Cashing in On Wedding Season

How Your Restaurant Can Profit From Wedding Parties

The window for "wedding season" is expanding constantly. June routinely was the most popular month1 until September and October eclipsed the early summer as the most popular months to schedule a wedding.2 Weddings can be expensive, with the average couple spending $29,000 on their wedding in 2019.3 Catering, venue, and bar service are big parts of this big number, and your foodservice business may be able to capitalize on wedding services through those avenues. Even if you don't own a restaurant that's known for hosting wedding parties, there are plenty of opportunities to carve out a slice of the wedding cake for yourself.

Start Advertising Your Services

Advertise any facilities that can handle even moderately sized parties. If you have a party room that you feel is underutilized, or if you have a section of the dining room that could be made semi-private for big groups, publicize that you can handle reception parties and rehearsal dinners via your restaurant's signage and social media accounts. If you have a website, consider posting details, pricing plans, and contact information that make it easy for couples to choose your spot over the competition. Wedding parties come in all sizes and budgets, so even casual restaurants could attract some rehearsal dinner business – especially if you're a local favorite.

Rent the Whole Restaurant

If you don't have a dedicated event space but still want to have something to offer wedding parties, rent your entire building. Making your restaurant available to private parties for entire evenings is a good way to guarantee a profit for the night, especially on nights when regular business is slow. You can offer predetermined packages and menus, or your chef can work with the couple to brainstorm a customized menu for their event by incorporating their favorite dishes or tweaking restaurant favorites. Many couples see a restaurant wedding as an affordable, low-stress alternative to fancier venues. Rehearsal dinners average $1,900 per wedding3 – not bad for a single night's work.

Add Catering to Your Menu

Setting up a catering business is no small feat. The coordination involved in cooking for and serving dozens of people off-site requires meticulous planning and a great deal of effort, but serving catered meals can bring in higher profit margins than serving the same food in a restaurant setting. It also can be more reliable for earning a little extra for your business. If you already run a thriving restaurant business, consider expanding with a catering division that serves weddings and other events.

Stand Out With Creativity

Just because you don't own a traditional wedding venue doesn't mean you can't attract soon-to-be-married customers. Restaurants have become popular locations for foodie weddings4 or simply as a low-key venue that doesn't cost $10,000. Even if it's simply a rooftop patio overlooking the city that can accommodate a few dozen people or a room with a good view of the countryside, transforming your restaurant into a wedding venue that offers a unique experience can bring in couples looking for a break from traditional experiences.

Marrying Concepts for More Business

For restaurants with enough space to function as a wedding venue, you can offer package deals to capitalize on more business and offer the happy couple reduced prices for each. You could offer to cater the wedding and provide the rehearsal dinner, or if you have a bar, you could combine that cost for the couple as well. Shouldering some burdens of wedding arrangements means more money you can make and the more attractive your venue will be for already stressed couples. After all, 72 percent of couples report their top priority is ensuring their guests have a good time5 – and you can help them throw a great party.

If you don't have enough space to offer a venue, consider teaming up with a local business that does. Own a restaurant near a winery that has no foodservice program? Approach them about teaming up to do events where you bring the food and they provide the booze and venue. The same can be done with local attractions that focus on experiences rather than food, such as zoos, museums, or parks. Getting on the list of those venues' preferred caterers can advertise your services to a wider range of potential customers; having an established relationship with venues also makes executing the wedding much easier for everyone.

References

  1. The Knot, The #1 Wedding Site, Releases 2014 Real Weddings Study Statistics. PR Newswire. Accessed January 2022.
  2. When's Wedding Season? Plus What's Considered Offseason. The Knot. Accessed January 2022.
  3. How Much Does a Wedding Cost?. Business Insider. Accessed January 2022.
  4. How To Have a Restaurant Wedding Reception. Brides. Accessed January 2022.
  5. The Knot 2019 Real Weddings Study. Wedinsights. Accessed January 2022.