Caterers quote a plate price. Nobody pays a plate price. Between the service charge, the sales tax that lands on top of it, and the cake-cutting fee nobody mentions at the tasting, the number on the proposal is about 30% short of the number on your card. Here is every stage of that arithmetic, priced.
Same 150 guests, same open bar, same national pricing. The only thing changing is how dinner reaches the table — and every figure below is the real one, with the 20% service charge and 7.5% sales tax already added.
150 guests · National · buffet, open bar Food, $52.70 a plate $7,905 Bar, $34 a head $5,100 Staffing, setup, rentals $1,500 Contract subtotal $14,505 + 20% service charge $2,901 + 7.5% sales tax $1,305 Total $18,711 · $125 per guest
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
150 guests · National · family style, open bar Food, $62.00 a plate $9,300 Bar, $34 a head $5,100 Staffing, setup, rentals $1,500 Contract subtotal $15,900 + 20% service charge $3,180 + 7.5% sales tax $1,431 Total $20,511 · $137 per guest
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
150 guests · National · stations, open bar Food, $65.10 a plate $9,765 Bar, $34 a head $5,100 Staffing, setup, rentals $1,500 Contract subtotal $16,365 + 20% service charge $3,273 + 7.5% sales tax $1,473 Total $21,111 · $141 per guest
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
150 guests · National · plated dinner, open bar Food, $71.30 a plate $10,695 Bar, $34 a head $5,100 Staffing, setup, rentals $1,500 Contract subtotal $17,295 + 20% service charge $3,459 + 7.5% sales tax $1,557 Total $22,311 · $149 per guest
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
150 guests · National · two food trucks, bar hired separately Food, $40.30 a plate $6,045 Truck minimums & travel $850 Bar via a separate vendor $5,100 Tables, china, bins, staff $1,500 Contract subtotal $13,495 Service charge (trucks bill a minimum instead) $0 + 7.5% sales tax $1,012 Total $14,507 · $97 per guest $4,204 under the same wedding on a buffet line.
Source: Food away from home price index, used to age catering figures forward — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, 2026
The calculator below isolates food and drink: slide the per-plate price, switch the service style, put the four bar tiers side by side, and watch the service charge and tax land on top.
Bar packages are quoted per head for a set number of hours, so the tier you pick is a straight multiplication against your guest list. Everything here is dollars — how many bottles that actually buys is the alcohol calculator's question, not this page's.
150 guests · Buffet · dry bar, no alcohol Alcohol $0 Soft drinks, coffee, mocktails $900 Bartenders not required $0 + service charge and tax $261 Bar total $1,161 · $8 per guest Catering & bar all-in $13,293 · $89 per guest
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
150 guests · Buffet · beer and wine only Beer & wine, $22 a head $3,300 Bartenders, 2 × 6 hours included + 20% service charge $660 + 7.5% sales tax $297 Bar total $4,257 · $28 per guest Catering & bar all-in $16,389 · $109 per guest
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
150 guests · Buffet · open bar, call brands Spirits, beer & wine, $34 $5,100 Bartenders, 2 × 6 hours included + 20% service charge $1,020 + 7.5% sales tax $459 Bar total $6,579 · $44 per guest Catering & bar all-in $18,711 · $125 per guest
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
150 guests · Buffet · premium open bar Top-shelf spirits, $52 a head $7,800 Cocktail program & bar back included + 20% service charge $1,560 + 7.5% sales tax $702 Bar total $10,062 · $67 per guest Catering & bar all-in $22,194 · $148 per guest
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
150 guests · Buffet · billed on consumption Beer or wine, per drink $9 Cocktail, per drink $12 Bartenders, 2 × 6 hours $780 Break-even against the $34 package, after the bartender fee: about 3 drinks a guest Under three, consumption is cheaper. Over three, the package is. Which side you land on is a quantity question — take it to the alcohol calculator.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
A catering proposal quotes food. The contract adds a service charge, the state adds sales tax on the food and usually on the service charge too, and the venue adds fees for the things it does not consider catering. Multiply any plate price you are quoted by about 1.3 before you compare it to anything.
