Meals, Money, and Confusion

Ryan and I sat down and went through our budget yesterday. He wanted to calculate the cost of food and alcohol, because he thought my estimate was too high.

Fine.

So I went through the menus and read him the prices...
$5.25 pp - three hors dourves per person
$3.00 pp - giving our guests a choice in meal
$55.00 pp - chicken or steak
$31.00 pp - basic open bar
$5.00 pp - cake

All that for our required 200 guests = a lot of money.

But then came our debate. I told Ryan that it didn't matter what meal people chose... we would be charged for the most expensive of the two options. (For example, if 50% of the guests chose chicken, and 50% chose steak, we would still be charged for 100% steak.)


Ryan asked "why?" I said, "that's just how receptions work."

But he didn't believe me. And when I tried to find proof amongst our contracts and information packets, I couldn't.

Did I just make that up? He made me start to question this little thought that had been ingrained in my brain all along.

Sure, it would be greeeeat if we actually got to pay for what people ate. That would save us over $500. But I somehow doubt that I just fabricated this idea all on my own.