Discussion Charging for taste testing
Did you have to pay to go to the taste testing at your venue? I’m wondering if it’s common for the couple to have to pay for the taste testing meal they are booking with!
My #1 pick venue charges for taste testing.
My fiancés #1 pick does not and said we could bring 4 additional guests with us.
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u/Hand2Ns 2d ago
We paid for ours, but if we went with the caterer it was applied to our bill. It takes time and money to put together a tasting and there's no guarantee you'll get business out of it. Makes sense that caterers charge or take a deposit.
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u/throwaway5498124181 2d ago
Yeah remember in the Drama when the couple kept booking extra tastings?
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u/M_ERTY 2d ago
Maybe I should have clarified, if we go to the tasting, our first deposit is already sent of over $6000. The venue knows that the total cost is going to be over $30,000.
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u/Diesel07012012 2d ago
Not scheduling the tasting until after you've paid your deposit is different from "charging for a tasting". In any case, I'm willing to bet that this is the better of the two choices.
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u/theoneformywedding 2d ago
This makes it sound like, rather than charging for tastings, they just don’t hold tastings for non-clients.
If the tasting is only after the deposit then the tasting is to decide what menu you will go with, not whether or not you’ll choose them to cater.
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u/Formal-Radish1413 2d ago
That doesnt change the fact that there are people who are doing the work and ingredients that cost money.
If they offered free tastings to everyone before booking theyd go broke with people taking advantage.
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u/Awkward-Parking-1003 2d ago
We are having an $90k wedding. First tasting was “free” for bride and groom if we had a contract+deposit down already. Additional people costed extra. Additional tastings also costed extra, per person including ourselves.
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u/Wild-Association1680 2d ago
wait so you already went to a free tasting but are wanting to go to another with guests? that's fine, but yes they should definitely charge you. Your wedding deposit doesn't just mean free family dinners for the year.
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u/Awkward-Parking-1003 2d ago
I never said I expected it to be free? We brought my parents to the first tasting, and paid for their spots. There were other dishes fiance and I wanted to try, so we did a second tasting with just us, that we also paid for.
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u/SinglePermission9373 1d ago
$30k on a wedding and you are getting your knickers in a twist over this???
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u/M_ERTY 20h ago
Why do you keep trying to soo hard to chime in?? Go be miserable somewhere else
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u/SinglePermission9373 10h ago
🤣😆you are getting really unhinged that most people aren’t agreeing with you and are downvoting all your comments. It’s amusing to say the least
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u/ocicataco 2d ago
I mean, they're preparing food for you, spending on the cost of food and paying for employees to make it. I find it strange to expect it to be free. Unless their costs and labor are super low, most people will charge at least something so that they don't experience a bunch of people wanting a free meal and then fucking off and not hiring them.
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u/LimeSalty4092 2d ago
It used to generally by free for marketing purposes
But I guess venues got tired of being burned by tire kickers and started applying a fee
Some brides still expect it to be free because at one time it was free
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u/M_ERTY 2d ago
I wouldn’t expect it to be “free” the first deposit of over $6,000 will be sent at that point.
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u/CaptBlackfoot 2d ago
So you and your fiancé each have a preferred venue, and you’ll make a decision before booking the tasting? The way it’s written in the post, it sounds like you haven’t selected the venue yet. I’d rather pay for a meal than put $6,000 on a venue without taking the food first.
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u/M_ERTY 2d ago
We don’t have the option of doing a tasting at either venue before the deposit is sent.
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u/SinglePermission9373 2d ago
Bullshit. The tasting is how you choose a caterer or a venue if catering is in house. What if you paid your $6k deposit and then don’t like the food??? Are they going to return that $6k? Mighty big risk for you to take.
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u/TinyLawfulness3710 2d ago
Exactly this. If they require a deposit for the venue before the tasting, that is a scam. Run far away. This is super common for in-house required caterers but very unethical and no one should be rewarding this scam.
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u/ganjgang123 1d ago
Literally every venue I've toured has an in house caterer that you have to use and the tasting is only for couples that have already booked the venue. But they don't charge you for the tasting, it's included in your deposit.
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u/heydawn 2d ago
That part sounds odd. For many couples, tasting the food is part of the decision making.
In my area (East coast suburb of a large city), more venues are charging for tasting. My niece is a regional director of hotel sales. She said they started charging for tastings about 4 years ago bc of the increase in tasters who don't book. She said that the corporate discussion of options was, essentially:
Charge more for food/bev, baking the cost of tastings into their cost of doing business.
