Corkage Fees, Catering Costs, Recommended Suppliers And Other Money Matters With Your Wedding Venue

Fetcham Park Salon

There is no doubt about it: the quote you get for your wedding venue will be the one that makes your stomach lurch, simply due to the sheer size of the number. As such, it’s imperative that you know precisely what you’re getting for your money and that your budget can accommodate for any extra venue-related costs.

First and foremost, I always advise our couples to be diligent about looking into whether prices are inclusive of VAT. I was amazed at how many companies quote excluding VAT to try and make their packages look more appealing, only for the clients to be stung for the extra 20% later down the line. For this reason, whenever I quote a price it always includes VAT but every supplier varies (and I can understand why in some cases it’s not included) so the one question you cannot ask too many times is, ‘Does that include VAT?’

Depending on the type of venue you’re looking at, you will also need to have a clear picture of the catering costs involved. The majority of venues offer set packages with various tiers of extravagance that will increase the price per head. If you are looking for a dry hire venue, like we have at Parallel Venues, then you need to factor in the cost of an external caterer on top of the venue hire price.

Because I realise most couples will have never planned an event of this scale – or worked with a caterer – it’s important that I’m clear about the costs involved.  We have a range of caterers at different price points and as every wedding is bespoke, it’s impossible to give a set figure. I do however always give a starting price per person for a three-course meal as I think it’s unfair to let someone leave with unrealistic expectations. Whilst they might be able to afford the venue, they might not then be able to afford the catering.

Image by Mark Bothwell (full wedding here)

suzanne neville, fetcham park, mark bothwell, miss bush bridal, winter weddings, glamorous weddings, december weddings

It’s also important for me to explain the difference between catering costs in a dry hire venue such as ours (where everything is brought in) compared to a hotel or restaurant. I remember from my own wedding planning how frustrating it is not to be able to compare like-for-like, but no two venues will ever price in the same way – i.e. some might include chairs, some might charge extra for linen. That’s why it’s so important that you ask lots of questions!  If something sounds to be good to true, it probably is and just means that costs may be loaded into another area of your budget and there’s nothing worse than unexpected costs, especially as your wedding date draws closer.

So that’s why we are as transparent as possible: I clearly outline precisely what is, and isn’t included in our venue fee and then couples can choose exactly what to spend with their other suppliers. I will admit to being suspicious of ‘packages’ because it’s never clear to me exactly what things actually cost and it doesn’t allow you to choose where you put the emphasis on your budget. For example, some of our couples might spend a lot of money on food and save on flowers, others want to spend more on wines and save on the DJ. I believe those decisions should be yours to make.

Image by Sophie Duckworth (full wedding here)

Green wedding shoes and a Jesus Peiro gown for this elegant wedding held at Fetcham Park in Surrey. Photography by Sophie Duckworth.

My biggest bugbear that I often hear couples complain about is the extortionate corkage fees many venues inflict upon their clients. In many cases, it may make you baulk to know that the mark-up on corkage fees is how a venue makes a sweet little profit. It’s always worth trying to negotiate a decent and fair price from your caterer or wine supplier.  Oh, and always check the price of bottled water too – it can add hundreds to your bill and is something most people overlook!

In fact, booze is an expensive area to think about at all. Regardless of the age-old debate of whether or not you morally ought to pay for everyone’s drinks, you will need to address the cost of even attempting to do so. We’ve all been to weddings where the venue has a limited but severely overpriced selection of drinks and this is never more prevalent than in hotels or remote locations that know they have a monopoly on you and your guests. Make sure you ask for a bar price list alongside your hire prices and catering fees.

Knowing that there isn’t one solution for every wedding, we like to give our couples at Parallel Venues the option of a full or partial cash bar. This way, the newlyweds can stipulate that their guests can enjoy wine, beer and soft drinks all night, but that stronger spirits are charged at the normal price, for example. The flexibility of this solution seems to be quite popular as both the couple and the guests feel like they are contributing fairly.

Some venues will insist on a minimum spend. This can lead to a lot of hair-tearing as you worry about whether or not your guests are likely to drink their own bodyweight in gin to reach your minimum limit and the ensuing anxiety over whether you can afford to foot that bill if they don’t. If the bar only accepts cash, your guests need to be aware of that, particularly if four drinks is going to cost them £70 and there’s not ATM nearby. (Yes, this really did happen!)

In the same way that you need to make sure the bar has a tariff that your guests are going to be comfortable paying for, you need to be aware of the accommodation costs. If the venue is the only viable place to stay, it needs to be reasonably priced across all budgets.

