How does one know the cost of their plate?

mlm1128

Unless the bride and groom are walking around telling everyone how much they are paying, how would you know?  Do you call the venue and ask what menu they selected?  Even if people that came to our wedding knew the general plate cost at our venue, they would have had no way of knowing that we added passed hors d'ouvres (however you spell that) and a venetian table.  Or that we had top shelf liquor instead of the well stuff.

Jodi&Joe

You can guestimate.  I mean, St. Clement's Castle would be way more than The Elks, you know!! 

KoriBrett

All of this crap just reminds me that we did the right thing by sneaking off to Vegas and skipping the BS.  lol

mlm1128

HA!  I know you can guestimate between those kinds of places, but the stuff we added literally doubled the plate cost.

DH had such a crappy wedding the first time around that I wanted it to be really nice for him. When we picked the menu he actually said "as long as it isn't greasy chicken on the bone served in a tin pan I'm good"

dnagal

If you're giving a cash gift, give what you can afford and what you feel comfortable with.  Do they deserve less if they have a budget wedding?  Do they deserve more if they splash out?  I don't think so. 

mlm1128

I would give the same amount to friends that had a wedding at the Elks club.  I may even give more.

veloelle

I'd guess based on the region. Where we live, I'd guess a nice daytime wedding to be around $75/plate, and an evening wedding to be about $150. However, in our circle, it was never expected or required to pay for yourself. Nor did we expect to have our wedding paid for by our guests. 

Another regional thing (apparently) are gifts vs. cash. We got a lot of gifts for the wedding (and that's normal when we attending weddings) and not very much cash. That's how it is where I live, but apparently it is totally trashy in other parts to bring a gift to the wedding, you are only supposed to give cash.

Aliliv

I don't even know how much a plate cost at our wedding!   My family made the meal  - at my Mom's insistence - caterers suck around here and they even only charge around $12 - 20/plate    It was a small town wedding, so the hall rental was only $150:)    Our whole wedding cost about $5000 with around 150 guests (more for the open dance).  The most costly part was the booze - open bar.

JOEBunny

I don't think it takes that much to realize that you cannot possibly feed two people and give them drinks for less than $50 -$100 at a restaurant.  Sure, you had a $150 a plate dinner, which is way more than most people, but I still think that 2 people coming to a wedding and giving  a $20 gift (as 1 person yesterday suggested) is cheeping out big time for most people (sure, your great aunt Mable who lives on a fixed income is an exception)  You can't even get a 6 pack and McDonald's for that.  I think it is pretty easy to estimate that if you went out to dinner, each had 4 drinks (or whatever you drink), 3 courses, at a fine dining place, what it would cost in your area because that is about the per plate cost.