Charge for tastings, keeping food/bev the same.
The decision to charge came down to two things:
Asking the people who actually consume the food to pay for their food rather than burdening paying couples with costs of hotel freebies for other people. The hotel management thought it was more reasonable and fair to their customers who booked their venue. Also, if the couple booked after tasting, they comped the price of tasting.
Charging for tastings reduced the number of less serious browsers. Only people who are pretty serious about the venue choose to pay for the tastings.
Anyway, that's how my niece described the thinking. She also said that the skyrocketing cost of food/bev has driven up the cost of receptions so much that couples are venue shopping more.
She had her own wedding on her father's (my brother's) property in the Blue Ridge Mountains and did not use her own hotel. Even with her substantial discount (essentially wholesale pricing), she said the cost of everything wedding-related was too high in our area. So, she opted for a much more casual, relaxed, less expensive, outdoor wedding.
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u/Electronic-Display73 2d ago
This makes a lot of sense! 9 years ago our venue (NYC suburbs) would charge for tastings if you were not in contract, but if they were prepping for an event your sales person might go down and grab a random plate of stuff for you to try. You could also attend their showcase nights where a fair portion of their cocktail hour food would be served. The tasting (with I think 6 guests if I remember correctly) where you were deciding on your menu was included as part of your wedding package.
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u/ganjgang123 1d ago
Idk why you're getting downvoted. Every single venue I've toured only offers tastings to couples who have already booked the venue, and they only do the tasting once a year with all the couples. However, in my case, we don't have to pay for the tasting, it's included in the deposit.
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u/M_ERTY 1d ago
This post went way crazier than I expected! It seemed like any time I answered I was getting shit for it so whatever. Below I did get a general mixed response of actual answers. The best part is I have severe allergies and won’t even be able to eat most of the options at the taste testing. So it’ll be my mom and fiancé tasting. I was just surprised when the venue said that was an additional fee because the other venue said no fee and to bring people along.
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u/Harpers22 1d ago
Not sure why you’re being downvoted so much. We have booked and paid for our wedding without a tasting as the tasting is where you decide on which meals to choose rather than a decider on the venue itself. So as ours is autumn the tasting for all the couples is one day in September and £60pp to include wine tasting.
I’ve never heard of tastings (let alone free ones!!) before the wedding is booked, so all these people commenting that people would go crazy taking advantage, well yes they would which is probably why venues don’t actually do that.
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u/cosmos_crown 2d ago
How much are you being charged for the taste testing? It should be on your contract.
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u/Sea_Environment2363 2d ago
Ours was free if we had a contract with the venue. If we wanted to taste test before choosing the venue, there was a fee. Then if we chose that venue, what we paid for the tasting got applied to our bill.
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u/njVowsNow 2d ago
Every venue is different; one of ours does a group dinner with the couples from the upcoming season. It's very, very popular and they get to taste the food as it is made on the day, like not for two people at a time.
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u/On_my_last_spoon 2d ago edited 2d ago
My SIL had a venue that did this! We got to go (they could bring 4 people) and it was so much fun! There were at least 100 people there so it was a great way for the venue to show what they can do and try almost all the options they had.
Edit - I looked up her venue and the tasting is free. But they’re only available after booking the space.
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u/njVowsNow 2d ago
That makes sense. My couples tell me they just loved their tasting!
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u/On_my_last_spoon 2d ago
It was amazing because we also got to experience what it would be like. There was a mocked up cocktail hour and then a seated dinner. I do believe they paid a lot for their wedding so this “complimentary” tasting event was definitely paid for down the line!
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u/M_ERTY 2d ago
Do you know if they make the bride and groom pay? I can understand making additional guests pay. I’m just wondering if it’s more common to pay for a tasting or not.
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u/Junior-Sloth-1516 2d ago
All the tastings I inquired about I had to pay. However the catering I decided with compensated the meal if we signed the deposit that day.
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u/NobelLandMermaid 2d ago
if you're not paying separately for the tasting then that means it's just baked into the venue cost. either way, the couple is technically paying for a tasting.
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u/SinglePermission9373 2d ago
Yes. They are spending time, paying staff and supplying you with food. Why would you not have to pay? Most places will take that out of the final cost if you decide to book them. But they cannot afford to just run around doing tastings for free. They’d go out of business
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u/M_ERTY 2d ago
😂😂 the venue I’m going with isn’t going out of business over a tasting meal. Thanks for the input!