There are venues out there that will require you to take a certain number of accommodation rooms. You’ll then be left to palm them off on your friends and family to make sure the rooms are filled and that you cover your costs. This seems pretty unscrupulous and fills me with dread at the thought of your guests being forced to stump up the cash for a room that they might not be able to afford.

Image by Jackson & Co (full wedding here)

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Before you decide to book your wedding venue, clarify exactly what is included in the price. If your venue is offering exclusive use, stipulate that you don’t want to see anyone else for 24 hours apart from your guests and the staff. Many sprawling venues offer exclusive use of a particular area, which means you might still end up sharing your breakfast with total strangers the morning after, for example.

It’s also important to remember that in addition to the cost of hiring the venue and paying for food and drink, there may well be the associated cost of styling your venue. You might be perfectly happy with the extant décor, the way the tables are laid and the chair covers that are offered in-house. If not, make sure there is room in your budget to style your venue the way that you want your wedding to look, from tableware to flooring.

In many cases, venues will offer you their recommended supplier lists. Sadly, most of these are commissions and in a frightening number of cases, those recommended suppliers have never even worked at your venue but simply paid to be on the list. It’s worth questioning whether you want to work with a company who are happy to take money from both you and people who want access to the rest of your budget, with little care for the quality of their work or whether they are a good fit for your wedding.

Finally, before you sign any contracts or exchange any cash, do make sure you are absolutely clear about the payment process. We’re really pleased to offer payment by direct debit at Parallel Venues, in order to allow our couples to spread the cost, but not everywhere is so flexible. There are places that still insist on payment by cheque only and others that have archaic deposit and instalment schemes that have little or no regard for your budget.

If there’s one theme I want you to take away from this article, it’s that you simply must question everything. If your venue coordinator rolls their eyes or seems to be sketchy on any of the details, I wholeheartedly recommend shopping around a bit more.

I’d love to hear back from readers.  Do you have any venue related experiences or thoughts you’d like to share?

Laura x

Laura Jane

Laura Jane View all Laura's articles

With a passion for fashion, style, design and retail, Laura Caudery began her career in luxury goods, working in brand marketing at Burberry and Alfred Dunhill. This fired Laura's desire to create a luxury brand of her own and with her family's property company affording her commercial knowledge from an early age, and an opportunity to venture out on her own, she made the transition from employee to business director. In November 2011, Laura launched Parallel Venues, opening the doors to Fetcham Park and Cams Hall, two exclusive properties for fabulous wedding ceremonies and receptions. Determined to ensure couples feel so much more than simply a date in the diary, Parallel Venues is committed to offering and creating every client's wedding in exactly the way they wish for it to be.

29 thoughts on “Corkage Fees, Catering Costs, Recommended Suppliers And Other Money Matters With Your Wedding Venue

  1. Very good post. My partner writes contracts for a living and picked apart our caterer’s contract. They weren’t unscrupulous but had worded it very badly and we risked a problem should something go wrong and need clarifying later. They were happy to make the amendments.
    Also, for alcohol we found that buying champagne and wine from the supermarket at Christmas when loads of deals were on was still cheaper than getting it sale or return from Majestics, and we get to keep any leftovers! We’re only being charged £2per head corkage but I’ve heard of people being charged £18 per bottle! Disgusting. I think the thing we’ve learnt most is to think outside the box and question EVERYTHING!

  2. When I got married, my wedding venue charged £10 corkage fee – ie, £10 to ‘open a bottle of wine’.
    We didn’t *have* to use their recommended suppliers but they made us feel very awkward about not using their recommended DJ in the evening, so we did. This was 2009. Of course I couldn’t change a thing about our day, but armed with the knowledge I have now, thanks to articles like this, I wish we’d pushed a little more for some of the things I really wanted.
    I’ve heard of hotels in the UK charging £30+ for corkage. Quite ridiculous.
    Really informative article Laura – thank you – I hope as many couples planning their wedding as possible get to read this.

  3. I think the “recommended suppliers” list is well overdue to lose its credibility! Such a shame that the suggested vendors are not always chosen because of the high quality of their work.

  4. That’s great Inbal, it’s invaluable when you have experience of working with wedding suppliers when it comes to your own wedding. Like you, I got married just before Christmas and stocked up at the supermarket for all our spirits – we saved a fortune and the clubcard points were put to good use too!

  5. Great post Laura – picking your venue can be such an overwhelming task and this is a brilliant guide to help couples avoid potential pitfalls.
    My personal favourite story from when we were looking at wedding venues was the venue who told us that they didn’t believe in contracts, which apparently was for our benefit! Ahem….
    Vicki x

  6. This article makes me realise how lucky we are! Our reception is in a beautiful church hall (free) and the caterers will serve our drinks and don’t charge corkage! They say they used to supply drinks but found it got too complicated, so just get their waiting staff to pour the customers!! I think it pays to try and keep suppliers local if poss, as they will go a bit further for you.

