Why the numbers are hard to find
Hamptons catering is priced by proposal, and the proposals are private. The companies that publish anything publish a minimum, a staffing ratio or a fee percentage, not a menu price; the national cost guides publish ranges that are a fraction of what is charged out east; and the one regional survey that names a Hamptons per-person range is a magazine article, not a sample of contracts. This guide puts all of it in one place, says which is which, and does the arithmetic from the per-person quote to the invoice. Every figure is 2026 unless dated, Hamptons or Long Island where one exists and national or New York City where not, and the sources are at the end. When sources disagree we print both.
Food and service, by event
| Event | Range | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Wedding dinner, Hamptons | $150–400+ per person; 100 guests $15,000–40,000+ | regional magazine survey, 2025 |
| Wedding dinner, national | $80 a guest average; Mid-Atlantic $123 | The Knot 2026 study of 2025 weddings |
| Plated, buffet, stations (national) | $70–150 · $40–90 · $35–65 budget to $175–350+ chef-driven | aggregators |
| Private-chef dinner at the house, Hamptons | 4–6 guests $700–1,200 · 8–10 $1,200–1,800 · 12–16 $1,800–2,800 · 18–24 $2,800–4,500 | 2026 Hamptons guide, all-in |
| Private chef, per person | $113–138 in East Hampton by party size | booking-site listing |
| Passed hors d'oeuvres | $3–5 a piece; $6–7 premium; about $25 a guest for two hours | aggregators |
| Standing reception, NYC | $110–130 a person for five passes and two stations, plus $25–60 for drinks | named NYC company |
| Corporate, NYC | $65–275 a person overall; lunch $35–75; gala $95–160 or $150–275 by source | aggregators |
| Drop-off catering | $12–40 a person nationally; $28–50 in NYC | aggregators |
Minimums matter below about forty guests: one East Hampton caterer starts at 20 guests with a $3,250 food minimum, another company at $1,500 in food and beverage. Peak-weekend surcharges apply at some companies on July 4, the August weekends and Labor Day; none are named for winter.
The bottom of the proposal
Three lines turn the per-person number into the invoice.
The administrative fee, 15–25% across the market and most often 18–22%, is 20% at two named Hamptons caterers. A Bridgehampton company states in writing that its 20% covers menu design, insurance, coordination, vehicles, employee benefits and kitchen and office staff and is not a gratuity. A New York company charges the same 20% and calls it administrative.
Gratuity is separate, and varies: one East Hampton caterer adds 15% to the bill; the Bridgehampton company leaves it discretionary. National guidance is $20–50 per server where the contract's service charge is not a tip.
Sales tax. New York taxes the entire catering charge, food, beverage and services alike, even when itemised. A mandatory gratuity is exempt only if it is separately stated, identified as a gratuity, and paid entirely to the employees; a service charge not so labelled is taxable. In Suffolk County the combined rate is 8.75% (raised from 8.625% on March 1, 2025).
Worked example: $200 a head in food and service, a 20% fee ($40), tax at 8.75% on $240 ($21) makes $261 a head. With a 15% gratuity on the food and staff ($30, tax-exempt if handled as the state requires), $291. For 150 guests, $39,000–44,000 before the bar and the rentals.
The bar
Beer and wine runs $25–45 a guest nationally and $40–75 in the Hamptons; a full open bar $40–90 or $45–100 nationally by source, tiered well $50–70, mid-shelf $60–90 and premium $80–120+; a premium Hamptons open bar $75–150. A hundred-guest full open bar is roughly $4,000–9,000 before the 20–25% of service and tax that follows. A consumption bar, where you pay for what is poured, lands about $2,000–3,000 for 100 moderate drinkers and can run 30–40% below a flat open-bar rate or well above it. A New York company publishes its packages: full-service bar from $55 a guest, cocktail-hour-only from $35, dry hire with your own alcohol from $25. Bartenders for hire without a caterer run $25–75 an hour nationally, $40–70 in New York. A private party with no sale of alcohol needs no state permit; a caterer's permit for events where drinks are sold is $38 by statute (a secondary source says $48) and only a licensed caterer can hold one.
Staff
Plated service needs one server per 10–12 guests (one per 8 for a complex menu); buffet one per 20–25; a standing party one per 20–25; one bartender per 50 guests. In the kitchen, one chef per 40 covers plated, one per 50 buffet, one per 60 for cocktails, a head chef above 75 guests, and for a multi-course menu finished to order one chef per 15–25 covers. One East Hampton caterer publishes one staff member per 10–12 guests, a four-person minimum and five-hour minimum shifts. New York staffing agencies publish their rates: waitstaff $27 an hour, bartender $30, captain $35, chef $50, with five-hour minimums and a $60 per-person administrative fee at one; $180–300 per server or bartender for a five-hour shift, a chef from $300 and a captain $200–400 at another. Overtime is time and a half after 40 hours a week under federal rules, and a 10-hour gala with 20 staff at $30 adds $1,200 or more.
