What a wedding party for 100 guests costs, or for 50

Why there is no honest average

An average price per person adds a walking dinner in a barn to a five-course seated dinner in a castle. It does not tell you what your venue charges, what your caterer asks, or how many of your hundred guests stay for dinner. Blogs that give a figure anyway rarely say which year it comes from or how many weddings went into it.

The amounts that are public, such as the town's fee or the notary's fee, are on what a wedding costs. This page is about the part no authority publishes: the party. One rule applies there. The number of guests changes some items and not others. Once you know which, you can work out what fifty or a hundred people cost.

Every item in two: fixed and per guest

Take each quote and ask of every line: does this change if ten more people come? If it does, it is a price per guest. If it does not, it is fixed. A venue with a flat hire fee is fixed. A menu at a price per person grows with the list. Some quotes have both: a flat hire fee plus a price per place setting.

There is a third kind too, which moves in steps: per table, per waiter, per coach. Ten more guests sometimes means one more table, with a centrepiece, a tablecloth and an extra waiter. Those items do not grow per person, but they do not stay put either. Work them out for the number you expect, and ask where the next step falls.

In the wedding budget tool you choose "fixed amount" or "per guest" for each item. Per guest, you enter a price per adult, and a price per child if there is one. The number of guests sits at the top. Move it up and down, and you see straight away which items move with it.

What grows with the number of guests

Food and drinks are the big items that go per person. A caterer usually prices food per person and per moment: a price for the reception, a price for dinner, sometimes a separate price for a dessert buffet or a late-night snack. Drinks go per person as a package for a number of hours, or by consumption. With consumption you only know the amount afterwards. Ask how the caterer counts it, so you can put your own estimate on it.

Staff depend on the number of guests, but in steps: more guests, more people serving. Sometimes they are in the price per person, sometimes listed separately, per hour. Rentals (plates, glasses, cutlery, chairs, tables, linen) are hired per item or per place setting. If they are not included by the venue or the caterer, they grow with whoever sits at a table.

Two items count differently than you might think. Stationery goes per invitation, not per guest: "Lotte and her parents" is one card, one envelope, one stamp. So count the rows in the guest list, not the people. More about cards is in wedding invitations. Favours go per guest or per invitation, depending on what you give.

The venue sometimes grows too. One venue charges a flat hire, another a price per person, a third both. And a venue has a capacity: going from 50 to 100 guests may mean a different venue. How to compare venues is in the guide to wedding venues.

What does not grow

The photographer charges for hours and for work afterwards, not for guests. Clothes, rings, hair and make-up for the two of you cost the same with 50 guests or with 100. The DJ or the band plays just as long. The civil ceremony costs what the town charges, whoever is in the venue later. What sets a photographer's price is in the guide to choosing a photographer. Whether you need a music licence yourselves is on what a wedding costs.

Fixed items get more expensive per guest when fewer guests come. A photographer costs twice as much per guest with 50 guests as with 100. That is no reason to invite more people. It does explain why the price per guest of a small wedding can come out higher than that of a large one.

Guests per moment

At many Flemish weddings, not everyone comes to everything. Some guests come to the ceremony and the reception, others also stay for dinner and the party. Someone who only comes to the reception eats and drinks there, but does not sit at a table. For the caterer those are two numbers, with two prices.

So do not count "100 guests", count per moment: how many at the reception, how many at dinner, how many at the evening party. Someone at dinner is usually at the reception too. Count that guest for both.

In Ringske you invite each invitation to the moments you name yourselves, and guests answer per moment. How that works is on RSVP. In Ringske's budget an expense can be "per guest" for one moment. The total then follows the guest list for that moment: everyone invited at first, and once answers come in, those coming plus those who may still come. A dinner price counts the dinner guests, a reception price counts everyone at the reception.

Children at a children's price

Many caterers have a children's price or a children's menu. Ask up to what age it applies, and what they charge for the youngest. Count children separately from adults on the guest list, per invitation. Then you know how many children come to each moment.

In the calculator you enter two prices for an item per guest: per adult and per child. Leave the child field empty, and the tool counts nothing for the children on that item. In Ringske itself it works the other way round: the children's price is optional, and without one a child counts as an adult.

A children's price covers the food, sometimes the drinks. A chair, a plate and a place at the table still count for the rentals and the tables.

VAT: food and drinks are not the same

A caterer's quote carries two VAT rates. Restaurant and catering services fall under the reduced rate of 12 percent, "excluding the supply of drinks". That is how heading I of table B of Royal Decree no. 20 puts it, as quoted in the Council of State's opinion published with the Royal Decree of 14 February 2026 ↗. So drinks do not fall under that 12 percent, and that includes water and soft drinks.