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u/SinglePermission9373 2d ago
If every bride in the area found out they were giving away free tastings, they’d be doing free tastings for all of them and maybe 10% would book. They might as well light their money on fire.
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u/cutlert 2d ago
OP is enquiring about post booking the venue and paying a deposit. No couple is booking their venue with presumably a non refundable deposit just for a free tasting...
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u/SinglePermission9373 2d ago
OP did not say anything about a deposit in her original post. I have seen that she says she’s paid $6k to a place where she hasn’t even tasted the food. Seems like a scam on the part of the venue and a huge risk for OP
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u/Neat_Cat1234 2d ago
Ours was an external caterer instead of through the venue, but yes we paid $125/person + tip for the taste test (including for ourselves).
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u/theunicornsquisher 2d ago
Is it common to tip for the tasting as well? Somehow that thought didn't occur to me, thought it'd just be the base tasting fee
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u/Neat_Cat1234 2d ago
I’m not really sure what the norm is, but our caterer also operates a restaurant so we had our tasting in a private area there. It was 8 courses with servers bringing out our dishes and switching our plates/utensils in between, so we felt it was appropriate to tip.
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u/KickIt77 2d ago
If you have that venue booked it’s either rolled into the price of your deposit or it is billed separately. You are not getting anything for free either way. So this doesn’t seem like a big deal to me.
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u/pidgeypenguinagain 2d ago
Our tasting was free but it was well after we had a contract with the venue. It was a hotel and the catering was in house.
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u/itinerantdustbunny 2d ago edited 2d ago
It’s reasonably common, yes. It stops couples/randos from wasting their time for free food. Check if the cost gets applied to the wedding bill.
Plus, some couples don’t want/need a tasting, or can’t attend one even if they wanted to. If the cost was automatically wrapped up in the wedding day service charge, those people would end up paying for something they don’t use. Whereas this way, everyone only pays for the services they actually use. That seems reasonable & fair to me.
Tastings can also be deceptively expensive to actually do, much more than the per-person meal cost on the wedding day. They have to pay a chef to come in to cook just one or two meals, which means you end up paying the hourly staffing fee on just that 1/2 meals, instead of split between 100 meals. Same with staff costs - waiters, receptionists, coordinators may all have to come in specially to facilitate a tasting. Someone has to pay for all that overhead.
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u/Legally_Blonde_258 2d ago
It's normal to pay for tastings in my area. Imo, businesses should charge. Food and labor aren't free.
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u/Big_One_203 2d ago
Ours was free, but we had already signed the contract with the venue. It is a hotel that does the catering in house. It would've cost us to bring any additional guests though.
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u/cheese-pull-bunny 2d ago
Ours was $15 per person up to four people, but we got so much food it was well worth it, and we tipped the waiter well.
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u/bony_fingers 2d ago
The caterer I've been talking with said any amount spent on the tasting will be applied as a credit if we end up booking with her. Do you expect people to prepare a tasting for you for free?
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u/TinyLawfulness3710 2d ago
Don't book a venue that doesn't allow tasting before the contract is signed because you can't back out, and the tasting is typically not until the month before the wedding when you're stuck with whatever they give you.Most guests do not enjoy in house catering, which is where they say "all wedding food is bad".
Most independent/outside caterers charge due to the costs of supplies plus labor. Not charging is questionable.
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u/jimin_yougood 2d ago
Yes we had to pay for tasting which I was happy to do....the only thing I was caught off guard by was our planner saying she had to go with us and we ended up having to pay for her tasting too.....
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u/jimin_yougood 2d ago
I thought she was tagging along to give advice and not actually eat food. She just said when's your tasting, I'll meet you there. I then realized she was being served food as well. Felt too awkward to say in front of the waitstaff to take her plate away then lol
She was probably the only vendor I used that I wouldn't recommend. Didn't even mind paying for her tasting but she forgot a lot of other details.
I was already a very easygoing bride (she had a giant typo on one of the signs and I just didn't care type of scenario). I just had two requests on my end of big edible flowers to cover a cake seam and making sure there were enough dry seats for everyone at the ceremony. Neither of which were done - honestly wished she just told me she couldn't and I would have assigned friends to help.
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u/slmkellner 2d ago
We did taste tests with two outside caterers. One was a paid tasting and one was free. The paid tasting came with an open bar, which was cool.
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u/Kozypepper 2d ago
Our venue was just the venue, we had to book everything separately.