One plate quoted at $95 · national averages Quoted plate $95.00 + 20% service charge $19.00 + 7.5% sales tax on both $8.55 + Cake-cutting fee $2.50 You actually pay $125.05 32% over the number on the proposal.
Source: Combined state and local sales tax rates — 7.53% population-weighted national average, 8.875% in New York City — Tax Foundation, State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2026
The same $95 plate · New York City Quoted plate $95.00 + 24% service charge $22.80 + 8.875% NYC sales tax $10.45 + Cake-cutting fee $2.50 You actually pay $130.75 The $95 quote is a $131 plate.
Source: Combined state and local sales tax rates — 7.53% population-weighted national average, 8.875% in New York City — Tax Foundation, State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2026
150 guests · Plated dinner, open bar · the whole invoice Menu, $71.30 plate + $34 bar $15,795 Staffing, setup, rentals $1,500 Contract subtotal $17,295 + 20% service charge $3,459 + 7.5% sales tax $1,557 + Cake-cutting, $2.50/guest $375 + Corkage, 12 bottles at $15 $180 Total $22,866 · $152 per guest Quoted at $105 a head. Paid $152.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
Catering is the most headcount-sensitive line in the budget — almost all of it is per plate, so it moves in near-lockstep with the guest list. Region moves the plate price too: the identical buffet is $47.43 in the Midwest and $64.29 in the Northeast.
100 guests · National · buffet, open bar Food, $52.70 a plate $5,270 Bar, $34 a head $3,400 Staffing, setup, rentals $1,500 Contract subtotal $10,170 + service charge and tax $2,949 Total $13,119 · $131 per guest
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
200 guests · Midwest · buffet, beer and wine Food, $47.43 a plate $9,486 Beer & wine, $19.80 a head $3,960 Staffing, setup, rentals $1,350 Contract subtotal $14,796 + 20% service charge $2,959 + 7.5% sales tax $1,332 Total $19,087 · $95 per guest
Source: Regional price parities, the basis for the regional multipliers — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2025
150 guests · Northeast · plated, premium bar Food, $86.99 a plate $13,048 Premium bar, $63.44 a head $9,516 Staffing, setup, rentals $1,830 Contract subtotal $24,394 + 24% service charge $5,855 + 8.875% sales tax $2,685 Total $32,934 · $220 per guest
Source: Regional price parities, the basis for the regional multipliers — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2025
Catering is the biggest line in the budget and the one with the widest honest range — the same 150 guests can be fed for $14,500 or $32,900. Two decisions, service style and bar tier, do almost all of that work.
Budget about $16,400 all in — $109 a guest, of which $28 is the bar. This is the cheapest version that still looks like a catered wedding.
Budget $20,500–$21,100 at 150 guests, or $137–$141 a guest. Stations cost more than a buffet because they need more staff and more equipment, not more food.
Budget about $32,900 at 150 guests — $220 a guest — once a 24% service charge and big-city sales tax are on it. Northeast and West Coast quotes run 18–22% over national.
About $14,500 at 150 guests, or $97 a guest. The plate is the cheapest on this page, but staff, china, tables and bins come back to you as rentals.
Ten guests add $970–$2,200 in catering alone, depending on style and bar. What they do to the rest of the budget is a different calculation.
This page stops at dollars. Bottle counts, the beer-wine-spirits split and the shopping list are the alcohol calculator's job, and it takes your headcount straight across.
Catering and bar is the largest single line in almost every wedding budget, and unlike the photographer or the rings it is nearly all variable — which is why it is the line that punishes an optimistic guest list. These are the levers, biggest first.
Every plate carries food, bar, service charge and tax. A dry buffet is $89 a head all in; a plated Northeast dinner with a premium bar is $220.
Dry to premium is an $8,900 swing at 150 guests — the single widest choice on the page, and the one people decide last.
A 20% service charge with 7.5% tax adds 29% to the contract. A 24% charge with big-city tax adds 35%, before cake-cutting and corkage.
Against a buffet at 150: food trucks save about $28 a head, stations add $16, a plated dinner adds $24. The food barely changes; the staffing does.
Regional price parity moves the plate before anything else: $47.43 in the Midwest, $52.70 nationally, $64.29 in the Northeast.