Tents and rentals
Basic rentals, a table, a chair, linen and a place setting, run $12–20 a guest nationally. The tent is Long Island's own line: one Long Island rental company's 2026 list has a 20×40 frame tent for 60–80 guests at $650–850, a 30×60 for 100+ at $1,500–2,000, a 40×60 for 150+ at $2,100–2,750 and a 44×63 sailcloth at $4,250–5,000, with frame tents at $0.75–1.25 a square foot, sailcloth at $1.50–2.00 and permits adding $200–500; the same company says the East End costs more than Nassau and western Suffolk for the travel and the labour. Every tent over 200 square feet needs a permit and a flame certificate. Add a dance floor ($400–1,500), a restroom trailer ($1,200–2,200 for a wedding weekend), a generator ($150–300), uplighting (about $19 a light) and string lighting ($375 to $3,500 in packages). Sperry Tents, the Bridgehampton sailcloth company, publishes no prices.
The permit lines
In the Town of East Hampton a gathering of 50 or more at a residence, amplified music after 9 p.m. or a tent of 700 square feet or more needs a special-event permit, filed 21–60 days out by headcount, with a $2 million policy naming the Town and a $100 tent permit; inside East Hampton Village any catered event needs a Village permit, 21 days out or a $250 rush fee. The Town of Southampton wants 48 hours' notice above 50 guests and a Fire Marshal permit for any tent over 200 square feet, as its code is summarised; Sagaponack Village permits any gathering at private property, one a year per residence as summarised. A catered event on East Hampton Trustee beaches is $100 for residents and $200 otherwise and capped at 50 people. One-day event liability insurance runs $75–250 nationally, $150–185 for a $1 million limit.
Everything else
A day-of coordinator is $700–2,200 nationally; the only Hamptons figure we found, about $3,000, is a single forum comment and is not printed as a rate. Valet parking is $30–35 an attendant-hour nationally with four-to-five-hour minimums, and $86–207 an attendant-hour on one Hamptons listing. A tasting is $50–150 a person or $50–100 a couple nationally, credited if you book; one Bridgehampton caterer credits its per-person tasting fee in full and publishes no amount. Deposits run 20–50% to hold the date, most of them non-refundable, with the balance due 30 days out at one New York company and 1–2 weeks out as the national norm.
Adding it up
A tented wedding dinner for 150 at a Hamptons house, at the lower end of the local range: $200 a head in food and service ($30,000, staff included), the 20% fee ($6,000), a beer-and-wine bar at $50 ($7,500), a 44×63 sailcloth tent with a kitchen tent, floor, lights, generator and a restroom trailer (about $8,000–17,000 from the component ranges above) and 8.75% sales tax on all of it is roughly $55,000–65,000 before the coordinator, the rentals beyond the basics, the flowers and the band. The same dinner at the top of the local range, $400 a head with a premium open bar, is past $110,000. A dinner for sixteen at the house with a private chef is $1,800–2,800 all-in. A cocktail party for eighty is about $2,000 in food for a two-hour cocktail hour and $9,000–10,500 for a full reception at New York City rates, plus $2,000–3,600 for beer and wine or $6,000–12,000 for a premium open bar. None of these are quotes; all of them are the order of magnitude a proposal should sit in, and if yours does not, ask why.
Sources and method
The Hamptons wedding range is Social Life Magazine's November 2025 cost survey; the national wedding figures are The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study (2025 weddings, 10,474 couples) and its NYC study; the format ranges are Fash, WeddingWire, Thumbtack and other cost aggregators, rated medium and printed as spreads; the named Hamptons terms are East Hampton Kitchen (staffing ratio, four-staff minimum, $3,250 minimum, January 2026), Art of Eating in Bridgehampton (20% administrative fee, tasting policy), Hamptons Heirloom (15% gratuity) and Oak & Honey ($1,500 minimum); the private-chef packages are a 2026 Hamptons private-chef cost guide and a Take a Chef booking-site listing; the New York rates are Party Waiters LLC and RAPT Hospitality's published price lists; the tent prices are Long Island Tent & Party Rentals' 2026 pricing guide; the tax rules are the New York Department of Taxation and Finance bulletin on gratuities and service charges and Suffolk County's published rate; the permit figures are the Town of East Hampton's special-events page, the Village of East Hampton's, the East Hampton Town Trustees' fee page and search summaries of the Southampton and Sagaponack codes. The full sheet, with every source, confidence rating and the gaps we chose not to fill, is ops/research/catering-facts-2026-08-26.md. Nothing here is a quote; the caterer you hire writes the proposal.