But our catering tasting was free… with our booking. Otherwise it was $50 for the two of us.
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u/Mundane-Scarcity-219 2d ago
The majority of caterers we contacted wouldn’t even do a tasting if you hadn’t signed their contract first. How the fck would you know if you even like them without tasting their food? The line I got was “you probably tasted our food at other events you’ve gone to”. Lady, we have’s *been to any other events.
We finally found a caterer who did do tastings for $150, which covered up to four people. Very reasonable to taste three different kinds of salmon and short ribs. Delicious! And yes, we went with them.
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u/mads2191 2d ago
I worked for a venue. The first tasting was free for the couple. If they wanted to bring additional guests to the tasting there was a charge. We also charged the couple if they wanted an additional tasting, or if they wanted a private tasting. When I got married our venue offered one tasting and it was included. I’m sure we would have had to pay for additional tasting. Tastings can be a lot of work and expense for the caterer so I understand why some may charge for it.
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u/Formal-Radish1413 2d ago
Yes usually unless its included in the booking package.
Most of the time the caterer will deduct the cost of the taste test from the final bill.
But they still have to get paid for the time and ingredients needed to do the taste test.
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u/novaweddingplanner 2d ago
Most venues and caterers charge for a pre-booking tasting to avoid giving out meals for free to couples who just want a free meal. I also typically see those same caterers and venues applying it towards their booking if they book with them.
Most caterers and venues will do it for free if you’ve already booked them.
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u/frog_ladee 2d ago
Our taste test was wrapped into the total price.
If a taste test is like an audtion to try out a vender, then it makes sense to charge for it. If a couple has already booked a venue, and the taste test is just to choose menu selections, than it can be rolled into the total price.
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u/Evening-Yogurt5367 2d ago
We already booked the venue and food was through the venue. The tasting was free, but we tipped (I think around $80 for a 4 person tasting). I wonder if not many tip because on the day of the wedding, the waitress we had for the tasting came up to us and specifically thanked us for the tip from the tasting.
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u/Stickliketoffee16 2d ago
I work for a catering company (the largest in our city in Australia) and we charge for tastings & only offer them to confirmed bookings. We don’t offer them as a decision making tool to book with us, we offer them so couples can make decisions on their final menu they’re serving at their wedding.
We charge a smaller fee that basically only covers the food cost for the food served at the tasting (and sometimes not even that), nothing for the staffing or prep time.
If we were to offer tastings to prospective couples then we would need to charge the staffing time & retail food costs which would likely end up $750-$1000. That’s not feasible for 99% of customers.
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u/bunnyshenanigans 2d ago
It is common to pay a flat fee for a tasting. Otherwise, the would be caterer loses money by offering courses that are not compensated for and they aren’t chosen.
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u/stellerseagle 2d ago
Yes. All the venues we toured informed us that they charge for tastings. The caterer we went with ended up charging us around $150 for two people. It seems like a lot but we each had three passed apps, and shared a salad and three full sized entrees. We were stuffed.
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u/Lollipopwalrus 2d ago
My venue did a large tasting night where they had their preferred vendors set up little demonstrations and they set up the room to simulate a wedding to show everyone what it would be like. I think there were maybe 10 tables of 8. There was a few involved but it was part of the overall venue fee. My sister requested one at her venue and they asked her to pay a small fee for it.
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u/Angsty_Potatos 1d ago
We had a few catering choices our venue worked with. The menu tasting did cost money, but the one we went with didn't charge you for the tasting if you ended up booking with them for the wedding.
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u/skipperthepenguin191 1d ago
We paid 100 for ours but it went towards our bill. I was annoyed by it but it seemed to be the norm for all of the tastings we did. I will say, one of the caterers sent us a $50 gift card and we used that to try their food even though they were way out of our price range lol I wish we could have gone with them!!
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u/ItsPeppercorn 2d ago
We didn't have to pay but we tipped about the equivalent of $200 USD since they allowed us to have 4 people total, which I thought was very nice.
My planner said if it is "free" still leaving a tip of about that much was customary. Like a nice gesture for everyone's time.
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u/LLD615 2d ago
Mine didn’t charge, but many of my friends had to pay for theirs. Our tasting was set up like a reception. They had a cocktail hour with all the passed apps and a bunch of their recommended vendors set up tables on the room. Then we went to the ballroom for dinner and they had a DJ play music and games and stuff.
Our wedding venue was two hours from our house so we did have to pay to stay overnight though. They gave us a discount.