None of these is a law, but each is true often enough to plan against before a single caterer has quoted you.
That is the national service-charge-plus-tax factor. Do it before you compare two proposals, because one caterer may quote food only and the other all-in.
Compare tiers at your own headcount, not at the caterer's sample count. The gap between beer-and-wine and premium is $39 a head once charges are on it — $3,900 at 100 guests, $7,700 at 200.
The five usual exclusions are staffing, rentals, cake-cutting, corkage and vendor meals. Getting that list in writing is worth more than negotiating the plate price.
Each of these produces a catering figure that looks right in a spreadsheet and is wrong by four figures by the time the final invoice arrives.
It is not gratuity. An 18–25% service charge covers staffing, insurance and overhead, and in most contracts none of it is a tip to the servers. Whether you add anything on top is a separate decision with its own budget line.
In most states a mandatory service charge is part of the taxable sale, so the tax is calculated on food plus service charge, not on food alone. On a $17,295 contract that difference is about $260.
A $2.50 cake-cutting fee is $375 at 150 guests. Corkage at $15 a bottle on a case of your own wine is $180. Neither appears in a per-plate quote, and both are on the final invoice.
The plate is the cheapest on this page, but trucks usually bring no staff, no china, no tables, no bar and no bins. Budget the rentals back in or the $97 a head quietly becomes $120.
Caterers bill vendor meals, usually at $35–$55 each. Photographer, second shooter, videographer, DJ, planner and two assistants is seven or eight plates — $280 to $440 you did not count as guests.
A $34 package looks expensive next to $9 a drink until you add the bartender fee and the service charge to both. Compare them after charges, at your own headcount.
Preset to 150 guests with the food and drink rows expanded and the rest of the allocation greyed back. Switch the service style, put the bar tiers side by side, change the region — everything runs in your browser.
Change anything — the allocation rebuilds as you go.
Last updated 2026-08-10
Plan on $40–$71 a plate for food at national pricing — $40.30 from a food truck, $52.70 buffet, $71.30 plated, and about $87 for a plated dinner in the Northeast — plus $0–$52 a head for the bar, before charges. All in, with the service charge, the sales tax and the fees that arrive with them, that is $89 a guest for a dry buffet and about $220 a guest for a plated dinner with a premium bar in the Northeast.
About $13,100 for a buffet with an open bar at national pricing: $5,270 of food, $3,400 of bar and $1,500 of staffing and rentals, then roughly $2,950 of service charge and sales tax on top. That works out to $131 a guest.
An open bar with call brands is quoted around $34 a head for five to six hours, which is $6,579 at 150 guests once the service charge and tax are on it — about $44 a guest. Beer and wine only is $28 a guest all in; a premium bar is $67.
Yes, by about $24 a guest all in — $3,600 at 150 guests. The food cost is similar; plated service needs more servers and more china. Buffets can claw some of that back in rentals if the venue charges for the extra tables and chafing equipment.
Around $40 a plate plus a truck minimum and travel, so roughly $14,500 for 150 guests once you hire the bar separately and rent tables, china and bins. It is the cheapest real option at about $97 a guest, but only if you budget the rentals it does not include.
No. The 18–25% service charge on a catering contract covers staffing, insurance and overhead, and in most contracts it is not distributed as gratuity. Ask the caterer directly what it covers, and treat anything you choose to give the staff as a separate line in the budget.
Sometimes, and it is usually the biggest single saving available — but venues charge corkage of about $15–$30 a bottle, some hold a licence that forbids outside alcohol entirely, and you may need to hire bartenders and insurance yourself. Get the corkage figure in writing before you compare.
Catering and bar is about 26% of a standard 100-guest budget and around 32% at 200 guests — the largest single line at every headcount, and the one that scales almost perfectly with the guest list.
Caterers bill on a final count you give them a week out. Text My Wedding sends the invitation, collects the RSVPs and chases the people who have not replied, so the number you hand the caterer is the number who show up.
At 150 guests you are mailing about 82 households, and the printed suite plus postage runs near $2,050 — roughly what sixteen plates cost. Sending the same three mailings by text — and collecting the replies — is $87, once, for up to 1,200 messages, which is three each to about 400 guests.
