It is estimated that nearly half of the typical wedding budget is spent on the wedding reception. The key to keeping these costs down is paying special attention to the details as you organize a wedding reception. Planning your wedding reception to fit in your budget will take dedication to shopping around for the best deal. This doesn't mean you will take the cheapest package that comes along, but simply that you will do your due diligence to make sure you only get those features you really want at a fair price.

Location is the center of any attempt to organize a wedding reception. There are a wide variety of locations that are fitting for holding a wedding reception. These various locations for holding a wedding reception come at a wide range of prices. Among the more popular wedding reception locations are hotels, aquariums, art museums, restaurants, parks, and churches. It will be up to you to balance the value of one type of location over another location in determining where to have your wedding reception.

The next big item when you organize a wedding reception is the menu. You have to decide on the difference in value between a small caterer, an in-house caterer at the location of the reception, a major catering company, or a major restaurant. The In-house catering will often get you a special package deal price. You should sample all of the food options you are considering. If your family and friends have a wide variety of dietary preferences, you will want to choose a caterer that provides a good variety of menu options. However, the most important thing is that the caterer symbolize the joint tastes of the groom and bride.

Generally speaking, the best catered food will come from the caterers who have the most experience providing wedding catering services. However, these caterers often charge big money to do weddings because they know they have this advantage. They often offer a lot of supporting services in addition to food, such as wedding coordinated table linens or ice sculptures. If you can do without some of these services and the groom and bride have a favorite local restaurant with wedding catering services, it is probably more economical to go with the favorite local restaurant and come up with your own linens and decorations.

Of course, before you plan any type of catering you should know when you are choosing the location whether or not they have any in-house catering or a special contract with local caterers. Those that don't offer in-house catering often have recommendation about local caterers, but those recommendations may be tainted by kickbacks from the caterers.

If you just don't know how to find or choose a good caterer, think about whether you have personally attended any weddings in the area and whether you liked the food and service. Sometimes the best recommendation on a caterer for the person who must organize a wedding reception is a positive past experience with a caterer at a previous wedding reception.