  7. Like Marta Eve says recommended suppliers should be taken under advisement. A lot of wedding coordinators at venues at poorly paid and it is too easy to take backhanders that work against the couple booking the venue. (obviously not all venues or wedding coordinators do this but it does go on!)

  8. We’re a venue dressing company and only become a preferred supplier after a venue have seen our work and appreciate our quality and service. This also means that when recommended; we can confidently say that we know the venue, the staff and how it works which does reassure a couple.
    It’s a tricky one as we do receive many enquiries through our venues where we are recommended suppliers but a couple should be given the opportunity to review the list and choose suppliers who will deliver the best possible service!

  9. We refuse to pay venues to be on their lists, and I battle with sales reps regularly, but it means we can reassure our clients that the venues we are recommended by are actually recommending us because they love our work and know we will do a great job for their client. I recently was asked to give a seminar at a wedding show on wedding photography and made a point of mentioning this as something couples should think about – it’s great to see a venue being open and transparent about this. Venues that charge suppliers need to clearly state that what follows is an advertisement section and most don’t.

  10. This is great! As a wedding photographer, I tend to be booked after the couple already have their venue sorted, but I actively seek to only work with Venues that I think are above board… I feel awful knowing that some of my couples have had room charges quadrupled, and enforced room bookings, one of my couples were so keen on a venue, the coordinator realised and the next day rang them and told the price was £5K more now?! Thankfully this couple chose somewhere else, but I just don’t know why so many venues seem to have such shady practices?

  11. Superb advice from a reputable and decent venue, who offer an equally fabulous service. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Laura, who has integrity and honesty.
    Some of my couples tell me awful stories about their searches for a perfect venue, hidden costs, being treated badly, rushed around on a visit etc and it’s such a shame because often the couple love the venue and then get put off.
    I too never pay to go on a ” recommended” list, nor do I pay commission to any venue or supplier who choose to tell couples about me, it’s an important principle for my business too. I want couples to know I’m recommended because I am fabulous at what I do and the person recommending me knows that, not because I paid to go on a list or in a brochure.
    It’s a minefield for couples, and I hope this wonderful post sheds some light on a tricky and complicated issue.

  12. Great article. From an insider’s point of view I know for a fact that some venues are completely ripping people off – I even photographed a wedding once where the venue (a well known hotel locally) LOST THE WEDDING CAKE after it had been cut!!
    Sadly the recommended suppliers list is often just a list that has been complied of suppliers who are willing to pay. Some venues try to charge a percentage fee as well if they have recommended you and many try to get us to advertise in their wedding brochures to pay for their printing costs!
    HOWEVER…most are careful, caring, professional and will work their socks off to make everything go as smoothly as it should!x

  13. Some venues really are becoming a bit money grabby… Spoken to so many brides who can’t do this, have to buy that etc. The overpriced drinks thing is really bad too, not all of peoples nearest and dearest are ‘rolling’ in it, and to put them at the mercy of extortionate bars puts a dampener on things, especially at that age when there is a wedding every other week!
    I’m on a few supplier lists tho I don’t pay and I probably do miss out as there are others that do. I did enter into an agreement with one in the early days (who I have worked with however) but would’t in the future. It really should be about how good you are, not how much you have paid/schmoozed…
    This is about someones special day, sadly it’s being turned into an industry conveyor belt for some.

  14. Used one venue for a client and the cost was about half the normal wedding rate as it was a party rather than a wedding – amazing how much can be added on simply because you are getting married!

  15. I am sorry I didn’t get time today to read this properly, but I just picked up on the bit about recommended suppliers. I agree that is it awful. As a bridal supplier we decided to contact venues over a year ago and got in touch with about 50, every single one wanted me to pay to be on their recommended supplier list or advertise in their brochure. Such a shame that nobody wanted to check our credentials and work and want to recommend us because we are reliable and give a fantastic service. All the venues we approached were ‘high end’
    We gave up in the end, I want to be recommended by people who know we are good.
    Kirstie
    Flo & Percy

  16. We were invited to a wine tasting evening last week but they refused to open the bottles we wanted to try, saying we would have to buy them instead. They were fairly pricey bottles (though not extortionate) that we’d asked to try with experience backing our selection (Dad’s an afficinardo and expected it to be the one to go with), not just willy nilly becuase it was pricey. The chap could have found that out if he’s had a chat with us instead of basically telling us where to go. If they’d allowed us to try they’d probably have ended up with an order for 100 bottles. but because they only allowed us the cheaper samples they missed out entirely and we’d rather pay the corkage fee.
    Additionally trying to get any figures for anything is a nightmare. My queries have been met with “it depends” but no details on what! I love my venue, but if I had my time again I would have been more sensible able locking things down first.