Those drinks are taxed at 21 percent. The draft of that decree would have brought non-alcoholic drinks served with a restaurant or catering service down from 21 to 12 percent. That cut is not in the decree published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 23 February 2026. The decree did raise the rate for hotel stays and similar furnished accommodation, from 6 to 12 percent, from 1 March 2026. If you book rooms for guests, that rate is in the price. On Justel ↗ the decree of 14 February 2026 is listed as the most recent change to the VAT rates.

So ask of every price whether VAT is included. Under article VI.2 of the Code of Economic Law ↗, a business must give a consumer the total price, including all taxes, before the consumer is bound. If a quote still says "excl. VAT", ask for the price including it. A price per person without VAT looks cheaper than it is, and you can only compare two quotes on the same basis.

If the caterer works with one package for food and drinks together, ask how that amount is split. Food and drinks have different rates. If you shorten the drinks package or change the menu, you want to know which part changes. In the budget, always enter the amount you actually pay, VAT included.

A package price per person and a minimum number

Many party venues work with a package price per person: venue, food, drinks and service for a number of hours, in one price per guest. It is easy to calculate: package times the number of guests. But a package only means something once you know what is in it.

Ask of every package: which moments are in it, reception, dinner, evening party? How many hours of drinks, and what does an extra hour cost? Is there a different price for guests who only come to the reception? How do children count? Are service, washing up, glasses and table linen included? And VAT?

A package often comes with a minimum number of guests. Ask what happens if you fall below it, until when you can still lower the number, and whether the invoice uses the number you gave or the people who actually came. If the minimum is above your number, the package is no longer a price per person for you, but a fixed amount.

Enter a package in the calculator as one item per guest, under Venue or under Food, and leave the items it covers empty. Otherwise you count them twice.

Example: Lotte and Warre, 100 invited

Lotte and Warre invite 100 people. 70 come to the reception and dinner, 30 only to the reception. Their caterer charges per person: bites at the reception, a menu, a children's menu, reception drinks and a drinks package for dinner and the party. The venue charges a flat hire fee. There are no amounts below, only how they fill in each line.

At the top of the calculator they enter their total budget: what they agreed together, including what their parents contribute. Under adults and children they enter 100 between them, everyone who comes to at least the reception. The tool works with one number of guests. For what only the 70 dinner guests get, they therefore do the sum themselves and enter a fixed amount.

Venue: fixed amount, the hire from the venue's quote. Food: fixed amount, worked out as bites price × 100, plus menu price × the adults at dinner, plus children's menu × the children at dinner. Drinks + staff: fixed amount, reception drinks × 100, plus drinks package × 70, plus service as the quote charges it, per hour or per guest.

Rentals: fixed amount, hire price per place setting × 70, because only those at a table need one. Flowers and decoration: fixed amount, with the centrepieces × the number of tables for 70 guests. Stationery: fixed amount, price per card × the number of invitations, not × 100. Favours: per guest, because everyone gets one. Here the price per guest with 100 fits. If the children get the same, they enter the same price for a child.

Photo and video, music, clothes, hair and make-up, rings, the civil ceremony, transport and accommodation: fixed amounts, from a quote or from what they want to spend on it. Whatever is still empty stays empty until there is a quote.

Next to the breakdown, the tool shows "per guest": what has been allocated, divided by all guests, children included. For Lotte and Warre, the 30 reception guests count in it. That figure shows what the whole party costs per person present. It is not a price to set next to a caterer's quote.

In Ringske itself they do not have to multiply. There they add an expense "Reception" under Food, per guest for the Reception moment, and an expense "Dinner", per guest for the Dinner moment, with a children's price. The total follows the guest list for each moment. If a guest declines dinner but still comes to the reception, the dinner goes down and the reception stays the same.

From 100 to 50: what changes

Halve the guests and the items per guest halve with them: the menu, the drinks, the place settings, the favours. The fixed items stay. That is why the total does not halve. How far it drops depends on how large the per-guest share of your budget is. You see it in the calculator by moving the number of guests from 100 to 50.

Watch the steps. With 50 guests there are fewer tables, fewer centrepieces and maybe fewer staff. A smaller venue can be cheaper, or not, if a large venue asks for a minimum you do not reach. Ask each venue for the price for your number, not the one in the brochure.

You can also trim per moment. Inviting some guests to the reception and not to dinner changes the most expensive item without dropping anyone. Decide that early, because it goes on the card. That is why the wedding checklist puts the budget and a first guest list at the front, more than a year before the date.