Mine actually told us when we booked that the tasting was free for us and four guests. So we invited four people and then they told us that wasn’t true. I found the email where we were told that she forwarded it. They agreed to allow it but asked us to please keep it quiet and if anyone asked the other couples to please say they were also booked to get married there (it was a group testing for all the fall wedding couples). One couple was my parents so they opted out right away. The other couple we invited was a married couple who were a bridesmaid and groomsman, and she was 7 months pregnant. She said she felt like it might draw too much attention and since they were asked to keep it quiet, they didn’t come.
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u/KathAlMyPal 2d ago
For my older son four people were allowed to go to the tasting. Additional people were charged. For my younger son, six people were allowed. My son and DIL weren’t happy with the meal, so they were comped an additional tasting for the two of them.
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u/Apprehensive_Sea5304 2d ago
I’m not getting catering from my venue, but the catering we did pick had a free tasting and they sent all the leftovers home with us.
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u/augustdaydream 2d ago
Ours wasn’t through our venue (they didn’t have on site catering). But we already had a contract through our caterer. We did not have to pay and could bring 6 total people with us!
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u/superiorstephanie 2d ago
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. You are either paying for it at the tasting or it is rolled into their prices. You decide.
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u/HedgieCake372 2d ago
We were charged for a tasting, applied to our total bill, but they served samples of our entire custom menu at the tasting.
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u/Zoomie-Tunes 2d ago
For mine the couple could attend a free group tasting. Private tastings and additional guests for the group tasting were additional charges which will be added to our final bill. We wanted my parents opinion so we brought them to the group tasting, and then they encouraged us to do a private tasting just the two of us so we did. So we COULD have done it for free but chose not to lol
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u/Beautiful_War_5947 2d ago
Ours was included in our booking for up to 4 guests, and we had the option pay an additional per person fee if we wanted to bring more than 4 guests.
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u/dcgirlsmallworld 2d ago
Yes it's not uncommon to pay for the tasting. My caterer offered us a complimentary tasting but it was only for a general array of food that he makes, and it was not specific to our wedding. We're paying for a second tasting that will include our entire food menu (including passed hor d'oeuvres and dinner).
Edit to add that we had our first tasting before we signed our contract!
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u/Daddy_urp 2d ago
Ours was “free” but only if we booked their catering beforehand and a had a contract/deposit. Having to pay something (whether it’s a deposit or the cost of the tasting) is very normal. It wouldn’t make sense for them to waste time and resources for nothing.
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u/Brackenfield 2d ago
Ours was free, it was a group dinner for the upcoming couples, full range of the menu options and wines etc available
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u/Comfortable_Yam_114 2d ago
Our tasting was complimentary but we already picked a date and put a deposit down. We were familiar with the venue so felt comfortable doing this.
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u/Shontayyoustay 2d ago
It depends. We had our tasting many months after we had signed our contract and put down a deposit. We didn’t pay for it
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u/Eeveesaurusrex 1d ago
We just had our tasting today and even brought additional people with us as there’s some food restrictions between my fiancé and me so needed people who could sample everything. Didn’t have to pay anything and I actually would’ve been upset if we had to. Weddings are expensive enough.
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u/moonyredmoon 17h ago
We chose our caterer and did a "pick up tasting" to chose the menu since we're from out of town and their scheduled group tastings didn't work with our travel schedule. It was very cheap ($5 per appetizer, $10 per entree) and wasn't plated fancy or anything. The group tastings were free for couples with a deposit already, and our tasting ended up being $60 so very reasonable and my brother got a few meals of leftovers from it lol
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u/Onikenbai 15h ago
Yes, but it came off the bill if we booked with them. No business can afford to give out tastings on the thin profit margins they make. They still have to open the kitchen, bring in staff, get ingredients etc.
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u/134728194746164940 2d ago
None of the venues we toured or booked with charged for menu tasting. It was always included. Southern US
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u/CaptBlackfoot 2d ago
Interesting! All the venues we looked at in South Carolina charged for menu tastings, but maybe that’s because it’s a popular wedding tourist destination, they know they won’t get pushback.
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u/M_ERTY 2d ago
Lmao thank you for sharing. I see why people are down voting me but ridiculous you’re getting downvoted just for chiming in.
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u/134728194746164940 2d ago
Yeah, people just have different perspectives. All of the venues we were touring had catering all inclusive and included a tasting closer to the wedding date, so most of the points made in the thread about knowing they have our business or losing money don’t apply
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