  17. That’s a very informative post. It is useful for anyone that will be getting married. Those additional charges are things that people should know about in planning for the wedding budget.

  18. How very true your post is. I’m a London wedding photographer – last year I visited many Hertfordshire wedding fairs and enquired about attending the wedding shows – only to be told that the Preferred Suppliers had paid £3000 for a 2 year contract (in some cases) – to be featured in the venue’s wedding brochure and to exclusively attend the wedding venue. The bride and groom need to be careful when selecting their suppliers.! You may not get the best quality if a supplier pays £3 k to display at a venue. Do your research…

  19. Very detailed article, a great guide to couples preparing for their wedding. Costs can easily be overlooked so it’s important to factor in all of the ‘small details’ early on!

  20. My wedding floristry business is on the recommended supliers list of many prestigous venues and this is due to quality of work and reliability. We have never paid to be put on a recommended supplier list and have never paid a commission to a venue for being recommended. This blog post could be damaging to the hard working reputalble wedding businesses that work with honest and helpful wedding venues.

  21. my venue wants to charge £2.95 per person for coffee after the meal, coffee at the venue at any other time is £1.70, is this normal?

  22. How much drink should you buy if paying for a full bar vs what the venue can offer on a minimum spend. This has been occupying a lot of head space as I battle through a sum that looks like Pythagoras theorem! I found one site that discusses the sums behind working out how much drink you need to buy but 0 suggestions about where to buy.
    Pretty sure it’d be a winning subject with readers if you’re up for the maths!

  23. What an interesting article with some hugely interesting feedback too. Gosh, I have been a manager of luxury, exclusive use venues for over fifteen years and yet I feel incredibly naïve reading this article. I can honestly say that I was pretty unaware of such practices being operated by venues when dealing with bridal couples. What a shame that through the work of a few (hopefully) unscrupulous venues, we could all inherit a grim reputation for ripping people off. Perhaps it isn’t as common in Scotland where my venue is but it does perhaps explain why I am starting to be asked some peculiar questions from prospective brides and grooms. As a venue we genuinely offer a full co-ordination service, helping if required with all the planning aspects aside from buying the dress (!) as we believe that is one of the things that the couples are paying for but we wouldn’t dream of paying recommended suppliers – we truly only work with suppliers whom we feel offer couples the best service and indeed we are perfectly happy for couples to look for their own suppliers should they prefer. We also don’t ‘mark up’ services such as marquee hire, furniture rental, bands, flowers etc.. and we wouldn’t dream of charging for soft drinks including bottled water. We are not a budget venue by any stretch of the imagination (in fact Mr and Mrs Clooney recently considered us for their celebration mark II but decided against the weather in Scotland!; shame on them) however we do pride ourselves on our levels of service, clarity and an absolute desire to ensure that all of our couples are made to feel that they and their guests are completely and utterly special to us. The only point in this interesting article that I would take slight exception to is the point relating to corkage. I think that as long as it is operated at a reasonable level that it is an acceptable practice. Very few couples would ever realise, and why indeed should they, that the profit margins in venue hire and catering are extremely slim and getting slimmer by the day and although we are first and fore-mostly service providers we are also employers and would like to continue to be so. The margins are particularly slim when taking into account the staffing and upkeep of a luxury property which obviously differs from a more budget offering. Therefore to expect a venue to allow couples to bring their own wines and champagnes along without a charge is I feel, a little naïve. After all it is the venue that provides the staffing to store, chill and open the bottles, serve the drinks beautifully in polished glasses (a very time consuming activity as everybody knows) on gleaming trays with starched white napkins, wash and re-polish the glasses and then dispose of the empty bottles. Why should this be done for free when it is one of the remaining areas where a little profit can be made?
    Anyway, thank you for a very interesting article; I was only ‘googling’ because I have just taken a call from a caterer whom I have not worked with before and who asked me what we charge as a venue commission so that he can prepare the final quote for a bride and groom. This particular couple have contacted him independently of us and so I presume it is his intention to pass any cost that I might quote to him on to them. Luckily for them it is not our practice to do this but it is also not a question that I have ever been asked before. As I say, I am obviously very naïve if this is regular practice!

  24. I recently was told by the venue I had my heart set on that to use a caterer not on their preferred list (5 of them) that I would have to pay 10% of the venue hire which is roughly £400.
    Is this normal practice?

  25. I agree– before you hire a caterer or accept any cash, it is a good idea to be clear about the payment process. I recommend getting a contract from who you want to hire and reading over it. This makes sure that both you and the service you want are satisfied.

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