? Per-Person Prices, the Bar and the Fees on Top

Wedding catering in the US typically costs $40 to $150 per person for food, with the bar adding $15 to $60 per person on top and a service charge of 18 to 25% on top of both unless the quote says it is included. For 100 guests that is a spread from roughly $6,500 to $26,000 once the service charge is on, which is why "how much does catering cost" has no one-number answer — and why the per-person figure a caterer quotes first is rarely the number you pay.

The per-person price, and what moves it

The food line tracks three things: the menu (proteins and courses), the service style, and the headcount, which sets the staffing.

• Plated dinners need about one server for every 10–12 guests and price at the top of the range.
• Family-style costs about the same as plated — more food on the table, fewer servers.
• Buffets save around 15% on the same menu.
• Stations look premium and rarely save anything; you are paying for a chef at each one.
• Food trucks and casual formats sit at the bottom of the range, and their real cost is in the rentals your venue may still require.

Then the headcount: staffing, rentals and the service charge all scale with it, so the cheapest catering decision on any wedding is the guest list (the budget breakdown puts venue and catering together at about 40% of the total for exactly that reason).

What the bar adds

Bar pricing comes as a per-person package or a per-drink tab. The rules of thumb:

• Open bar, full spirits: the top of the $15–60 range; per-hour package pricing usually beats per-drink pricing once the bar is open four hours or more.
• Beer and wine only: the middle of the range, and the most common compromise.
• Signature cocktails plus beer and wine: most of the open-bar feel for a fraction of the spirits bill.
• Cash bar: costs you the bartenders and nothing else — and guests notice.

Ask whether the bar package includes bartenders, glassware, ice and mixers; each one is a separate line on some quotes.

A worked example, 100 guests

Using the middle of each range as an illustration, not a quote: food at $75 per person is $7,500; a beer-and-wine bar at $30 per person is $3,000; a 22% service charge on that $10,500 is $2,310. Total: about $12,800, or $128 per guest all in — from a caterer whose "starting at $75 a head" was the first number you heard. The gap between the headline price and the all-in price is the whole game.

What an all-in quote must include

Ask for one number per person, "all in, for N guests, in service style X", and check that it covers:

1. Staff — servers, bartenders, a captain, and their hours including setup and breakdown
2. Rentals — plates, glassware, linens, tables if the venue does not provide them
3. Cake cutting — venues and caterers charge $1.50 to $4 per person to cut and plate a cake they did not make
4. Tax and gratuity — the 18–25% service fee is not the tip; ask whether staff gratuity sits on top of it
5. Overtime — the hourly rate if the party runs long, in writing

When to book, and the red flags

Book catering 8 to 10 months out; the menu is usually final 6 to 8 weeks before and the headcount two weeks before. Walk away from a caterer who refuses tastings, quotes per person without staff and rentals, cannot show a license and insurance (your venue will reject them), or is vague about overtime. The full interview is in what to ask a wedding caterer.

Finding one

Every caterer in our directory is a real business with its rating and sources, listed by city below. When you are comparing finalists, the Genie turns two or three quotes into the same all-in-per-guest number so they can actually be compared.

Figures are typical US ranges, not quotes — the same ranges our planning assistant uses in chat. Major metros run higher. Confirm current pricing and what is included with the caterers you interview.