The two pluses

• The two plusesWhat does "plus plus" mean on a catering quote?Two things have not been added yet: the service charge and the sales tax. On a real Florida hotel order they were 24 percent and 7 percent, and the tax was charged on the service charge too.
  Fixed · service charge + sales tax
• The service chargeIs a wedding service charge a tip?No. The IRS has said so in writing since 1959, and federal labor law calls the charge the business’s money. Whether the servers ever see it depends on your state and your contract.
  Fixed · Rev. Rul. 59-252, restated 2012
• The average plateWhat does "average cost per plate" mean, and why does the mean lie?It is a mean from a self-selected survey, and the median, which the survey stopped publishing in 2012, runs about a third lower. A hotel’s "per person" also buys the bar hours along with the plate.
  Negotiable · a mean, from a survey, before the pluses

The tip line

• The tip lineHow much do you tip wedding vendors, and who?Read the contract first: a service charge is not a tip and may never reach the staff. Where nothing is included, the 2026 trade guidance runs 16 to 20 percent for catering and bar staff and flat amounts for the rest.
  Optional · a tip is, by the IRS’s own test, yours to set
• The vendor mealWhat is a vendor meal, and who do you have to feed?The plate you buy for the people working your wedding. Photographers write it into the contract because they cannot leave; on one 2026 hotel order it was a fixed price about a quarter of the guest package, plus plus.
  Fixed · when the contract says so

Behind the bar

• The open barWhat does an open bar cost per person, and how many drinks does a guest actually have?Between $15 and $90 a person by the hour and the tier, and the whole bill rests on one unsourced rule of thumb: two drinks the first hour, one an hour after. Nobody has counted.
  Negotiable · priced by the hour and the tier

From the kitchen

• Cakeage & corkageWhat are cake-cutting and corkage fees, and can you refuse them?Both are the venue charging you to serve something you bought elsewhere. Corkage is an 1838 hotel word; cakeage was a joke in 1985 that stuck. Both are negotiable before you sign, and in Florida both are taxed.
  Optional · corkage 1838 · cakeage 1985
• Plated, buffet, stationsPlated, buffet or stations: what does each really cost?Plated costs most because it needs the most hands, not the most food. No independent study compares the three; the ranges here are one marketplace’s 2026 asking prices, and the difference is servers, which is negotiable.
  Negotiable · the gap is labor, not food