How to price a wedding catering order: four events, one quotation
Ask a caterer the rate for a wedding and the answer is a number: “₹450 per plate”. Ask which event that is for and the answer is a pause. A wedding is three to five functions over two days, with different crowds, different menus and different costs, and the single-rate quote is where wedding margins quietly go. This post prices one properly.
The wedding below is illustrative: a family in a tier-2 city, 500 guests at the main dinner, four functions. Replace the menus and rates with yours; keep the structure.
1. List the events before you list the menu
| Event | When | Guests | Who is eating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haldi lunch | Day 1, 12:30 | 150 | Close family, relaxed, long lunch |
| Sangeet dinner | Day 1, 20:00 | 350 | Younger crowd, starters matter, dinner late |
| Wedding dinner | Day 2, 20:00 | 500 | Everyone; the function you are judged on |
| Vidai breakfast | Day 3, 08:00 | 120 | Family, tired, quick |
Four guest counts, not one. Four menus. And, as you will see, four different costs per plate, which means either four rates or one blended rate that you have calculated rather than guessed.
2. Menu and material cost per event
The method is the one in per-plate cost calculation: per-guest serving × guest count → cooked quantity → recipe cost. Here only the results, per plate:
| Event | Menu, in short | Material cost / plate |
|---|---|---|
| Haldi lunch | 2 starters, 3 mains, dal, rice, roti, 1 sweet | ₹110 |
| Sangeet dinner | 5 starters, live chaat, 4 mains, biryani, 2 desserts | ₹185 |
| Wedding dinner | 6 starters, 2 live counters, 5 mains, 2 rice, 3 desserts, paan | ₹240 |
| Vidai breakfast | Poha, upma, paratha, 2 chutneys, tea and coffee | ₹55 |
The spread is more than four to one. Price the breakfast at the wedding-dinner rate and the family notices; price the wedding dinner at a blended rate and you have given away the dessert counter.
3. Services: mostly per event, some per wedding
| Service | Haldi | Sangeet | Wedding | Breakfast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving staff (₹700 each) | 8 → ₹5,600 | 18 → ₹12,600 | 28 → ₹19,600 | 6 → ₹4,200 |
| Live-counter cooks | — | 2 → ₹3,000 | 4 → ₹6,000 | — |
| Crockery, cutlery, counters | ₹4,000 | ₹9,000 | ₹14,000 | ₹3,000 |
| Transport | ₹1,500 | ₹2,500 | ₹3,000 | ₹1,500 |
| Services per event | ₹11,100 | ₹27,100 | ₹42,600 | ₹8,700 |
| Services per plate | ₹74 | ₹77 | ₹85 | ₹73 |
Some costs belong to the wedding, not to an event: a site visit, the two-day equipment hire if it is one contract, a supervisor on site both days. Put those on the order, not on an event, and either spread them across plates or list them as one line. Say ₹15,000 → ₹13 per plate across the 1,120 plates.
4. Cost per plate, per event
| Event | Material | Services | Order-level | Expenses (gas, disposables, misc) | Cost / plate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haldi lunch | ₹110 | ₹74 | ₹13 | ₹12 | ₹209 |
| Sangeet dinner | ₹185 | ₹77 | ₹13 | ₹18 | ₹293 |
| Wedding dinner | ₹240 | ₹85 | ₹13 | ₹22 | ₹360 |
| Vidai breakfast | ₹55 | ₹73 | ₹13 | ₹8 | ₹149 |
Breakfast is the surprise: the food is cheap, the staff are not. 120 people at 8 a.m. need almost as many servers per head as a dinner, and the per-plate cost ends up nearly three times the material cost.
5. Rate per event, and the blended rate
Now the margin. Thirty percent on the main functions, where you are competing on the menu; a little less on the small ones, where the customer compares you to “we could have done this ourselves”.
| Event | Cost / plate | Rate / plate | Margin | Guests | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haldi lunch | ₹209 | ₹275 | 24% | 150 | ₹41,250 |
| Sangeet dinner | ₹293 | ₹420 | 30% | 350 | ₹1,47,000 |
| Wedding dinner | ₹360 | ₹520 | 31% | 500 | ₹2,60,000 |
| Vidai breakfast | ₹149 | ₹190 | 22% | 120 | ₹22,800 |
| Total | 29% | 1,120 | ₹4,71,050 |
If the family insists on one number, the blended rate is ₹4,71,050 ÷ 1,120 = ₹421 per plate, and that number is defensible because you can show where it came from. The caterer who starts from “₹450 for everything” and then adds the live counters the family asked for is at the same total with no idea what the margin is, and it is usually lower, because the sangeet starters and the dessert counter were never costed.
6. The advance schedule
Weddings are booked months ahead and the material is bought days ahead. The payment terms should follow the cash:
- Booking advance: 25% on confirmation (₹1,18,000 here). This holds the dates; it is what you keep if they cancel.
- Second instalment: 50% fifteen days before, when you start buying dry goods and confirming staff.
- Balance: on the final count, 48 hours before, with the last 5–10% settled the morning after the wedding dinner at most. Not “after the wedding”; families travel.
Write the refund rule for cancellation at 60, 30 and 7 days. A date in peak season that is cancelled a week out cannot be resold.
7. The clauses that protect the margin
- Final count 48 hours before each event, billed on the confirmed count or plates served, whichever is higher. For a wedding this is per event: the sangeet count moves independently of the dinner count.
- Extra plates at the event rate. Written next to each event’s rate.
- Menu changes after confirmation re-priced in writing. “Add a pasta counter” two days out is a new cost line, not a favour.
- Overtime. Sangeet dinners run late; staff beyond the agreed hour are charged per hour.
- Leftovers and packing, GST inclusive or exclusive, and the venue’s own charges (hall kitchen fee, electricity, cleaning deposit) listed as the customer’s or yours.
Running it as one order
In Neviscater a wedding is one order with four events, each carrying its own guest count (veg and non-veg separately), menu, calculated cost per plate and quoted rate. Order-level services and expenses sit on the order with a switch for whether they fold into the per-plate rate. The quotation PDF prints all four events, the totals and your terms; the same order carries the advances as they come in, the final counts as they are confirmed, and becomes the bill with the balance due. When the sangeet count moves from 350 to 400 the week before, its quantities, raw materials and bill line move with it, and the dinner’s do not.
The onboarding call on the free trial builds an order like this one with your menus and rates; bring a wedding you have already quoted and compare.